purescript-ecosystem

name	purescript-ecosystem
description	AI-to-AI reference for the PureScript package ecosystem. Use when choosing which package to reach for (JSON, HTTP, web frameworks, testing, parsing, Node, CLI, database, etc.). Includes decision trees and ~146 package reviews with spago.yaml conventions.

PureScript Ecosystem Guide

AI-to-AI reference for the PureScript package ecosystem. Use this when helping developers write PureScript. For language-level idioms, patterns, and pitfalls, see the companion /purescript skill.

Decision Trees

"I need to make an HTTP request"

• Browser: affjax-web (high-level) or web-fetch (low-level Fetch API)
• Node.js: affjax-node or node-http
• Either platform: affjax (core) + platform-specific driver
• Don't use: milkis (outdated), fetch (low-level)

"I need to parse/produce JSON"

• Best practice (codec values): codec-argonaut (Argonaut backend) or codec-json (standalone)
• Record-based auto-derivation: yoga-json (modern) or simple-json (older, still works)
• Low-level Argonaut: argonaut-codecs + argonaut-core (manual encoders/decoders)
• Generic derivation: argonaut-generic (if you must, but prefer codecs)
• Don't: Write EncodeJson/DecodeJson instances directly

"I need a web framework"

• Component-based (recommended): halogen — the standard. Production-ready, excellent tooling.
• React interop: react-basic-hooks + react-basic-dom — when you need React ecosystem.
• Signals/FRP: deku — experimental, high-performance signal-based UI.
• Don't use: thermite (dead), flame (niche), concur-react (experimental)

"I need an HTTP server"

• Modern: httpurple — successor to HTTPure, clean routing DSL, middleware support
• Express.js wrapper: express — if you need Express middleware ecosystem
• Low-level: node-http — direct Node.js HTTP bindings
• Don't use: httpure directly (use httpurple instead)

"I need routing"

• Bidirectional (recommended): routing-duplex — one definition generates both parser and printer
• Parser only: routing — applicative URL parser

"I need to test"

• Unit/integration: spec — BDD-style, the standard test framework
• Property-based: quickcheck — Haskell-style property testing
• Both: spec-quickcheck — run QuickCheck properties inside Spec
• Test discovery: spec-discovery — auto-discovers test modules

"I need to work with optional/nullable JS values"

• JS null/undefined: nullable — Nullable a with toMaybe/toNullable
• PureScript optionality: maybe — the standard Maybe type
• Don't: Use raw Foreign for simple nullable cases

"I need database access"

• PostgreSQL: postgresql — typed PostgreSQL bindings
• SQLite: node-sqlite3 — SQLite3 bindings for Node.js

"I need to parse text"

• General parsing: parsing — monadic parser combinators (like Parsec)
• Simple string parsing: string-parsers — lighter-weight string parsers
• PureScript source: language-cst-parser — full PureScript CST parser

"I need optics (lenses/prisms)"

• Use: profunctor-lenses — profunctor-based optics (Lens', Prism', Traversal', etc.)
• Don't: Try to use Haskell's lens or optics — they don't exist in PureScript

"I need CLI argument parsing"

• Declarative: optparse — port of Haskell's optparse-applicative
• Simple: argparse-basic — lighter alternative by natefaubion

---

Package Guide by Category

Core Language

prelude

What: The PureScript Prelude — basic type classes and functions imported by virtually everything. Key exports: class Show, class Eq, class Ord, class Semigroup, class Monoid, class Functor, class Apply, class Applicative, class Bind, class Monad, map/<$>, apply/<*>, bind/>>=, pure, unit, void, ($), (#), (<<<), (>>>) Note: PureScript's Prelude is explicit — you must import it. (#) is reverse application (like Haskell's &). (<<<) is function composition (like Haskell's (.)). Ecosystem role: core | Status: active

effect

What: The Effect monad for synchronous side effects. Key exports: Effect, class MonadEffect, liftEffect Instead of: Never use IO — PureScript has no IO type. Note: Effect is PureScript's equivalent of Haskell's IO for sync effects only. For async, use Aff. Ecosystem role: core | Status: active

control

What: Control flow abstractions — Alternative, MonadPlus, MonadZero, etc. Key exports: class Alternative, class MonadPlus, guard, when, unless, ifM, class Comonad, extend, extract Note: when/unless live here. Always prefer when cond action over if cond then action else pure unit. Ecosystem role: core | Status: active

transformers

What: Monad transformers — StateT, ReaderT, WriterT, ExceptT, MaybeT, etc. Key exports: StateT, ReaderT, WriterT, ExceptT, MaybeT, runStateT, runReaderT, runWriterT, runExceptT, lift, class MonadTrans, class MonadState, class MonadReader, class MonadWriter, class MonadThrow, class MonadError Note: MTL-style classes are in this package (not a separate mtl package like Haskell). ExceptT replaces EitherT. Ecosystem role: core | Status: active

aff

What: Asynchronous effect monad with cancellation, error handling, and fiber support. Key exports: Aff, class MonadAff, liftAff, launchAff_, launchAff, forkAff, joinFiber, killFiber, delay, attempt, throwError, catchError, bracket, Milliseconds When to use: Any async operation — HTTP requests, timers, file I/O, database queries. Instead of: Never use callbacks or raw Promise-based APIs when Aff is available. Note: launchAff_ runs an Aff from Effect (discarding the fiber). launchAff returns the fiber. Use bracket for resource cleanup. Use parallel package for concurrent Aff operations. Ecosystem role: core (contrib org) | Status: active

parallel

What: MonadPar abstraction for running effects in parallel. Key exports: class Parallel, parallel, sequential, parTraverse, parTraverse_, parSequence When to use: Running multiple Aff computations concurrently. Note: parTraverse is the parallel equivalent of traverse. Works with Aff out of the box. Ecosystem role: core | Status: active

exceptions

What: Exception handling for Effect and Aff. Key exports: class MonadThrow, class MonadError, throw, catchException, try, Error, error, message Note: JavaScript exceptions are Error (from Effect.Exception). For typed errors, use ExceptT from transformers. Ecosystem role: core | Status: active

refs

What: Mutable references in Effect. Key exports: Ref, new, read, write, modify, modify' Note: Like Haskell's IORef. For Aff, use AVar from the avar package instead. Ecosystem role: core | Status: active

st

What: Safe local mutation via the ST monad. Key exports: ST, STRef, run, new, read, write, modify When to use: Performance-critical code that needs local mutation without escaping. Note: Like Haskell's ST. The region parameter ensures refs don't escape. Ecosystem role: core | Status: active

tailrec

What: Stack-safe monadic recursion. Key exports: tailRec, tailRecM, Step(..), Done, Loop When to use: When you need guaranteed stack safety in recursive monadic code. Note: Return Loop to continue, Done to finish. The compiler also does TCO for self-recursive functions, but tailRecM works for monadic recursion. Ecosystem role: core | Status: active

lazy

What: Lazy evaluation support. Key exports: Lazy, defer, force Note: PureScript is strict by default. Use Lazy explicitly when you need laziness. Ecosystem role: core | Status: active

debug

What: Debug tracing (console.log for debugging). Key exports: spy, trace, traceM, debugger When to use: Debugging. Remove before committing. Instead of: Don't use Console.log for debugging — spy and trace work in any context. Note: By garyb. spy logs and returns the value. trace takes a message and a thunk. debugger inserts a JS debugger statement. Ecosystem role: community | Status: active

console

What: Console output functions. Key exports: log, warn, error, info, time, timeEnd When to use: Actual logging output (not debugging — use debug for that). Ecosystem role: core | Status: active

functions

What: Utility functions. Key exports: const, flip, apply, on, applyN Ecosystem role: core | Status: active

partial

What: Utilities for partial functions. Key exports: Partial, crashWith, unsafePartial, unsafeCrashWith Note: Partial is a compiler-solved constraint. Use unsafePartial to discharge it. Avoid where possible. Ecosystem role: core | Status: active

unsafe-coerce

What: Unsafe type coercion (unsafeCoerce :: forall a b. a -> b). Key exports: unsafeCoerce When to use: FFI interop or performance-critical code where you can guarantee type safety externally. Very widely depended upon (162 reverse deps) because many FFI bindings use it internally. Instead of: Don't use for application logic — use Newtype unwrap/wrap or proper type conversions. Ecosystem role: core | Status: active

safe-coerce

What: Type-safe coercion between representationally equal types. Key exports: coerce, class Coercible When to use: Converting between newtypes and their underlying types without unsafeCoerce. Compiler-checked. Note: Like Haskell's Coercible. Prefer this over unsafeCoerce when the types are representationally equal. Ecosystem role: core | Status: active

type-equality

What: Type equality evidence. Key exports: class TypeEquals, proof, from, to When to use: Type-level programming where you need to witness that two types are the same. Ecosystem role: core | Status: active

contravariant

What: Contravariant functors. Key exports: class Contravariant, cmap, (>$<), Predicate, Comparison, Equivalence, Op When to use: Types that consume values rather than produce them (predicates, comparisons, serializers). Ecosystem role: core | Status: active

exists

What: Existential types. Key exports: Exists, mkExists, runExists When to use: Hiding a type parameter — e.g., heterogeneous collections. Ecosystem role: core | Status: active

random

What: Random number generation. Key exports: random, randomInt, randomRange, randomBool Note: Uses Effect — wraps Math.random(). For reproducible randomness, use lcg or gen + quickcheck. Ecosystem role: core | Status: active

Data Types & Structures

maybe

What: The Maybe type for optional values. Key exports: Maybe(..), Just, Nothing, maybe, fromMaybe, fromMaybe', isJust, isNothing, optional Ecosystem role: core | Status: active

either

What: The Either type for computations that can fail. Key exports: Either(..), Left, Right, either, fromLeft, fromRight, note, hush Note: note converts Maybe to Either (adds an error). hush converts Either to Maybe (discards the error). Ecosystem role: core | Status: active

tuples

What: Tuple types. Key exports: Tuple(..), fst, snd, curry, uncurry, swap Note: PureScript has no built-in tuple syntax. Use Tuple a b or /\ operator. For larger tuples, use records instead. Ecosystem role: core | Status: active

arrays

What: Immutable arrays (JavaScript arrays under the hood). Key exports: Array, cons, snoc, head, tail, last, init, index/(!!), filter, sort, sortBy, nub, nubEq, zip, unzip, concat, concatMap, mapWithIndex, foldl, foldr, length, null, elem, find, findIndex Note: Arrays are the primary sequential collection. Use lists only when you specifically need cons-based linked lists. PureScript arrays are JavaScript arrays — O(1) index, O(n) cons. Ecosystem role: core | Status: active

lists

What: Strict and lazy linked lists. Key exports: List(..), Cons, Nil, NonEmptyList When to use: When you need efficient cons/uncons or pattern matching on head/tail. Rare in practice — prefer Array for most use cases. Ecosystem role: core | Status: active

ordered-collections

What: Map and Set implemented as balanced trees. Key exports: Map, Set, Map.empty, Map.insert, Map.lookup, Map.delete, Map.fromFoldable, Map.toUnfoldable, Set.empty, Set.insert, Set.member Note: Keys must have Ord instance. These are persistent/immutable. For mutable or hash-based collections, see unordered-collections. Ecosystem role: core | Status: active

strings

What: String manipulation functions. Key exports: length, charAt, toCharArray, fromCharArray, indexOf, split, joinWith, replace, replaceAll, trim, toLower, toUpper, take, drop, Pattern(..) Note: PureScript strings are JavaScript strings (UTF-16). Pattern newtype for search patterns. CodePoint and CodeUnit modules for Unicode-correct operations. Ecosystem role: core | Status: active

integers

What: Integer type and operations. Key exports: Int, fromNumber, toNumber, fromString, floor, ceil, round, even, odd Note: PureScript Int is a 32-bit signed integer (JavaScript number restricted to integer range). Ecosystem role: core | Status: active

numbers

What: Number type utilities. Key exports: Number, fromString, nan, isNaN, infinity, isFinite Note: PureScript Number is a JavaScript 64-bit float. Ecosystem role: core | Status: active

newtype

What: Type class and utilities for newtypes. Key exports: class Newtype, unwrap, wrap, over, under, ala, alaF Note: Derive with derive instance Newtype MyType _. Use unwrap/wrap instead of manual pattern matching. ala and alaF for newtype-directed folding (e.g., ala Additive foldMap). Ecosystem role: core | Status: active

foreign

What: Working with untyped JavaScript values. Key exports: Foreign, unsafeToForeign, unsafeFromForeign, readString, readNumber, readBoolean, readArray, readNull, readUndefined, typeOf, tagOf When to use: Low-level FFI interop. Prefer typed approaches (codec-argonaut, yoga-json) when possible. Ecosystem role: core | Status: active

foreign-object

What: Untyped JavaScript objects as string-keyed maps. Key exports: Object, empty, insert, lookup, delete, keys, values, fromFoldable, toUnfoldable, singleton When to use: Interfacing with JS code that passes plain objects, or when you need string-keyed maps backed by JS objects rather than balanced trees. Ecosystem role: core | Status: active

nullable

What: Working with JavaScript null values. Key exports: Nullable, toMaybe, toNullable, null, notNull When to use: FFI boundaries where JS functions return or accept null. Instead of: Don't use Foreign directly for simple nullable values. Ecosystem role: contrib | Status: active

nonempty

What: Non-empty collections. Key exports: NonEmpty(..), NonEmptyArray, NonEmptyList, fromArray, fromFoldable, head, tail, singleton When to use: When you can guarantee a collection has at least one element — encodes this in the type. Ecosystem role: core | Status: active

variant

What: Polymorphic variants — extensible sum types using row types. Key exports: Variant, inj, on, onMatch, case_, match, default, expand, contract When to use: When you need open/extensible sum types, or to combine effect rows. Core building block of Run. Instead of: Don't define many small ADTs when you need extensibility — use Variant. Note: By natefaubion. Uses Symbol and row types to create type-safe extensible variants. match takes a record of handlers. Ecosystem role: community | Status: active

validation

What: Applicative validation that accumulates errors. Key exports: V, invalid, validation, toEither, fromEither When to use: Form validation or any scenario where you want ALL errors, not just the first. Instead of: Don't use Either when you need to accumulate multiple errors — Either short-circuits. Note: V err a has Applicative that accumulates err (requires Semigroup err). No Monad instance by design. Ecosystem role: core | Status: active

datetime

What: Date and time types and operations. Key exports: DateTime, Date, Time, Year, Month, Day, Hour, Minute, Second, Millisecond, Weekday, diff, adjust, date, time Note: Pure date/time types. For JS Date interop, use js-date. For precise timestamps, see precise-datetime. Ecosystem role: core | Status: active

enums

What: Operations on enums (types with Bounded + Enum). Key exports: class Enum, class BoundedEnum, succ, pred, toEnum, fromEnum, enumFromTo, upFromIncluding, downFromIncluding Ecosystem role: core | Status: active

record

What: Record manipulation utilities. Key exports: merge, union, disjointUnion, nub, delete, rename, get, set, modify, insert, class EqualFields Note: Works with PureScript's structural record types and row polymorphism. Type-level label manipulation. Ecosystem role: core | Status: active

these

What: The These type — inclusive disjunction (This a, That b, Both a b). Key exports: These(..), these, thisOrBoth, thatOrBoth, fromThese When to use: When you need to represent "one, the other, or both" — e.g., merging two data sources. Ecosystem role: contrib | Status: active

tree-rose

What: Rose trees (multi-way trees). Key exports: Tree(..), Forest, mkTree, drawTree, scanTree When to use: Hierarchical/tree-structured data. DOM trees, ASTs, file trees. Ecosystem role: contrib | Status: active

catenable-lists

What: Catenable lists — O(1) append. Key exports: CatList, CatQueue, empty, cons, snoc, append, uncons When to use: When you need efficient repeated appending (e.g., building output). Ecosystem role: core | Status: active

untagged-union

What: Untagged unions for JS interop — represent string | number | null etc. Key exports: OneOf, asOneOf, fromOneOf, type (|+|) When to use: FFI where JS functions accept or return untagged union types. Note: By rowtype-yoga. Encodes JS union types at the PureScript type level. Ecosystem role: community | Status: active

literals

What: Type-level literal values (strings, ints, booleans) reflected to term level. Key exports: StringLit, IntLit, BooleanLit, literal When to use: Type-safe config, record keys as type-level strings. Note: By rowtype-yoga. Works with Symbol proxy patterns. Ecosystem role: community | Status: active

record-studio

What: Advanced record manipulation utilities. Key exports: Record merging, key mapping, value mapping, optional fields. When to use: Complex record transformations beyond what record provides. Note: By rowtype-yoga. Ecosystem role: community | Status: active

Type Classes & Abstractions

foldable-traversable

What: Foldable and Traversable type classes and utilities. Key exports: class Foldable, class Traversable, foldMap, fold, foldl, foldr, traverse, sequence, for, for_, traverse_, any, all, find, elem, sum, product, maximum, minimum, length, null, intercalate Note: for is traverse with arguments flipped. for_/traverse_ discard results. This is extremely heavily used. Ecosystem role: core | Status: active

bifunctors

What: Bifunctor, Biapplicative, and related classes. Key exports: class Bifunctor, bimap, lmap, rmap When to use: Working with two-parameter types like Either or Tuple. lmap maps over the left, rmap over the right. Ecosystem role: core | Status: active

profunctor

What: Profunctor type class and instances. Key exports: class Profunctor, dimap, lcmap, rmap, class Strong, class Choice, class Closed When to use: Advanced abstractions. Foundation for profunctor-lenses. Ecosystem role: core | Status: active

profunctor-lenses

What: Profunctor-based optics library. Key exports: Lens, Lens', Prism, Prism', Traversal, Traversal', Iso, Iso', lens, prism, prism', _Just, _Nothing, _Left, _Right, view, preview, set, over, (^.), (.~), (%~), (^?), _1, _2 When to use: Composable accessors/modifiers for nested data structures. Note: Operator style: record ^. _field, record # _field .~ newVal. Composes with (<<<). Ecosystem role: contrib | Status: active

free

What: Free monads and free applicatives. Key exports: Free, liftF, foldFree, runFree, runFreeM, resume, FreeAp, liftFreeAp, foldFreeAp When to use: Building DSLs as data. Natural transformation (foldFree) to interpret. Consider Run as a modern alternative. Ecosystem role: core | Status: active

run

What: Extensible effects using free monads + variants. Key exports: Run, lift, extract, interpret, run, runBaseAff, runBaseEffect, EFFECT, AFF, EXCEPT, STATE, READER When to use: When you need composable, extensible effect systems. Each effect is a functor row, interpreted independently. Instead of: Deeply nested monad transformer stacks. Note: By natefaubion. More ergonomic than raw Free for multi-effect scenarios. Effects compose via row types. Ecosystem role: community | Status: active

typelevel-prelude

What: Type-level programming utilities. Key exports: class IsSymbol, class TypeEquals, class RowToList, RLProxy, Proxy, SProxy Note: Foundation for type-level record programming. RowToList converts row types to type-level lists for iteration. Ecosystem role: core | Status: active

heterogeneous

What: Heterogeneous maps and folds over records. Key exports: class HMap, class HFoldl, class HFoldr, class Mapping, hmap, hfoldl When to use: When you need to map or fold a function over all fields of a record, regardless of their types. Note: By natefaubion. Powerful but advanced — type-level programming required. Ecosystem role: community | Status: active

filterable

What: Filterable and Witherable type classes. Key exports: class Filterable, class Witherable, filter, filterMap, partition, partitionMap, wither, wilt When to use: filterMap is like mapMaybe from Haskell — maps and filters in one pass. Ecosystem role: core | Status: active

distributive

What: Distributive type class (dual of Traversable). Key exports: class Distributive, distribute, cotraverse, collect Ecosystem role: core | Status: active

invariant

What: Invariant functor — both covariant and contravariant. Key exports: class Invariant, imap When to use: Types that both consume and produce values (codecs, lenses). Ecosystem role: core | Status: active

functors

What: Functor products, coproducts, and composition. Key exports: Product, Coproduct, Compose, FunctorWithIndex, FoldableWithIndex, TraversableWithIndex, mapWithIndex, foldMapWithIndex, traverseWithIndex When to use: The *WithIndex classes are the practical draw — indexed traversals over arrays, maps, etc. Ecosystem role: core | Status: active

gen

What: QuickCheck generator combinators. Key exports: Gen, chooseInt, chooseFloat, oneOf, frequency, elements, unfoldable, suchThat, resize, sized When to use: Building custom Arbitrary generators for property testing. Note: Separated from quickcheck so generators can be used independently. Ecosystem role: core | Status: active

freet

What: Free monad transformer. Key exports: FreeT, liftFreeT, foldFreeT, interpret, resume When to use: Free monad DSLs that need to be layered on another monad (e.g., Aff). Ecosystem role: contrib | Status: active

avar

What: Asynchronous mutable variables (like Haskell's MVar). Key exports: AVar, new, empty, take, put, read, tryTake, tryPut, tryRead, kill, status When to use: Coordination between concurrent Aff fibers. Also used internally by Aff. Note: empty creates a blocking var. new creates a filled var. take blocks until a value is available. Ecosystem role: contrib | Status: active

fork

What: Utilities for forking computations. Key exports: bracket, finally, fork, suspend When to use: Resource management — bracket ensures cleanup even on exceptions. Ecosystem role: contrib | Status: active

qualified-do

What: Use different bind/apply/discard/pure in do and ado blocks via qualified syntax. Key exports: Documentation/pattern only — enables MyModule.do and MyModule.ado syntax. When to use: Using applicative ado with custom applicatives, or indexed monads with do. Note: By artemis-prime. PureScript supports qualified do/ado natively; this package provides the convention. Ecosystem role: community | Status: active

JSON & Serialization

argonaut-core

What: Core JSON types for the Argonaut ecosystem. Key exports: Json, jsonNull, jsonTrue, jsonFalse, fromString, fromNumber, fromObject, fromArray, caseJson, caseJsonNull, caseJsonBoolean, caseJsonNumber, caseJsonString, caseJsonArray, caseJsonObject, stringify, stringifyWithIndent Note: Low-level JSON AST. Most code should use codec-argonaut on top of this. Ecosystem role: contrib | Status: active

argonaut-codecs

What: Encode/decode type classes for Argonaut. Key exports: class EncodeJson, class DecodeJson, encodeJson, decodeJson, JsonDecodeError(..), printJsonDecodeError When to use: If the project convention is type-class-based JSON. But prefer codec values. Note: These are the instances that codec-argonaut replaces with explicit codec values. Ecosystem role: contrib | Status: active

argonaut

What: Umbrella package re-exporting argonaut-core, argonaut-codecs, argonaut-traversals. Ecosystem role: contrib | Status: active

argonaut-generic

What: Generic JSON encoding/decoding for Argonaut. Key exports: genericEncodeJson, genericDecodeJson When to use: Quick-and-dirty JSON for ADTs. The encoding format may not match your API. Instead of: For API boundaries, prefer explicit codecs for control over the format. Ecosystem role: contrib | Status: active

codec

What: Core codec abstraction — bidirectional, composable encoders/decoders. Key exports: Codec, Codec', BasicCodec, decode, encode, mapCodec, composeCodec, (~), (<~<), (>~>) When to use: Foundation for codec-argonaut and codec-json. You typically import the backend package directly. Note: By garyb. A Codec carries both encoding and decoding in one value. Profunctor-based. Ecosystem role: community | Status: active

codec-argonaut

What: JSON codecs using Argonaut as the backend. Key exports: JsonCodec, object, record, recordProp, string, number, int, boolean, array, null, json, named, prismaticCodec, coercible, sum, taggedSum, fix, decode, encode, printJsonDecodeError When to use: This is the recommended approach for JSON in PureScript. Define codec values, use them explicitly. Example pattern:

import Data.Codec.Argonaut as CA
import Data.Codec.Argonaut.Record as CAR

userCodec :: JsonCodec User
userCodec = CA.object "User" $ CAR.record
  { name: CA.string
  , age: CA.int
  , email: CA.string
  }

Instead of: Type class instances (EncodeJson/DecodeJson), which create orphan instance problems and invisible behavior. Note: By garyb. CAR.record is the most common entry point — it derives a codec from a record of field codecs. Ecosystem role: community | Status: active

codec-json

What: JSON codecs using a standalone JSON backend (no Argonaut dependency). Key exports: Similar API to codec-argonaut but against a different JSON type. When to use: If you want codecs without the Argonaut dependency. Note: By garyb. Newer alternative to codec-argonaut. Ecosystem role: community | Status: active

simple-json

What: Auto-derived JSON encoding/decoding via row types. Key exports: readJSON, writeJSON, readJSON', class ReadForeign, class WriteForeign When to use: When you want zero-boilerplate JSON for records that match JS object shapes exactly. Instead of: Writing manual codecs when the shape matches 1:1. Note: By justinwoo. Uses Foreign + row types. Great for rapid prototyping. Less control than codecs. Ecosystem role: community | Status: active

yoga-json

What: Modern JSON encoding/decoding with better error messages than simple-json. Key exports: readJSON, writeJSON, class ReadForeign, class WriteForeign, (:::), writeJSONImpl, readJSONImpl When to use: Modern alternative to simple-json with better error reporting and more features. Note: By rowtype-yoga. Spiritual successor to simple-json. Ecosystem role: community | Status: active

Web Frameworks

halogen

What: Type-safe, component-based UI framework. The most popular PureScript web framework. Key exports: Component, ComponentHTML, ComponentSpec, mkComponent, HalogenM, raise, query, tell, Slot, slot, slot_ When to use: Building web applications. The default choice for PureScript web UIs. Note: Component model with State, Action, Input, Output, Query, Slots. Uses a virtual DOM (halogen-vdom). Components communicate via output messages (up) and queries (down). HalogenM monad for component logic. Key patterns:

• handleAction :: Action -> HalogenM ... — handles events
• render :: State -> ComponentHTML Action Slots Output m — renders HTML
• initialState :: Input -> State
• H.liftAff / H.liftEffect for effects inside HalogenM Ecosystem role: community (purescript-halogen org) | Status: active

halogen-hooks

What: React-style hooks for Halogen components. Key exports: useState, useQuery, useLifecycleEffect, useTickEffect, Hook, component, bind, discard When to use: When you prefer a hooks-based API over Halogen's traditional component model. Note: By thomashoneyman. Ecosystem role: community | Status: active

halogen-store

What: Global state management for Halogen. Key exports: Store, mkStore, connect, selectAll, selectEq When to use: Shared state across multiple Halogen components (like Redux for Halogen). Note: By thomashoneyman. Ecosystem role: community | Status: active

halogen-formless

What: Type-safe form handling for Halogen. Key exports: FormlessAction, FormField, mkFormSpec, validation combinators When to use: Complex forms with validation in Halogen apps. Note: By thomashoneyman. Ecosystem role: community | Status: active

halogen-subscriptions

What: Event source subscriptions for Halogen. Key exports: Emitter, Listener, subscribe, create, notify, makeEmitter When to use: Hooking external event sources (WebSocket, timers, DOM events) into Halogen components. Ecosystem role: community | Status: active

react-basic

What: Core React bindings — base types shared by all react-basic-* packages. Key exports: JSX, ReactComponent, element, fragment, empty, keyed, provider, createContext When to use: Always needed when using react-basic-hooks or react-basic-dom. Provides the core JSX type. Ecosystem role: community | Status: active

react-basic-hooks

What: React Hooks bindings for PureScript. Key exports: component, useState, useEffect, useRef, useMemo, useCallback, useContext, useReducer When to use: When you need React (e.g., for React ecosystem interop, existing React codebase). Note: By purescript-react org. Requires react-basic-dom for DOM elements. Ecosystem role: community | Status: active

react-basic-dom

What: DOM element bindings for react-basic. Key exports: R.div, R.span, R.button, R.input, R.text, event handlers, CSS properties When to use: Always paired with react-basic-hooks. Ecosystem role: community | Status: active

deku

What: Signal-based UI framework. When to use: Experimental/niche. When you want FRP-style signals instead of component state. Note: By mikesol. Not as widely adopted as Halogen or react-basic. Ecosystem role: community | Status: active

HTTP Client

affjax

What: HTTP request library returning Aff. Key exports: Request, Response, defaultRequest, request, get, post, put, delete, printError When to use: HTTP requests in Aff. Needs a platform driver. Note: The core package. Use with affjax-web (browser XHR) or affjax-node (Node.js HTTP). Ecosystem role: contrib | Status: active

affjax-web

What: Browser (XHR) driver for affjax. Key exports: driver When to use: HTTP requests in browser code. Example: Affjax.request driver { ...request } Ecosystem role: contrib | Status: active

affjax-node

What: Node.js driver for affjax. Key exports: driver When to use: HTTP requests in Node.js code. Ecosystem role: contrib | Status: active

web-fetch

What: Bindings to the Fetch API. Key exports: fetch, Request, Response, Headers When to use: Low-level Fetch API access. Prefer affjax-web for higher-level usage. Ecosystem role: web | Status: active

HTTP Server

httpurple

What: Modern HTTP server framework (successor to HTTPure). Key exports: serve, ok, badRequest, notFound, header, Route, mkRoute When to use: Building HTTP servers in PureScript/Node.js. Instead of: Old httpure package. Use httpurple (the renamed/improved fork). Note: Clean routing DSL, middleware support, request/response helpers. Ecosystem role: community | Status: active

node-http

What: Low-level Node.js HTTP bindings. Key exports: createServer, listen, Request, Response, requestMethod, requestURL, setHeader, setStatusCode, end When to use: When you need direct Node.js HTTP access. Prefer httpurple for application servers. Ecosystem role: node | Status: active

Routing

routing-duplex

What: Bidirectional routing — one definition generates both parser and printer. Key exports: RouteDuplex, RouteDuplex', root, path, segment, param, optional, flag, int, string, end, parse, print, prefix, suffix, prop, record, sum, generic When to use: Always prefer this over routing — you get URL generation for free. Example pattern:

route :: RouteDuplex' MyRoute
route = root $ sum
  { "Home": end
  , "Profile": path "profile" / segment
  , "Search": path "search" $ params { query: string, page: optional <<< int }
  }

Note: By natefaubion. The print/parse pair is guaranteed consistent. Works with Halogen routing. Ecosystem role: community | Status: active

routing

What: Applicative URL parser. Key exports: Match, lit, str, int, end, match When to use: If you only need parsing (not printing). Otherwise prefer routing-duplex. Ecosystem role: contrib | Status: active

Testing

spec

What: BDD-style test framework (like Haskell's hspec). Key exports: Spec, describe, it, pending, pending', beforeAll, afterAll, beforeEach, afterEach, parallel When to use: The standard PureScript test framework. Note: Run with spago test. Supports Aff-based tests by default. Use spec-quickcheck to integrate property tests. Ecosystem role: community | Status: active

quickcheck

What: Property-based testing. Key exports: quickCheck, quickCheck', class Arbitrary, class Coarbitrary, Gen, arbitrary, elements, oneOf, frequency, arrayOf, Result, (===), (/==), (<?>) When to use: Testing properties that should hold for many inputs. Note: Similar to Haskell's QuickCheck. (===) for equality assertions with counterexample reporting. Ecosystem role: core | Status: active

spec-quickcheck

What: Run QuickCheck properties inside Spec tests. Ecosystem role: community | Status: active

spec-discovery

What: Auto-discover test modules for spec. Key exports: discover When to use: In Test.Main to automatically find all *Spec modules. Ecosystem role: community | Status: active

Parsing

parsing

What: Monadic parser combinators (like Parsec/Megaparsec). Key exports: Parser, runParser, fail, try, lookAhead, choice, option, optional, many, many1, sepBy, sepBy1, between, char, string, satisfy, digit, letter, eof, position When to use: Complex parsing tasks — config files, DSLs, data formats. Note: try for backtracking (like Parsec's try). Works with both String and StringWithPos. Ecosystem role: contrib | Status: active

string-parsers

What: Simpler string parser combinators. Key exports: Parser, runParser, string, char, anyChar, satisfy, many, many1, regex When to use: Simpler parsing tasks. Less overhead than parsing. Ecosystem role: contrib | Status: active

language-cst-parser

What: Full PureScript CST (Concrete Syntax Tree) parser. Key exports: parseModule, parseExpr, parseType, parseBinder When to use: Tooling that needs to parse PureScript source code. Note: By natefaubion. Powers tidy (the PureScript formatter) and IDE tooling. Ecosystem role: community | Status: active

Node.js

node-fs

What: Node.js file system bindings. Key exports: readTextFile, writeTextFile, readFile, writeFile, stat, mkdir, readdir, unlink, rename, exists, chmod Note: Most functions are in Node.FS.Aff (async) and Node.FS.Sync (synchronous). Prefer async. Ecosystem role: node | Status: active

node-buffer

What: Node.js Buffer bindings. Key exports: Buffer, fromString, toString, fromArray, toArray, size, concat, slice, copy Ecosystem role: node | Status: active

node-streams

What: Node.js Stream bindings. Key exports: Readable, Writable, Duplex, Transform, pipe, read, write, end, onData, onEnd, onError Ecosystem role: node | Status: active

node-path

What: Node.js path module bindings. Key exports: resolve, join, basename, dirname, extname, relative, normalize, sep Ecosystem role: node | Status: active

node-process

What: Node.js process bindings. Key exports: argv, exit, cwd, getEnv, lookupEnv, stdin, stdout, stderr Ecosystem role: node | Status: active

node-child-process

What: Node.js child_process bindings. Key exports: exec, execSync, spawn, fork Ecosystem role: node | Status: active

node-event-emitter

What: Node.js EventEmitter bindings. Key exports: EventEmitter, on, once, emit, removeListener Ecosystem role: node | Status: active

node-execa

What: Execute shell commands (like execa for Node.js). Key exports: execa, execaSync, ExecaResult, ExecaError When to use: Running shell commands with better ergonomics than raw child-process. Note: By JordanMartinez. Ecosystem role: community | Status: active

node-glob-basic

What: File glob pattern matching. Key exports: glob, GlobOptions When to use: Finding files by pattern (e.g., "src/**/*.purs"). Note: By natefaubion. Ecosystem role: community | Status: active

Web APIs

web-dom

What: DOM API bindings. Key exports: Document, Element, Node, ParentNode, querySelector, querySelectorAll, createElement, appendChild, removeChild, textContent, getAttribute, setAttribute Ecosystem role: web | Status: active

web-html

What: HTML element bindings. Key exports: HTMLElement, HTMLInputElement, HTMLDocument, window, document, location, history, fromElement, toElement, value, setValue Ecosystem role: web | Status: active

web-events

What: DOM Event bindings. Key exports: Event, EventTarget, EventType, addEventListener, removeEventListener, preventDefault, stopPropagation, target, currentTarget Ecosystem role: web | Status: active

web-storage

What: Web Storage API (localStorage/sessionStorage). Key exports: Storage, localStorage, sessionStorage, getItem, setItem, removeItem, clear, length Ecosystem role: web | Status: active

web-uievents

What: UI event bindings — mouse, keyboard, focus, input events. Key exports: MouseEvent, KeyboardEvent, FocusEvent, InputEvent, WheelEvent, TouchEvent, conversions from base Event When to use: Handling specific UI events in DOM code. Halogen wraps these but you need them for raw DOM interop. Ecosystem role: web | Status: active

web-file

What: File API bindings. Key exports: File, Blob, FileReader, FileList, name, size, type_, readAsText, readAsArrayBuffer When to use: File upload handling, reading files from <input type="file">. Ecosystem role: web | Status: active

canvas

What: HTML5 Canvas API bindings. Key exports: Context2D, getContext2D, fillRect, strokeRect, arc, beginPath, closePath, fill, stroke, setFillStyle, setStrokeStyle, drawImage, clearRect When to use: 2D graphics, drawing, custom visualizations. Note: Also see halogen-canvas for Halogen integration. Ecosystem role: web | Status: active

arraybuffer-types

What: ArrayBuffer and TypedArray type definitions. Key exports: ArrayBuffer, DataView, ArrayView, Int8Array, Uint8Array, Float32Array, Float64Array, etc. When to use: Binary data, WebGL, file processing, crypto. Foundation for typed array operations. Ecosystem role: contrib | Status: active

CLI & Configuration

optparse

What: Declarative command-line option parser (port of optparse-applicative). Key exports: Parser, ParserInfo, execParser, info, helper, strOption, option, flag, switch, argument, long, short, metavar, help, value, showDefault, subparser, command When to use: Building CLI tools with complex option parsing. Ecosystem role: contrib | Status: active

argparse-basic

What: Simpler CLI argument parser. Key exports: ArgParser, argument, anyNotFlag, flag, flagHelp, flagInfo, fromRecord, parseArgs, printArgError When to use: Simpler CLI tools. Less boilerplate than optparse. Note: By natefaubion. Ecosystem role: community | Status: active

dotenv

What: Load environment variables from .env files. Key exports: loadFile Ecosystem role: community | Status: active

ansi

What: ANSI terminal escape codes. Key exports: Terminal colors, cursor movement, screen clearing. Ecosystem role: community | Status: active

dodo-printer

What: Pretty-printer library (Wadler-Lindig style). Key exports: Doc, text, lines, indent, group, break, flatAlt, print When to use: Generating formatted output (code generators, error messages). Note: By natefaubion. Powers tidy (PureScript formatter). Ecosystem role: community | Status: active

URLs & HTTP Types

uri

What: URI parsing and representation. Key exports: URI, parse, print, Authority, Host, Port, Path, Query, Fragment Ecosystem role: contrib | Status: active

media-types

What: MIME/media type representation. Key exports: MediaType, applicationJSON, textHTML, textPlain Ecosystem role: contrib | Status: active

http-methods

What: HTTP method type. Key exports: Method(..), GET, POST, PUT, DELETE, PATCH Ecosystem role: contrib | Status: active

form-urlencoded

What: URL-encoded form data. Key exports: encode, decode Ecosystem role: contrib | Status: active

Database

postgresql

What: PostgreSQL client bindings. Key exports: Pool, Client, Query, newPool, query, execute, withClient, withTransaction When to use: PostgreSQL database access from Node.js. Ecosystem role: community | Status: active

node-sqlite3

What: SQLite3 bindings for Node.js. Key exports: Database, open, close, run, get, all, prepare When to use: SQLite database access. Ecosystem role: community | Status: active

Other Important Packages

tidy

What: PureScript source code formatter. Key exports: Command-line tool, not typically imported as a library. When to use: Formatting PureScript code. Run via purs-tidy. Note: By natefaubion. Ecosystem role: community | Status: active

tidy-codegen

What: PureScript code generation library. Key exports: Code generation combinators for producing PureScript source. When to use: Writing tools that generate PureScript code. Note: By natefaubion. Ecosystem role: community | Status: active

convertable-options

What: Type-safe optional arguments via row types. Key exports: class ConvertOption, class ConvertOptionsWithDefaults, convertOptionsWithDefaults When to use: FFI bindings where JS functions take optional config objects. Note: By natefaubion. Pattern: define defaults, let callers override any subset. Ecosystem role: community | Status: active

graphs

What: Graph data structures. Key exports: Graph, topologicalSort, vertices, edges Ecosystem role: core | Status: active

unicode

What: Unicode character classification and case conversion. Key exports: isAlpha, isDigit, isAlphaNum, isUpper, isLower, isSpace, toUpper, toLower, GeneralCategory(..) When to use: Character classification that goes beyond ASCII. Ecosystem role: contrib | Status: active

options

What: Applicative option parsing for record-style configuration. Key exports: Options, optional, required, defaulted Ecosystem role: contrib | Status: active

js-date

What: JavaScript Date object bindings. Key exports: JSDate, now, parse, fromTime, getTime, toISOString, toDateString When to use: Interop with JS Date. For pure date logic, use datetime instead. Ecosystem role: contrib | Status: active

js-timers

What: JavaScript timer bindings (setTimeout, setInterval). Key exports: setTimeout, setInterval, clearTimeout, clearInterval, TimeoutId, IntervalId When to use: Low-level timers. In Aff, prefer delay from Effect.Aff. Ecosystem role: contrib | Status: active

pipes

What: Streaming library (port of Haskell's pipes). Key exports: Producer, Consumer, Pipe, Effect, yield, await, runEffect, (>->) When to use: Composable streaming with back-pressure. Ecosystem role: community | Status: active

coroutines

What: Coroutine-based streaming. Key exports: Co, Process, emit, consumer, producer, transform, connect Ecosystem role: contrib | Status: active

js-promise-aff

What: Convert between JS Promises and Aff. Key exports: toAff, toAffE, fromAff When to use: Bridging Promise-based JS APIs into Aff. Ecosystem role: contrib | Status: active

js-promise

What: JS Promise bindings. Key exports: Promise, new, then_, catch_, resolve, reject, all, race When to use: Low-level Promise interop. Prefer js-promise-aff to lift into Aff. Ecosystem role: contrib | Status: active

aff-promise

What: Alternative Promise-Aff bridge. Key exports: toAff, toAffE, Promise Note: By nwolverson. Similar to js-promise-aff. Both are widely used; check which the project already uses. Ecosystem role: community | Status: active

uuid

What: UUID generation and parsing. Key exports: UUID, genUUID, parseUUID, toString Ecosystem role: community | Status: active

css

What: CSS types and generation. Key exports: CSS property types, selectors, rendering. When to use: Type-safe CSS generation. Ecosystem role: contrib | Status: active

colors

What: Color types and manipulation. Key exports: Color, rgb, hsl, toHexString, lighten, darken, saturate, desaturate, complementary Ecosystem role: contrib | Status: active

mmorph

What: Monad morphisms — natural transformations between monads. Key exports: class MFunctor, hoist, class MMonad, embed, generalize When to use: Changing the base monad of a transformer stack. hoist lifts a natural transformation through a transformer. Ecosystem role: community | Status: active

checked-exceptions

What: Tracked exceptions in the type system using row types. Key exports: class Throw, class Catch, throw, catch, safe When to use: When you want exceptions tracked in types without full ExceptT. Note: By natefaubion. Ecosystem role: community | Status: active

now

What: Get the current date/time in Effect. Key exports: now, nowDate, nowDateTime Ecosystem role: contrib | Status: active

const

What: The Const functor. Key exports: Const(..) — a functor that ignores its second parameter. Useful for phantom type programming and as a building block for lenses. Ecosystem role: core | Status: active

unfoldable

What: Unfoldable type class (dual of Foldable). Key exports: class Unfoldable, class Unfoldable1, unfoldr, replicate, replicateA, none, singleton, range, fromMaybe, toUnfoldable When to use: Converting between collection types. toUnfoldable from Map/Set produces any Unfoldable. Ecosystem role: core | Status: active

identity

What: The Identity monad/functor. Key exports: Identity(..) — trivial monad wrapper. Used as base monad for pure transformer stacks. Ecosystem role: core | Status: active

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Ecosystem Context

Key Organizations

• purescript — Core libraries maintained by the compiler team (prelude, effect, arrays, etc.)
• purescript-contrib — Community-maintained essential libraries (aff, argonaut, nullable, etc.)
• purescript-node — Node.js bindings (node-fs, node-buffer, node-streams, etc.)
• purescript-web — Web API bindings (web-dom, web-html, web-events, etc.)
• purescript-halogen — Halogen web framework
• purescript-react — React bindings (react-basic, react-basic-hooks, react-basic-dom)
• rowtype-yoga — yoga-json, yoga-fetch, and other "yoga" packages

Key Authors

• garyb (Gary Burgess) — codec, codec-argonaut, codec-json, debug, indexed-monad, functor1. The codec approach to JSON is his design.
• natefaubion (Nate Faubion) — variant, run, routing-duplex, language-cst-parser, tidy, tidy-codegen, dodo-printer, heterogeneous, convertable-options, argparse-basic, checked-exceptions, call-by-name, node-workerbees, psa-utils. Prolific author of sophisticated type-level libraries.
• thomashoneyman (Thomas Honeyman) — halogen-hooks, Real World Halogen (tutorial app), PureScript documentation. Key educator in the community.
• paf31 (Phil Freeman) — PureScript creator. Many core libraries.
• hdgarrood (Harry Garrood) — Pursuit (package documentation site), many core/contrib packages.
• justinwoo — simple-json, node-sqlite3, and many registry/tooling contributions.

Build Tooling

• spago — Package manager and build tool. Config is spago.yaml (current) or spago.dhall (legacy). Subcommands: build, test, run, install, bundle, docs.
• purs — The compiler. Invoked via spago. output/ directory contains compiled JS modules.
• purs-tidy — Code formatter. Run via npx purs-tidy format-in-place "src/**/*.purs".
• esbuild / webpack — Bundle the output/ JS for browser. PureScript compiles to ES modules.
• Pursuit — Package documentation site (pursuit.purescript.org). Like Haskell's Hackage/Haddock.

Config File: spago.yaml

package:
  name: my-package
  dependencies:
    - prelude
    - effect
    - aff
    - halogen
  test:
    main: Test.Main
    dependencies:
      - spec
      - spec-discovery
workspace:
  packageSet:
    registry: 71.0.0   # package set version
  extraPackages: {}     # additional/override packages

Package Sets

PureScript uses curated package sets (like Haskell's Stackage). A package set is a consistent set of package versions known to compile together. The registry at registry.purescript.org publishes numbered sets (currently at 71.0.0). You pin to a set version in spago.yaml.