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JavaScript On-Device Evaluation Client SDK

Statsig's JavaScript SDK for on-device evaluation with browser and Node.js applications.

Statsig's normal (remote evaluation) SDKs are recommended for most client applications. Understand the use case and privacy risks by reading the On-Device Eval SDK overview. On-device evaluation SDKs are for Enterprise & Pro Tier only.
These SDKs use a different paradigm than their precomputed counterparts (JS, Android, iOS) and behave more like Server SDKs. Rather than requiring a user up front, you can check gates/configs/experiments for any set of user properties, because the SDK downloads a complete representation of your project and evaluates checks in real time.

Pros

  • No need for a network request when changing user properties - just check the gate/config/experiment locally
  • Can bring your own CDN or synchronously initialize with a preloaded project definition
  • Lower latency to download configs cached at the edge, rather than evaluated for a given user (which can't be cached as much)

Cons

  • Entire project definition is available client side: the names and configurations of all experiments and feature flags accessible by your client key are exposed. Refer to client key with server permission best practices.
  • Payload size is strictly larger than what is required for the traditional SDKs
  • Evaluation performance is slightly slower - rather than looking up the value, the SDK must actually evaluate targeting conditions and an allocation decision
  • Does not support ID list segments with > 1000 IDs
  • Does not support IP or User Agent based checks (Browser Version/Name, OS Version/Name, IP, Country)

Set Up the SDK

  1. Install the SDK

    Install the Statsig SDK using npm, yarn, or jsdelivr:

    npm install @statsig/js-on-device-eval-client
    
    Statsig is hosted on the jsDelivr CDN.

    To access the current primary JavaScript bundle, use:

    https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/npm/@statsig/js-client/build/statsig-js-client.min.js

    To access specific files/versions:

    https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/npm/@statsig/js-client@{version}/build/statsig-js-client.min.js

  2. Initialize the SDK

    Initialize the SDK with a client SDK key from the "API Keys" tab on the Statsig console. These keys are safe to embed in a client application.Along with the key, pass in a User Object with the attributes you'd like to target later in a gate or experiment.

    For On-Device Evaluation, you'll need to add the "Allow Download Config Specs" scope. Client keys, by default, can't download the project definition for on-device evaluation.

    While client keys are safe to include, Server and Console keys should always be kept private.

    typescript
    import { StatsigOnDeviceEvalClient } from '@statsig/js-on-device-eval-client';
    
    const myStatsigClient = new StatsigOnDeviceEvalClient(
      YOUR_CLIENT_KEY, 
      { environment: {tier: 'development'} }
    );
    
    // initialize and wait for the latest values
    await myStatsigClient.initializeAsync();
    
    In advanced use cases, you may want to Prefetch or Bootstrap (Provide) values for initialization. Go to Using EvaluationsDataAdapter to learn how to do this.

Working with the SDK

Setup a StatsigUser

To interact with the SDK, create a StatsigUser object. The full definition of this object is here.
typescript
const myUser = {
    userID: "a-user",
    email: "user@statsig.com"
};

Checking a Feature Flag/Gate

Now that your SDK is initialized, check a Feature Gate. Feature Gates create logic branches in code that can be rolled out to different users from the Statsig Console. Gates are always CLOSED or OFF (think return false;) by default.
typescript
if (myStatsigClient.checkGate("new_homepage_design", myUser)) {
  // Gate is on, show new home page
} else {
  // Gate is off, show old home page
}

Reading a Dynamic Config

Feature Gates work well for simple on/off switches with optional advanced user targeting. To send different values (strings, numbers, and similar types) to your clients based on specific user attributes such as country, use Dynamic Configs. The API is similar to Feature Gates but returns a full JSON object you can configure on the server and fetch typed parameters from. For example:

typescript
const dynamicConfig = myStatsigClient.getDynamicConfig("awesome_product_details", myUser);
const itemName = dynamicConfig.value["product_name"] ?? "Some Fallback";
const price = dynamicConfig.value["price"] ?? 10.0;

if (dynamicConfig.value["is_discount_enabled"] === true) {
  // apply some discount logic
}

Getting a Layer/Experiment

Use Layers/Experiments to run A/B/n experiments. Statsig offers two APIs, but recommends layers to enable quicker iterations with parameter reuse.
typescript
// Values via getLayer
const layer = myStatsigClient.getLayer("user_promo_experiments", myUser);
const promoTitle = layer.get("title") ?? "Welcome to Statsig!";
const discount = layer.get("discount") ?? 0.1;

// or, via getExperiment
const titleExperiment = myStatsigClient.getExperiment("new_user_promo_title", myUser);
const priceExperiment = myStatsigClient.getExperiment("new_user_promo_price", myUser);

const promoTitle = titleExperiment.value["title"] ?? "Welcome to Statsig!";
const discount = priceExperiment.value["discount"] ?? 0.1;

Logging an Event

After you set up a Feature Gate or an Experiment, you can track custom events to measure how your new features or experiment groups affect those events. Call the Log Event API for the event, and optionally provide a value and/or a metadata object to log together with the event:

typescript
import type { StatsigEvent } from '@statsig/client-core';

// log a simple event
myStatsigClient.logEvent('my_simple_event');

// or, include more information by using a StatsigEvent object
const myEvent: StatsigEvent = {
  eventName: 'add_to_cart',
  value: 'SKU_12345',
  metadata: {
    price: '9.99',
    item_name: 'diet_coke_48_pack',
  },
};

myStatsigClient.logEvent(myEvent);

Flushing Logged Events

flush() sends queued events immediately. Use shutdown() when your app is exiting.

typescript
await myStatsigClient.flush();

Code Examples

Working sample apps are available in the repository:

Statsig User

Provide a StatsigUser object to check or get your configurations. Pass as much information as possible to take advantage of advanced gate and config conditions.

The userID field is usually required to provide a consistent experience for a given user. (Refer to logged-out experiments to understand how to correctly run experiments for logged-out users.)

Besides userID, the email, ip, userAgent, country, locale, and appVersion fields are available as top-level fields on StatsigUser. You can also pass any key-value pairs in an object/dictionary to the custom field to create targeting based on them.

For the JavaScript On-Device Evaluation SDK, you pass the StatsigUser object into each evaluation method (checkGate, getConfig, etc.) rather than during initialization.

Unlike precomputed evaluation SDKs, the on-device evaluation SDK doesn't have an updateUser method since it evaluates gates/configs/experiments in real-time for any user object you pass in.

Client Event Emitter

You can subscribe to StatsigClientEvents (not to be confused with StatsigEvent). These events occur at various stages while using the Statsig client. Subscribe to specific events by specifying the StatsigClientEvent name, or subscribe to all events using the wildcard token '*'.
typescript
import type {
  AnyStatsigClientEvent,
  StatsigClientEvent,
  StatsigClientEventCallback,
} from '@statsig/client-core';

const onAnyClientEvent = (event: AnyStatsigClientEvent) => {
  console.log("Any Client Event", event);
};

const onLogsFlushed = (event: StatsigClientEvent<'logs_flushed'>) => {
  console.log("Logs", event.events);
};

// subscribe to an individual StatsigClientEvent
myStatsigClient.on('logs_flushed', onLogsFlushed);

// or, subscribe to all StatsigClientEvents
myStatsigClient.on('*', onAnyClientEvent);

// then later, unsubscribe from the events
myStatsigClient.off('logs_flushed', onLogsFlushed);
myStatsigClient.off('*', onAnyClientEvent);
The full list of events and descriptions can be found here.

Statsig Options

Configure the SDK's behavior by passing a StatsigOptions object during initialization.

apistring

The API to use for all SDK network requests. You don't need to override this unless you have another API that implements the Statsig API endpoints.

logEventUrlstring

The URL used to flush queued events via a POST request. Takes precedence over StatsigOptions.api.

logEventBeaconUrlstring

The URL used to flush queued events via window.navigator.sendBeacon (web only). Takes precedence over StatsigOptions.api.

downloadConfigSpecsUrlstring

The URL used to fetch your latest Statsig specifications. Takes precedence over StatsigOptions.api.

environmentStatsigEnvironment

An object you can use to set environment variables that apply to all of your users in the same session.

overrideStableIDstring

Overrides the auto-generated stableID that is set for the device.

logLevelLogLevel

How much information is allowed to be printed to the console.

dataAdapterSpecsDataAdapter
Implementing this type allows customization of the initialization. See Using SpecsDataAdapter to learn more.
networkTimeoutMsnumber

The maximum amount of time (in milliseconds) that any network request can take before timing out.

loggingBufferMaxSizenumber

The maximum number of events to batch before flushing logs to Statsig.

loggingIntervalMsnumber

How often (in milliseconds) to flush logs to Statsig.

overrideAdapterOverrideAdapter

An implementor of OverrideAdapter, used to alter evaluations before they are returned to the caller of a check API (checkGate/getExperiment etc).

Manual Exposures

Manual logging is error-prone and can often introduce issues like uneven exposures, which compromise experiment results.

You can query your gates/experiments without triggering an exposure and manually log the exposures later.

Gates

typescript
// Check gate with exposure disabled
const result = myStatsigClient.checkGate('a_gate_name', { user, disableExposureLog: true });

// Manually log the exposure
myStatsigClient.checkGate('a_gate_name', { user });

Configs

typescript
// Get config with exposure disabled
const config = myStatsigClient.getConfig('a_dynamic_config_name', { user, disableExposureLog: true });

// Manually log the exposure
myStatsigClient.getConfig('a_dynamic_config_name', { user });

Experiments

typescript
// Get experiment with exposure disabled
const experiment = myStatsigClient.getExperiment('an_experiment_name', { user, disableExposureLog: true });

// Manually log the exposure
myStatsigClient.getExperiment('an_experiment_name', { user });

Layers

typescript
// Get layer with exposure disabled
const layer = myStatsigClient.getLayer('a_layer_name', { user, disableExposureLog: true });
const paramValue = layer.get('a_param_name', 'fallback_value');

// Manually log the exposure
const layer = myStatsigClient.getLayer('a_layer_name', { user });
const paramValue = layer.get('a_param_name', 'fallback_value');

Lifecycle & Advanced Usage

Shutting Statsig Down

To save users' data and battery usage and prevent logged events from being dropped, the SDK keeps event logs in client cache and flushes them periodically. Because of this, some events may not have been sent when your app shuts down.

To ensure all logged events are flushed or saved locally, call shutdown when your app is closing.

typescript
await myStatsigClient.shutdown();

Data Adapter

The EvaluationsDataAdapter type outlines how the StatsigClient fetches and caches data during initialize and update operations. By default, the StatsigClient uses StatsigEvaluationsDataAdapter, a Statsig-provided implementor of the EvaluationsDataAdapter type. StatsigEvaluationsDataAdapter provides ways to fetch data synchronously from Local Storage and asynchronously from Statsig's servers. Go to Using EvaluationsDataAdapter to learn more and see example usage.

FAQs

Additional Resources

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