Custom element

import { defineMountlyFeature } from "mountly";

Custom elements are the declarative path for HTML-first hosts: CMS pages, marketing sites, partner integrations, and static pages that should not own widget lifecycle code.

Wire it up

For a shared widget bundle, put the tags in HTML and call defineMountlyFeature(source) once:

<signup-card trigger="viewport" props='{"plan":"pro"}'></signup-card>
<payment-breakdown trigger="idle" props='{"invoiceId":"inv_123"}'></payment-breakdown>

<script type="module">
  import { defineMountlyFeature } from "mountly";

  defineMountlyFeature("/widgets/dist/index.js");
</script>

By default, Mountly scans the page, defines alias tags such as <signup-card>, registers them as module IDs, and loads matching named exports from the shared bundle (signup-card → signupCard). If the named export is missing, it falls back to the bundle’s default export.

You can still use the wrapper tag directly:

<mountly-feature
  module-id="signup-card"
  trigger="viewport"
  props='{"plan":"pro"}'
></mountly-feature>

defineMountlyFeature(input?)

function defineMountlyFeature(input?: string | DefineMountlyFeatureOptions): void;

interface DefineMountlyFeatureOptions {
  tagName?: string;
  source?: string;
  moduleUrl?: string; // alias for source
  modules?: FeatureModuleManifest;
  aliases?: boolean | Record<string, string>;
  prefix?: string;
  scan?: boolean;
  auto?: boolean; // alias for scan
  baseUrl?: string;
  resolveModuleUrl?: (moduleId: string) => string;
}

Common forms:

defineMountlyFeature();

Defines <mountly-feature> and scans for tags that already provide their own module-url, src, or props.moduleUrl.

defineMountlyFeature("/widgets/dist/index.js");

Uses one shared bundle for all discovered alias tags.

defineMountlyFeature({
  source: "/widgets/dist/index.js",
  prefix: "acme",
});

Defines tags such as <acme-signup-card> while keeping the module ID as signup-card and the shared-bundle export as signupCard. Use this when a CMS or host page needs a namespace to avoid tag-name collisions.

defineMountlyFeature({
  baseUrl: "/widgets",
  modules: ["signup-card", "payment-breakdown"],
});

Registers only listed modules and derives URLs such as /widgets/signup-card/dist/index.js. This is the byte-control path when each widget has its own bundle.

defineMountlyFeature({
  modules: {
    "signup-card": "/widgets/signup-card.js",
    "payment-breakdown": "/widgets/payment-breakdown.js",
  },
});

Registers explicit per-widget URLs.

For internal module IDs that cannot be browser custom element names, use an alias map:

defineMountlyFeature({
  modules: {
    signup: "/widgets/signup.js",
  },
  aliases: {
    "signup-card": "signup",
  },
});

Browsers require custom element tag names to contain a hyphen, so <signup> cannot be defined. The direct wrapper tag still works for non-hyphen IDs: <mountly-feature module-id="signup">.

registerCustomElement(moduleId, factory)

function registerCustomElement(
  moduleId: string,
  factory: () => OnDemandFeature | Promise<OnDemandFeature>,
): void;

Low-level escape hatch. Maps a module-id attribute value to a factory that returns a feature. Use this when the feature needs custom loadData, analytics hooks, or bespoke attach() behavior.

To unregister:

unregisterCustomElement("signup-card");

Element attributes

Set on <mountly-feature> or an alias tag such as <signup-card>:

Attribute	Type	Default	Notes
module-id	string	required	Must match a registerCustomElement factory.
trigger	"hover" · "click" · "focus" · "viewport" · "idle" · "media" · "url-change"	"click"	High-level trigger preset.
trigger-delay	number ms	trigger default	Hover delay override.
preload-on	"hover" · "viewport" · "idle" · "media" · "false"	mapped from trigger	Explicit attach().preloadOn override.
activate-on	"click" · "hover" · "focus" · "viewport" · "idle" · "media" · "url-change"	mapped from trigger	Explicit attach().activateOn override.
preload-media-query	string	—	Required with preload-on="media".
activate-media-query	string	—	Required with activate-on="media" or trigger="media".
idle-timeout	number ms	—	Used by idle triggers.
viewport-root-margin	string	"0px"	Forwarded to IntersectionObserver.
url-events	comma list (popstate,hashchange,pushstate,replacestate)	all four	Used with activate-on="url-change" / trigger="url-change".
data-url	string	—	If set, the element fetches JSON from this URL as loadData.
data-method	"GET" · "POST" etc.	"GET"	Used with data-url.
props	JSON string	{}	Passed to the feature’s render().
mount-selector	CSS selector	self	Render target other than the element itself.

Alias tags infer module-id from the tag name, so <signup-card> does not need the module-id attribute.

Trigger → attach mapping

The element translates trigger into the appropriate preloadOn / activateOn pair:

trigger	preloadOn	activateOn
"hover"	"hover"	"hover"
"focus"	false	"focus"
"viewport"	"viewport"	"viewport"
"idle"	"idle"	"click"
"media"	false	"media"
"url-change"	false	"url-change"
"click" (default)	false	"click"

If you need different combinations, use feature.attach(...) directly.

Astro parity notes

<mountly-feature> can match Astro client hydration timing semantics:

• client:idle → trigger="idle" (optionally idle-timeout)
• client:visible={{ rootMargin }} → trigger="viewport" + viewport-root-margin="..."
• client:media="(query)" → trigger="media" + activate-media-query="(query)"
• client:load / immediate mount → skip triggers and call feature.mount(...) programmatically

Astro-specific compile-time/server directives (client:only, server:defer, set:html, is:inline, etc.) are outside mountly’s runtime scope.

Live prop updates

Setting the props attribute on a connected element triggers feature.update(container, parsedProps), which preserves framework-internal state when the widget supports it.

const el = document.querySelector("mountly-feature");
el.setAttribute("props", JSON.stringify({ plan: "pro" }));

Errors

If a module-id has no registered factory:

[mountly] <mountly-feature module-id="x"> has no registered factory.
Call registerCustomElement("x", () => yourFeature) before the element connects.
Currently registered: "signup-card", "payment-breakdown".

The element stays inert until the factory is registered. With alias tags, check that defineMountlyFeature(...) ran after the markup exists, or pass a modules list for tags created later.

Lifecycle hooks

The element does not expose onMount / onUnmount itself. For those, attach analytics handlers via the feature’s onAnalyticsEvent or wire them inside the factory:

registerCustomElement("signup-card", () => {
  const feature = createOnDemandFeature({ … });
  // Hook into all mounts of this feature, regardless of trigger.
  onAnalyticsEvent("signup-card", (e) => analytics.track(e.phase));
  return feature;
});

Related

• Custom element concept: the explainer.
• createOnDemandFeature: what the factory returns.