Real-Time & Streaming

Implement push-driven Hotwire behavior with Turbo Streams and Stimulus.

Core Workflow

1. Identify transport and delivery shape: WebSocket, SSE, inline stream tags, or server response streams.
2. Choose default Turbo Stream actions first; add custom actions only when defaults are insufficient.
3. Keep stream actions small and deterministic; avoid embedding arbitrary scripts in stream payloads.
4. Separate stream orchestration from domain UI concerns (forms, media, navigation).
5. Verify ordering, idempotency, and multi-tab behavior for all real-time updates.

Guardrails

• Prefer append/prepend/replace/update/remove/before/after/refresh before custom actions.
• Keep cross-tab sync explicit (BroadcastChannel/localStorage) and scope it to same-device semantics.
• Use view transitions only where animation meaningfully improves state-change clarity.
• Validate failure modes for delayed/out-of-order messages.

Load References Selectively

Open only the file needed for the current request.

• Inline client-side stream tags: references/2023-08-01-turbo-streams-inline-stream-tags.md
• Custom Turbo Stream actions: references/2023-08-15-turbo-streams-custom-stream-actions.md
• Advanced playlist orchestration via custom actions: references/2023-10-10-turbo-streams-custom-stream-actions-video-playlist-management.md
• LocalStorage-backed stream state: references/2024-01-30-turbo-streams-custom-stream-actions-localstorage.md
• List animations with View Transitions: references/2025-06-10-turbo-streams-list-animation-view-transitions.md
• Real-time combobox updates: references/2024-03-12-hotwire-combobox-with-real-time-data.md
• Inter-tab communication patterns: references/2023-11-21-stimulus-inter-tab-communication.md

Use references/INDEX.md for the full catalog.

Escalate to Neighbor Skills

• Pull-based navigation/history concerns: use hwc-navigation-content
• Form validation and submit lifecycle concerns: use hwc-forms-validation
• Media playback/upload interactions: use hwc-media-content
• Generic loading/progress/transition UX: use hwc-ux-feedback
• Base Stimulus API questions outside streaming: use hwc-stimulus-fundamentals