@molecule/app-tour

Tour core interface for molecule.dev.

Provides a standardized API for onboarding walkthrough and guided tour UI components. Bond a provider (e.g. @molecule/app-tour-shepherd) to supply the concrete implementation.

Auto-generated, AI-first package reference for the molecule.dev ecosystem. It is written to be read by coding agents as much as by people, and is generated from this package's source — edit src/index.ts JSDoc, not this file.

Quick Start

import { requireProvider, setProvider } from '@molecule/app-tour'
import { provider } from '@molecule/app-tour-shepherd'

setProvider(provider) // once, at startup (bonds.ts)

const tour = requireProvider().createTour({
  steps: [
    {
      target: '[data-mol-id="editor"]',
      title: 'Editor',
      content: 'Write code here',
      action: () => renderTourStep(tour.getCurrentStep()),
    },
  ],
  onComplete: () => markTourSeen(),
})
tour.start()

Type

core

Installation

npm install @molecule/app-tour @molecule/app-bond

API

Interfaces

TourStep

A single step in a guided tour.

interface TourStep {
  /** CSS selector for the target element to highlight. */
  target: string

  /** Title of the tour step. */
  title: string

  /** Content/description body for the step. */
  content: string

  /** Preferred placement of the tooltip relative to the target. */
  placement?: 'top' | 'bottom' | 'left' | 'right'

  /** Action to perform when the step is shown. */
  action?: () => void

  /** Async function that runs before the step is displayed. */
  beforeShow?: () => Promise<void>
}

TourOptions

Configuration options for creating a tour.

interface TourOptions {
  /** Steps to display in the tour. */
  steps: TourStep[]

  /** Callback when the tour is completed. */
  onComplete?: () => void

  /** Callback when the tour is cancelled. */
  onCancel?: () => void

  /** Whether to show a progress indicator. Defaults to `true`. */
  showProgress?: boolean

  /**
   * Whether navigation buttons (back / next / done) should be rendered.
   * Defaults to `true`. Surfaced back to the consumer's render code via
   * `TourInstance.hasButtons`.
   */
  showButtons?: boolean

  /**
   * Whether a backdrop overlay should be rendered. Defaults to `true`.
   * Surfaced back to the consumer's render code via
   * `TourInstance.hasOverlay`.
   */
  overlay?: boolean
}

TourInstance

A live tour instance returned by the provider.

interface TourInstance {
  /**
   * Starts the tour from the beginning.
   */
  start(): void

  /**
   * Advances to the next step.
   */
  next(): void

  /**
   * Goes back to the previous step.
   */
  previous(): void

  /**
   * Cancels the tour without completing it.
   */
  cancel(): void

  /**
   * Marks the tour as complete and triggers the onComplete callback.
   */
  complete(): void

  /**
   * Checks whether the tour is currently running.
   *
   * @returns `true` if the tour is active.
   */
  isActive(): boolean

  /**
   * Returns the index of the current step.
   *
   * @returns Zero-based index of the current step.
   */
  getCurrentStep(): number

  /**
   * Whether a backdrop overlay should be rendered for this tour.
   *
   * The provider tracks state only and draws nothing on screen — read this in
   * your render code to decide whether to paint the backdrop. Reflects the
   * resolved `overlay` value: the per-tour `TourOptions.overlay`, else
   * the provider's default, else `true`.
   *
   * @returns `true` if the consumer should render a backdrop overlay.
   */
  hasOverlay(): boolean

  /**
   * Whether navigation buttons (back / next / done) should be rendered.
   *
   * The provider draws no buttons itself — read this in your render code to
   * decide whether to paint the nav controls. Reflects the resolved
   * `showButtons` value: the per-tour `TourOptions.showButtons`, else the
   * provider's default, else `true`.
   *
   * @returns `true` if the consumer should render navigation buttons.
   */
  hasButtons(): boolean
}

TourProvider

Tour provider interface.

All tour providers must implement this interface to create and manage onboarding walkthrough / guided tour UI.

interface TourProvider {
  /** Provider name identifier. */
  readonly name: string

  /**
   * Creates a new tour instance.
   *
   * @param options - Configuration for the tour.
   * @returns A tour instance for controlling the walkthrough.
   */
  createTour(options: TourOptions): TourInstance
}

Functions

setProvider(provider)

Registers a tour provider as the active singleton.

function setProvider(provider: TourProvider): void

• provider — The tour provider implementation to bond.

getProvider()

Retrieves the bonded tour provider, or null if none is bonded.

function getProvider(): TourProvider | null

Returns: The active tour provider, or null.

hasProvider()

Checks whether a tour provider has been bonded.

function hasProvider(): boolean

Returns: true if a tour provider is available.

requireProvider()

Retrieves the bonded tour provider, throwing if none is configured.

function requireProvider(): TourProvider

Returns: The active tour provider.

Available Providers

Provider	Package
Shepherd.js	@molecule/app-tour-shepherd

Injection Notes

Requirements

Peer dependencies:

• @molecule/app-bond ^1.0.1

Runtime Dependencies

• @molecule/app-bond

• The provider manages tour STATE — it does not draw the overlay. The bundled bond tracks the active step and fires each step's action plus onComplete/onCancel; the highlight/tooltip UI is the consumer's to render from getCurrentStep() and the step's target/title/content. Don't expect start() alone to put anything on screen.

• Read the overlay/showButtons intent back off the instance. Because the provider draws nothing, TourOptions.overlay/showButtons are surfaced for the consumer via hasOverlay()/hasButtons() (resolved: per-tour option → provider default → true). Gate the backdrop and nav buttons your render code paints on those accessors rather than re-deriving the flags.

• The instance has NO change subscription — drive re-renders from the per-step action callbacks (or wrap next/previous), not by polling.

• target is a CSS selector: prefer stable [data-mol-id="…"] selectors over styling class names (class strings are ClassMap-bond-owned and swappable).

• Step title/content are UI text — source them via t('key', values, { defaultValue }), and style the rendered tour UI with getClassMap() from @molecule/app-ui.

• Wire it with THIS package's setProvider() or bond('tour', …). setProvider() delegates into the shared @molecule/app-bond registry, so both write the same slot; requireProvider throws until one has run.

E2E Tests

Integration checklist — drive the real UI (live preview, no mocks), adapt each item to this app's actual onboarding flow, and check every box off one by one. A box you can't check is an integration bug to fix — not a skip. The provider only tracks state, so every checkpoint is about the overlay the app RENDERS from getCurrentStep() — verify what's on screen, not just the calls:

• Starting the tour renders step 1's tooltip (its title/content) anchored to that step's target element, with the target highlighted / spotlighted. start() alone paints nothing — the per-step action is what draws the overlay, so confirm the anchored tooltip actually appears.
• next advances in order: the tooltip + highlight move to each step's target and the progress indicator updates (e.g. "2 of 5" — getCurrentStep() is zero-based, so it reads step+1 of steps.length). previous moves one step back. next on the LAST step does not wrap or auto-finish (the bond no-ops past the end), so a visible Done/Finish control must call complete().
• Skip/close (cancel()) ends the tour immediately — the overlay and tooltip disappear, isActive() is false — and fires onCancel.
• Completing the last step fires onComplete and closes the tour (overlay and tooltip gone, isActive() false).
• Seen-once: a returning user who completed OR dismissed the tour is not shown it again after reload, while a fresh user is. The package has no built-in "seen" state — the app must persist a flag in onComplete/onCancel and gate start() on it; verify the persistence survives a reload.
• A step whose target selector matches no element is handled gracefully (the step is skipped or the tour ends) — it never crashes anchoring a tooltip to a null element (the bond keeps target as a plain string and never touches the DOM, so this guard lives in the app's render code).
• While the tour is active with overlay on (i.e. hasOverlay() is true), the backdrop blocks interaction outside the current step — clicks reach only the tour controls and the highlighted target; ending the tour restores normal interaction. A tour created with overlay: false reports hasOverlay() === false and your render code paints no backdrop. Likewise gate the nav buttons on hasButtons().