Continuum

A flexible event sourcing and domain event modeling framework for Dart and Flutter.

Philosophy

Continuum is built around domain events as a modeling tool. Events describe meaningful state transitions, and aggregates define how those transitions affect domain state. Unlike traditional event sourcing frameworks, Continuum supports multiple usage modes depending on where your source of truth lives.

Three Usage Modes

Mode 1: Event-Driven Mutation (No Persistence)

Use events as typed, explicit state transitions with aggregate validation. Only final state is persisted (CRUD style). Events are not stored or replayed.

Use when:

  • Building clean domain models with strong invariants
  • You want explicit mutations without event sourcing overhead
  • Backend uses traditional CRUD persistence

Mode 2: Frontend-Only Event Sourcing

The frontend is the source of truth. Events are persisted locally (SQLite, Hive, etc.) and aggregates are reconstructed by replaying events.

Use when:

  • Building offline-first applications
  • Single-user desktop tools
  • No backend or backend is just for sync/backup

Mode 3: Hybrid Mode (Backend as Source of Truth)

Backend is authoritative, frontend uses events for optimistic UI. Frontend events are transient and discarded after backend confirms. The backend may use its own event sourcing or CRUD—your frontend doesn't care.

Use when:

  • Building responsive UIs with optimistic updates
  • Need undo/cancel before committing
  • Backend handles validation and persistence

Quick Start

Installation

Add to your pubspec.yaml:

dependencies:
  continuum: latest

dev_dependencies:
  build_runner: ^2.4.0
  continuum_generator: latest

1. Define Your Aggregate

import 'package:continuum/continuum.dart';

part 'user.g.dart';

@Aggregate()
class User with _$UserEventHandlers {
  final String id;
  String name;
  String email;

  User._({required this.id, required this.name, required this.email});

  // Static factory for creating from first event
  static User createFromUserRegistered(UserRegistered event) {
    return User._(
      id: event.userId,
      name: event.name,
      email: event.email,
    );
  }

  // Apply methods define state transitions (override generated mixin)
  @override
  void applyEmailChanged(EmailChanged event) {
    email = event.newEmail;
  }

  @override
  void applyNameChanged(NameChanged event) {
    name = event.newName;
  }
}

2. Define Your Events

import 'package:continuum/continuum.dart';
import 'package:zooper_flutter_core/zooper_flutter_core.dart';

// For Mode 1 (no persistence) you can omit `type:` and serialization.
@AggregateEvent(of: User)
class EmailChanged implements ContinuumEvent {
  EmailChanged({
    required this.userId,
    required this.newEmail,
    EventId? eventId,
    DateTime? occurredOn,
    Map<String, Object?> metadata = const {},
  }) : id = eventId ?? EventId.fromUlid(),
       occurredOn = occurredOn ?? DateTime.now(),
       metadata = Map<String, Object?>.unmodifiable(metadata);

  final String userId;
  final String newEmail;

  @override
  final EventId id;

  @override
  final DateTime occurredOn;

  @override
  final Map<String, Object?> metadata;
}

// For Mode 2/3 (with persistence), add `type:` and `toJson`/`fromJson`.
@AggregateEvent(of: User, type: 'user.registered')
class UserRegistered implements ContinuumEvent {
  UserRegistered({
    required this.userId,
    required this.name,
    required this.email,
    EventId? eventId,
    DateTime? occurredOn,
    Map<String, Object?> metadata = const {},
  }) : id = eventId ?? EventId.fromUlid(),
       occurredOn = occurredOn ?? DateTime.now(),
       metadata = Map<String, Object?>.unmodifiable(metadata);

  final String userId;
  final String name;
  final String email;

  @override
  final EventId id;

  @override
  final DateTime occurredOn;

  @override
  final Map<String, Object?> metadata;

  factory UserRegistered.fromJson(Map<String, dynamic> json) {
    return UserRegistered(
      userId: json['userId'] as String,
      name: json['name'] as String,
      email: json['email'] as String,
      eventId: EventId(json['eventId'] as String),
      occurredOn: DateTime.parse(json['occurredOn'] as String),
      metadata: Map<String, Object?>.from(json['metadata'] as Map),
    );
  }

  Map<String, dynamic> toJson() => {
    'userId': userId,
    'name': name,
    'email': email,
    'eventId': id.toString(),
    'occurredOn': occurredOn.toIso8601String(),
    'metadata': metadata,
  };
}

3. Generate Code

dart run build_runner build

This creates:

  • user.g.dart with event handling mixin
  • lib/continuum.g.dart with $aggregateList (auto-discovered!)

4. Use Your Aggregate

Mode 1: Simple State Transitions

void main() {
  final userId = StreamId('123');

  // Create from a creation event
  final user = User.createFromUserRegistered(
    UserRegistered(userId: userId.value, name: 'Alice', email: 'alice@example.com'),
  );

  // Apply events to mutate state
  user.applyEvent(EmailChanged(userId: userId.value, newEmail: 'alice@company.com'));

  print(user.email); // alice@company.com

  // Save final state to your database (events not persisted)
}

Mode 2: Frontend Event Sourcing

import 'package:continuum_store_memory/continuum_store_memory.dart';

void main() async {
  // Setup (zero configuration - $aggregateList auto-discovered!)
  final store = EventSourcingStore(
    eventStore: InMemoryEventStore(),
    aggregates: $aggregateList, // Generated automatically!
  );

  final userId = StreamId('user-123');

  // Create + mutate within a session
  final session = store.openSession();
  session.startStream<User>(
    userId,
    UserRegistered(userId: userId.value, name: 'Alice', email: 'alice@example.com'),
  );
  session.append(userId, EmailChanged(userId: userId.value, newEmail: 'alice@company.com'));
  await session.saveChangesAsync();

  // Load aggregate (reconstructed from events)
  final readSession = store.openSession();
  final user = await readSession.loadAsync<User>(userId);
  print(user.email); // alice@company.com
}

Mode 3: Hybrid with Backend

void main() async {
  // Backend is source of truth.
  // On the frontend, keep transient domain events for optimistic UI.

  final userId = StreamId('user-123');
  final user = await backendApi.fetchUser(userId);

  // User edits email in UI (optimistic)
  final pendingEvents = <ContinuumEvent>[];
  final emailChanged = EmailChanged(userId: userId.value, newEmail: 'new@email.com');
  pendingEvents.add(emailChanged);
  user.applyEvent(emailChanged);

  updateUI(user); // Show immediately

  // Convert to a request DTO and send to backend
  final dto = {'email': user.email};
  final confirmed = await backendApi.updateUser(userId, dto);

  // Discard local events; replace with backend response
  pendingEvents.clear();
  displayUser(User.fromBackend(confirmed));
}

See hybrid_mode_example.dart for a complete example.

Core Concepts

Aggregates

Aggregates are domain objects that encapsulate business logic and invariants. They transition between states by applying events.

@Aggregate()
class Order with _$OrderEventHandlers {
  final String id;
  final List<String> items;
  final OrderStatus status;
  
  // Constructor, factories, and apply methods...
}

Events

Events represent things that have happened. They are immutable and describe state changes.

import 'package:continuum/continuum.dart';
import 'package:zooper_flutter_core/zooper_flutter_core.dart';

@AggregateEvent(of: Order, type: 'order.item_added') // type required for persistence
class ItemAdded implements ContinuumEvent {
  final String itemId;

  ItemAdded({
    required this.itemId,
    EventId? eventId,
    DateTime? occurredOn,
    Map<String, Object?> metadata = const {},
  }) : id = eventId ?? EventId.fromUlid(),
       occurredOn = occurredOn ?? DateTime.now(),
       metadata = Map<String, Object?>.unmodifiable(metadata);

  @override
  final EventId id;

  @override
  final DateTime occurredOn;

  @override
  final Map<String, Object?> metadata;
}

Sessions

Sessions track pending events and manage aggregate versions. Call saveChangesAsync() to commit events atomically.

final session = store.openSession();

session.startStream<Order>(
  orderId,
  OrderCreated(orderId: orderId.value, customerId: customerId),
);
session.append(orderId, ItemAdded(itemId: 'item-1'));
session.append(orderId, ItemAdded(itemId: 'item-2'));

await session.saveChangesAsync(); // All or nothing

Event Sourcing Store

The EventSourcingStore is your configuration root. It automatically merges all aggregate registries.

final store = EventSourcingStore(
  eventStore: InMemoryEventStore(), // or HiveEventStore
  aggregates: $aggregateList, // Auto-discovered - just run build_runner!
);

Code Generation

Continuum uses code generation to eliminate boilerplate. When you run build_runner, it generates:

  1. Per-aggregate files (user.g.dart):

    • _$UserEventHandlers mixin with event dispatcher
    • applyEvent() extension method
    • replayEvents() for reconstruction
    • createFromEvent() factory
    • Event serialization registry

  2. Global file (lib/continuum.g.dart):

    • $aggregateList with all aggregates in your project
    • Auto-discovered from @Aggregate() annotations

Build Configuration

Add to build.yaml (optional, for customization):

targets:
  $default:
    builders:
      continuum_generator:
        enabled: true

Continuum can optionally surface common mistakes immediately in the editor using a custom lint plugin.

Why use it?

Some Continuum patterns rely on generated mixins (for example _$UserEventHandlers). If a concrete @Aggregate() class forgets to implement one of the required apply<Event>(...) handlers, Dart can sometimes delay the failure until runtime (or until the class is instantiated, depending on how the type is used).

The continuum_lints package detects this situation early and reports it as a diagnostic while you type.

Setup

Add these dev dependencies:

dev_dependencies:
  custom_lint: ^0.8.1
  continuum_lints: ^3.1.1

Enable the analyzer plugin in your analysis_options.yaml:

analyzer:
  plugins:
    - custom_lint

Optionally, configure which rules are enabled (recommended to keep things explicit):

custom_lint:
  enable_all_lint_rules: false
  rules:
    - continuum_missing_apply_handlers

CI usage

dart analyze does not run custom lints. In CI, run:

dart run custom_lint

Working with Persistence

Event Stores

Continuum provides pluggable event storage:

  • continuum_store_memory: In-memory (testing/development)
  • continuum_store_hive: Local Hive persistence (production)
  • Custom: Implement EventStore interface for your own backend

Optimistic Concurrency

Prevent conflicting writes with version checks:

try {
  await session.saveChangesAsync();
} on ConcurrencyException catch (e) {
  // Handle conflict: reload and retry, or show error to user
  print('Conflict: expected ${e.expectedVersion}, got ${e.actualVersion}');
}

Event Serialization

Events are serialized to JSON for storage. Implement toJson() and fromJson():

@AggregateEvent(of: User, type: 'user.email_changed')
import 'package:continuum/continuum.dart';
import 'package:zooper_flutter_core/zooper_flutter_core.dart';

@AggregateEvent(of: User, type: 'user.email_changed')
class EmailChanged implements ContinuumEvent {
  EmailChanged({
    required this.userId,
    required this.newEmail,
    EventId? eventId,
    DateTime? occurredOn,
    Map<String, Object?> metadata = const {},
  }) : id = eventId ?? EventId.fromUlid(),
       occurredOn = occurredOn ?? DateTime.now(),
       metadata = Map<String, Object?>.unmodifiable(metadata);

  final String userId;
  final String newEmail;

  @override
  final EventId id;

  @override
  final DateTime occurredOn;

  @override
  final Map<String, Object?> metadata;

  factory EmailChanged.fromJson(Map<String, dynamic> json) {
    return EmailChanged(
      userId: json['userId'] as String,
      newEmail: json['newEmail'] as String,
      eventId: EventId(json['eventId'] as String),
      occurredOn: DateTime.parse(json['occurredOn'] as String),
      metadata: Map<String, Object?>.from(json['metadata'] as Map),
    );
  }

  Map<String, dynamic> toJson() => {
    'userId': userId,
    'newEmail': newEmail,
    'eventId': id.toString(),
    'occurredOn': occurredOn.toIso8601String(),
    'metadata': metadata,
  };
}

The of links the event to its aggregate. The type string identifies the event type in storage—make it unique and stable.

Examples

Contributing

See the repository for contribution guidelines.

Libraries

continuum
Continuum - An event sourcing library for Dart.