State Management Riverpod

State management (Riverpod)

State and dependency injection are one mechanism: Riverpod 3.x. Each feature has one Notifier/AsyncNotifier/StreamNotifier ViewModel that exposes an immutable state value; dumb ConsumerWidgets read it. Widgets hold only ephemeral UI state; every durable mutation routes through one repository (the single write path). This skill covers the state-agnostic core first, then the Riverpod "how", then a Provider/ChangeNotifier appendix for the official Flutter-guide stack.

Read the reference for the task at hand:

• references/ownership-and-lifecycle.md — the ownership table (which provider shape), family/autoDispose/onDispose rules, composition-root DI.
• references/reads-and-side-effects.md — watch vs read vs listen vs select, the stale-closure hole, void action methods, ref.mounted/BuildContext guards.
• references/riverpod3-api-and-testing.md — Riverpod 3.x API shifts (legacy moves, overrideWithValue, retry, ProviderContainer.test), what 2023 tutorials get wrong, and testing seams.

Run scripts/ban-legacy-providers.sh before a PR.

Non-negotiable rules

These hold regardless of the state library.

1. One ViewModel per feature over one immutable state value. The state is a value type with value equality (freezed/sealed + copyWith), never a mutable field bag. Cross-feature/shared state lives in a repository, not a ViewModel — two ViewModels owning the same fact is two facts that will disagree.
2. State is private; mutate only through intent methods. No widget reaches into the state to poke a field. A view calls notifier.rename(id, name); it never sets state. This is the one door through which state changes, so every change is reviewable in one place.
3. Every transition assigns a new value. Value-equality listeners diff by value — a mutated-in-place instance reassigned to the same reference is missed and the UI silently stales. Always copyWith into a new instance.
4. Derive, don't store. A value computable from existing state (a total, a filtered count, a streak) is a getter or a stream projection, never a second stored field — a stored derivation is a second source of truth that drifts out of sync.
5. Single write path. Every durable mutation is one repository method that persists transactionally and returns only after commit; the UI updates because a stream re-emits, not because you optimistically republished. Persist-before-publish makes crash-safety structural, not a matter of discipline.
6. Unidirectional data flow. Intent → ViewModel → repository/service → new state → view. The view never mutates data it reads and never short-circuits back up the chain. Data flows down; events flow up.
7. Depend on abstractions, injected — never constructed. A ViewModel receives its repositories/services/clock; it never news a live collaborator and never holds a BuildContext. This is what makes it testable with fakes and swappable per flavor.
8. Model async as an explicit state, not loose flags. One AsyncValue (or a status enum + data + error) rendered exhaustively — never scattered isLoading/hasError booleans that can encode a half-set, impossible state.
9. Cascade-clean references on delete. Deleting an entity must drop every reference to it (assignments, foreign keys, selection) — an item left pointing at a deleted parent is a latent crash. Never silently drop the orphan; re-home or unassign it explicitly.
10. No DateTime.now() in state logic. "Now" enters through an injected Clock (from package:clock) exposed as clockProvider, so time-dependent behaviour is deterministic in tests (clockProvider.overrideWithValue(Clock.fixed(t))). Never DateTime.now(), never a bespoke ClockService. service-boundary-and-native owns the clockProvider seam.

Riverpod: pick the right shape

Match the provider shape to what it owns (full table in references/ownership-and-lifecycle.md):

Default to hand-written providers (StreamNotifierProvider/AsyncNotifierProvider(...), .autoDispose/.family modifiers). @riverpod codegen is an optional convenience, not the default (see the reference). Riverpod 3.0 API only — base classes Notifier/AsyncNotifier/StreamNotifier; autoDispose/family are provider modifiers, never AutoDispose*/*Family base classes (removed in 3.0).

dartCopy code
// features/task — one StreamNotifier ViewModel: build() returns the LIVE repo stream,
// so a committed write re-emits and the UI updates with no manual republish (D6).
class TaskListNotifier extends StreamNotifier<TaskListState> {
  @override
  Stream<TaskListState> build() {
    final filter = ref.watch(taskFilterProvider);          // in-session filter, its own Notifier
    return ref.watch(taskRepositoryProvider).watchAll()    // the live source of truth
        .map((tasks) => TaskListState(tasks: tasks, filter: filter));
  }

  // Durable act routes through the single write path. void so the call site never drops
  // the Future; no `state = ...` — the committed write makes watchAll() re-emit.
  void complete(TaskId id) =>
      unawaited(ref.read(taskRepositoryProvider).markComplete(id).catchError(_report));

  void _report(Object error, StackTrace stack) {/* surface via a logger — never swallow */}
}

final taskListNotifierProvider =
    StreamNotifierProvider.autoDispose<TaskListNotifier, TaskListState>(
        TaskListNotifier.new);

// The reversible in-session filter is its own tiny Notifier (manual NotifierProvider).
class TaskFilterNotifier extends Notifier<TaskFilter> {
  @override
  TaskFilter build() => TaskFilter.all;
  void set(TaskFilter f) => state = f; // watched by build() above; re-projects the stream
}

final taskFilterProvider =
    NotifierProvider<TaskFilterNotifier, TaskFilter>(TaskFilterNotifier.new);

Riverpod: providers are DI (throwing seams)

A ViewModel reads collaborators from providers; the composition root wires the live impls once. A placeholder seam throws until overridden, so an un-wired dependency fails loudly at first read instead of silently constructing a real service inside a test.

dartCopy code
// A seam: throws until a flavor main() overrides it. One live impl per flavor.
final databaseProvider = Provider<AppDatabase>(
  (ref) => throw UnimplementedError('override databaseProvider in main()'),
);

final taskRepositoryProvider = Provider<TaskRepository>(
  (ref) => TaskRepository(ref.watch(databaseProvider)), // inject, never `new` a live DB here
);

dartCopy code
// main.dart — the ONLY place live collaborators are constructed.
void main() {
  final db = AppDatabase.open();
  runApp(ProviderScope(
    overrides: [databaseProvider.overrideWithValue(db)],
    child: const App(),
  ));
}

Before adding a provider, ask whether a constructor argument would do. Provider count going up is a smell, not progress — reach for family/scoping/codegen only when a plain provider genuinely cannot express the need.

Riverpod: reads — watch / read / listen

Full rationale in references/reads-and-side-effects.md.

• ref.watch(p) / ref.watch(p.select((s) => s.field)) — in build(), for display. .select narrows the rebuild to one field. Never watch a whole controller at the top of a large widget.
• ref.read(p.notifier) — in callbacks (onTap, onPressed). A read of a value in build() freezes on stale data; a watch in a callback rebuilds unexpectedly.
• ref.listen(p, ...) — in build(), for side effects (navigate, snackbar) on change. Never fire a side effect directly from build().

dartCopy code
class TaskCounter extends ConsumerWidget {
  const TaskCounter({super.key});
  @override
  Widget build(BuildContext context, WidgetRef ref) {
    final n = ref.watch(taskListNotifierProvider.select((s) => s.value?.openCount ?? 0));
    return Text('$n');
  }
}

The stale-closure hole: never capture a ref.watched value into an onTap closure — pass a stable key and resolve at tap time via ref.read. A captured value silently acts on the previous entity after a fast re-tap, and no lint catches it.

dartCopy code
// WRONG — acts on a stale item after a re-render.
onTap: () => ref.read(p.notifier).complete(task),
// RIGHT — id is stable; resolve now.
onTap: () => ref.read(p.notifier).complete(task.id),

Action-path methods return void. An arrow closure onTap: () => notifier.doThing() that "returns" a Future satisfies neither discarded_futures nor unawaited_futures (target type is VoidCallback), so the Future and its error are dropped. A void intent method makes the hole unreachable; kick off async inside it with unawaited(_run().catchError(_report)). See async-safety.

Riverpod: lifecycle & disposal

• Per-entity/per-session state is .family-keyed by a stable equatable value (an id or a @freezed args record), never a mutable object, and .autoDispose so heavy session state dies on unmount.
• App-scope singletons (database, engine, services) are plain Provider — never autoDispose.
• Guard writes after an await with ref.mounted (the Riverpod analogue of use_build_context_synchronously).
• Release owned resources in ref.onDispose (streams, controllers, native handles). Riverpod owns a StreamProvider's subscription, so don't hand-manage it.

Riverpod: accessibility state does NOT go through providers

Read MediaQuery.boldTextOf(context) / .textScalerOf(context) / .highContrastOf(context) at build time in the widget, never via a provider. MediaQuery is already an InheritedWidget with correct-by-construction invalidation; routing it through a provider means either a BuildContext in a provider body or a one-frame-stale hand-sync. App/domain state via Riverpod; platform/a11y state via BuildContext. See accessibility-as-code.

Anti-patterns

• Legacy providers — StateProvider / StateNotifierProvider / ChangeNotifierProvider (moved to flutter_riverpod/legacy.dart), or adding get_it / package:provider / Bloc alongside Riverpod. Two DI/state mechanisms is strictly worse than one.
• Business logic in a provider body. A provider is a thin wire; logic lives in the ViewModel, engine, and repository.
• Mutating the state value in place and reassigning the same instance — value-equality listeners won't see it.
• ref.watch at the top of a big widget rebuilding the whole subtree on any field change. Use .select or a leaf ConsumerWidget.
• App/domain state in setState(). setState/local State is for ephemeral UI only (a toggle, an in-flight animation flag).
• Optimistic republish before commit — a crash between republish and commit shows a fact the disk never held.
• A ViewModel that news its collaborators, holds a BuildContext, navigates, or shows snackbars. Inject; publish state; let the view (or a router redirect) react.
• family-keying on a mutable object, or autoDispose on an app-scope singleton, or keepAlive() to undo an autoDispose you shouldn't have added.

Definition of done

• Feature state is one Notifier/AsyncNotifier/StreamNotifier over an immutable value; widgets hold only ephemeral UI state.
• State is private; every mutation goes through an intent method that assigns a new value; no in-place mutation.
• Derived values are getters/stream projections, not stored fields.
• Async is one AsyncValue/status rendered exhaustively; no loose loading/error booleans.
• Every durable mutation is a repository method that commits before returning; no optimistic pre-commit republish.
• Reads use ref.watch/.select for display, ref.read(p.notifier) in callbacks, ref.listen for side effects; no broad top-level watch; no captured-value closures.
• Collaborators injected via providers; seams throw until overridden; live impls wired once per flavor in main; no BuildContext/DateTime.now() in the ViewModel.
• Per-entity providers are family-keyed by a stable value and autoDisposed; app singletons are plain providers; resources released in ref.onDispose.
• No legacy.dart, get_it, package:provider, or Bloc import (scripts/ban-legacy-providers.sh passes).

Related skills

• flutter-architecture — where ViewModels, repositories, and the write path sit in the feature-first DAG.
• error-handling-typed-results — the Result/Failure spine a repository method returns instead of throwing.
• async-safety — the Future-drop hole, mounted guards, subscription/timer disposal.
• persistence-drift — the Drift streams the StreamProviders project and the one-transaction-per-mutation write path.
• service-boundary-and-native — the throwing-seam provider pattern for every side effect and native channel; owns the clockProvider (package:clock) seam these ViewModels read instead of DateTime.now().
• widget-composition — the dumb ConsumerWidget Views that read this state.
• accessibility-as-code — the split this skill co-owns: app/domain state via Riverpod, platform/a11y state read from MediaQuery/BuildContext, never a provider.
• value-objects-money-and-units — value types that take a Clock param for deterministic time.
• app-startup-and-bootstrap — the composition root where ProviderScope overrides are wired.

References

• Riverpod docs
• Riverpod — Migrating to 3.0
• Flutter — App architecture guide (MVVM)
• Flutter — Simple app state management

Provider / ChangeNotifier appendix

For the official Flutter-guide stack (package:provider + ChangeNotifier), the same ten rules hold; only the mechanism changes.

• ViewModel = ChangeNotifier; new state = notifyListeners() after all fields are set (exactly once per logical change, never mid-update or in a loop).
• Private state, exposed immutably. Fields are _private; expose read-only getters; return List.unmodifiable(...) — never hand out a mutable collection.
• DI = constructor injection of abstractions, wired with Provider/ProxyProvider above the screen (auto-disposed on pop). Do not use get_it as the container.
• Reads = context.select/Consumer/Selector for display, context.read in callbacks. Read in didChangeDependencies or callbacks, never initState.
• Guards = check a _disposed flag before notifyListeners() after an await; cancel subscriptions and dispose owned controllers in dispose().

dartCopy code
enum ViewStatus { idle, loading, ready, error }

class TaskListViewModel extends ChangeNotifier {
  TaskListViewModel(this._repo);            // injected abstraction
  final TaskRepository _repo;

  ViewStatus _status = ViewStatus.idle;
  ViewStatus get status => _status;
  List<Task> _tasks = const [];
  List<Task> get tasks => List.unmodifiable(_tasks); // immutable view
  int get openCount => _tasks.where((t) => !t.done).length; // derive, don't store

  Future<void> load() async {
    _status = ViewStatus.loading; notifyListeners();
    try {
      _tasks = await _repo.load();
      _status = ViewStatus.ready;
    } catch (_) {
      _status = ViewStatus.error;
    }
    notifyListeners();                        // exactly one, after all fields set
  }

  Future<void> complete(TaskId id) async {
    await _repo.markComplete(id);             // single write path
    _tasks = [for (final t in _tasks) t.id == id ? t.copyWith(done: true) : t];
    notifyListeners();
  }
}