Persistence

Jotai has an atomWithStorage function in the utils bundle for persistence that supports persisting state in sessionStorage, localStorage, AsyncStorage, or the URL hash.

(Note: This guide is a bit outdated and requires some rewrites.)

There are also several alternate implementations here:

A simple pattern with localStorage

const strAtom = atom(localStorage.getItem('myKey') ?? 'foo')

const strAtomWithPersistence = atom(
  (get) => get(strAtom),
  (get, set, newStr) => {
    set(strAtom, newStr)
    localStorage.setItem('myKey', newStr)
  },
)

A helper function with localStorage and JSON parse

const atomWithLocalStorage = (key, initialValue) => {
  const getInitialValue = () => {
    const item = localStorage.getItem(key)
    if (item !== null) {
      return JSON.parse(item)
    }
    return initialValue
  }
  const baseAtom = atom(getInitialValue())
  const derivedAtom = atom(
    (get) => get(baseAtom),
    (get, set, update) => {
      const nextValue =
        typeof update === 'function' ? update(get(baseAtom)) : update
      set(baseAtom, nextValue)
      localStorage.setItem(key, JSON.stringify(nextValue))
    },
  )
  return derivedAtom
}

(Error handling should be added.)

A helper function with AsyncStorage and JSON parse

This requires onMount.

const atomWithAsyncStorage = (key, initialValue) => {
  const baseAtom = atom(initialValue)
  baseAtom.onMount = (setValue) => {
    ;(async () => {
      const item = await AsyncStorage.getItem(key)
      setValue(JSON.parse(item))
    })()
  }
  const derivedAtom = atom(
    (get) => get(baseAtom),
    (get, set, update) => {
      const nextValue =
        typeof update === 'function' ? update(get(baseAtom)) : update
      set(baseAtom, nextValue)
      AsyncStorage.setItem(key, JSON.stringify(nextValue))
    },
  )
  return derivedAtom
}

Don't forget to check out the Async documentation for more details on how to use async atoms.

Example with sessionStorage

Same as AsyncStorage, just use atomWithStorage util and override the default storage with the sessionStorage

import { atomWithStorage, createJSONStorage } from 'jotai/utils'

const storage = createJSONStorage(() => sessionStorage)
const someAtom = atomWithStorage('some-key', someInitialValue, storage)

A serialize atom pattern

type Actions =
  | { type: 'serialize'; callback: (value: string) => void }
  | { type: 'deserialize'; value: string }

const serializeAtom = atom(null, (get, set, action: Actions) => {
  if (action.type === 'serialize') {
    const obj = {
      todos: get(todosAtom).map(get),
    }
    action.callback(JSON.stringify(obj))
  } else if (action.type === 'deserialize') {
    const obj = JSON.parse(action.value)
    // needs error handling and type checking
    set(
      todosAtom,
      obj.todos.map((todo: Todo) => atom(todo)),
    )
  }
})

const Persist = () => {
  const [, dispatch] = useAtom(serializeAtom)
  const save = () => {
    dispatch({
      type: 'serialize',
      callback: (value) => {
        localStorage.setItem('serializedTodos', value)
      },
    })
  }
  const load = () => {
    const value = localStorage.getItem('serializedTodos')
    if (value) {
      dispatch({ type: 'deserialize', value })
    }
  }
  return (
    <div>
      <button onClick={save}>Save to localStorage</button>
      <button onClick={load}>Load from localStorage</button>
    </div>
  )
}

Examples

A pattern with atomFamily

type Actions =
  | { type: 'serialize'; callback: (value: string) => void }
  | { type: 'deserialize'; value: string }

const serializeAtom = atom(null, (get, set, action: Actions) => {
  if (action.type === 'serialize') {
    const todos = get(todosAtom)
    const todoMap: Record<string, { title: string; completed: boolean }> = {}
    todos.forEach((id) => {
      todoMap[id] = get(todoAtomFamily({ id }))
    })
    const obj = {
      todos,
      todoMap,
      filter: get(filterAtom),
    }
    action.callback(JSON.stringify(obj))
  } else if (action.type === 'deserialize') {
    const obj = JSON.parse(action.value)
    // needs error handling and type checking
    set(filterAtom, obj.filter)
    obj.todos.forEach((id: string) => {
      const todo = obj.todoMap[id]
      set(todoAtomFamily({ id, ...todo }), todo)
    })
    set(todosAtom, obj.todos)
  }
})

const Persist = () => {
  const [, dispatch] = useAtom(serializeAtom)
  const save = () => {
    dispatch({
      type: 'serialize',
      callback: (value) => {
        localStorage.setItem('serializedTodos', value)
      },
    })
  }
  const load = () => {
    const value = localStorage.getItem('serializedTodos')
    if (value) {
      dispatch({ type: 'deserialize', value })
    }
  }
  return (
    <div>
      <button onClick={save}>Save to localStorage</button>
      <button onClick={load}>Load from localStorage</button>
    </div>
  )
}

Examples