Inertia

Inertia

Inertia is the bridge between AdonisJS routes and React pages: controllers call inertia.render('<name>', { props }), the client resolves that name to a .tsx file inside a module's ui/pages/. Shared props flow globally through an Inertia middleware. Forms use @inertiajs/react's useForm; URLs come from Tuyau's urlFor('route.name', params?) for type safety. Modals are Inertia responses too — a controller helper renders one page over another. Every provider (theme, i18n, tooltip, Tuyau, modal stack) is wired at the root client entry.

Rules

• Page location: app/<mod>/ui/pages/<subpath>/<page>.tsx. Controllers reference the page by the path minus .tsx and everything before <mod>/: inertia.render('users/index') → app/users/ui/pages/index.tsx, inertia.render('users/create') → app/users/ui/pages/create.tsx. First segment = module.
• Shell import: every page imports its layout shell explicitly ([[layout-shells]]). No runtime chooser.
• Client entry mounts the global provider tree — theme, i18n, tooltip, Tuyau, modal stack. Don't reorder without reason; theme + i18n need to be outermost so shells see them.
• Shared props: added by the Inertia middleware via ctx.inertia.always(...). Available on the frontend via a typed usePageProps<{...}>() hook. Per-request data (page-specific) goes in the controller's inertia.render(...) call, not in the middleware.
• Form: default is useForm(initial) from @inertiajs/react + a plain <form onSubmit>. Call post(urlFor('route.name'), { onSuccess, onFinish, preserveScroll }). A local <Form> wrapper is provided that adds a FormErrorsContext so nested fields can pull errors from context — use it when the form is deep enough that field components want the errors without prop-drilling.
• URLs: never hardcode. Use urlFor('route.name', { param: value }) from Tuyau. Route names come from router.get(...).as('route.name') in the module's routes.ts.
• Modals: controllers return the modal helper (modal(inertia, 'page', props, { route: 'backdrop.route' })). The modal page wraps content in the modal component and receives a close render prop.
• Navigation between pages: router.visit(url); router.reload({ only: ['propName'], async: true }) for partial reloads; router.get/post/put/delete(url, data, options) for programmatic form submits.
• Types: server-generated data types come from an ace codegen; the client alias makes them available across pages. Don't duplicate the type in the page — import type from the codegen path.

Repo refs

• Page resolver: app/core/ui/app/app.tsx. Shared props (share()): app/core/middleware/inertia_middleware.ts.
• Modal helper: app/core/inertia/modal.ts. Form: app/users/ui/components/profile_form.tsx. Page + typed props: app/users/ui/pages/index.tsx.

Doc refs

• AdonisJS Inertia — https://docs.adonisjs.com/guides/views-and-templates/inertia
• Inertia.js React — https://inertiajs.com/client-side-setup
• useForm — https://inertiajs.com/forms
• Tuyau (route-safe URLs) — https://tuyau.julr.dev/docs

Workflow

Add a page

1. Route + controller method — see [[crud]] for the full CRUD flow, [[routes]] for the route shape. For a one-off page: router.get('/dashboard', [DashboardController, 'show']).middleware(middleware.auth()).as('dashboard.show').
2. Controller returns inertia.render('<mod>/<page>', { props }). Props must be JSON-serializable — transform Lucid models with a Transformer variant (see [[crud]]).
3. Page file at app/<mod>/ui/pages/<page>.tsx. Import the shell ([[layout-shells]]):

   type PageProps = InertiaProps<{ profile: Data.Users.User.Variants['forProfile'] }>
   
   export default function DashboardPage({ profile }: PageProps) {
     return (
       <AuthenticatedLayout breadcrumbs={[{ label: 'Dashboard' }]}>
         {/* body */}
       </AuthenticatedLayout>
     )
   }
   

Read shared props

const { user, csrf, unseenNotifications } = usePageProps<{
  user?: Data.Users.User.Variants['forSharedProps']
  csrf?: string
  unseenNotifications?: number
}>()

Prefer typed access via usePageProps<T>(). For anonymous access to the raw page object, import { usePage } from '@inertiajs/react'.

Write a form

const { data, setData, errors, post, processing, reset } = useForm({ fullName: '', ... })

<form
  => {
    e.preventDefault()
    post(urlFor('users.store'), {
      preserveScroll: true,
      onSuccess: () => { close(); toast('Saved') },
      onFinish: () => reset('password', 'passwordConfirmation'),
    })
  }}
>
  <Field name="fullName" label="Full name" />
  {/* ... */}
</form>

For deep forms where nested Field components want errors via context instead of props, use the <Form> wrapper that adds FormErrorsContext.

Modals

Controller side:

public async create({ bouncer, inertia }: HttpContext) {
  await bouncer.with(EntityPolicy).authorize('create')
  return modal(inertia, 'entities/create', {}, { route: 'entities.index' })
}

Modal page:

return (
  <AppModal maxWidth="md">
    {({ close }) => (
      <>{/* form + Save calls close() on success */}</>
    )}
  </AppModal>
)

The { route: 'entities.index' } backdrop tells the modal system what to render underneath.

Partial reload

To refresh just some shared props without navigating:

router.reload({ only: ['unseenNotifications'], async: true })

Good for badges and counters that mutate independently of the current page.

Anti-patterns

• ❌ Hardcoding URLs (/users/${id}) — use urlFor('users.edit', { id }).
• ❌ Sending Lucid models to inertia.render(...) — run through a Transformer variant ([[crud]]).
• ❌ Adding page-only providers at the page level — providers belong at the root client entry.
• ❌ Sharing per-page data via the middleware's share() — that inflates every response. Per-request data goes in the controller's inertia.render(...).
• ❌ Using <a href> for internal navigation — use <Link> from @adonisjs/inertia/react or router.visit.
• ❌ Forgetting preserveScroll: true when a form submit stays on the same page — the browser jumps back to the top otherwise.
• ❌ Reading page.props untyped — use usePageProps<T>().
• ❌ Duplicating a query's return type in the page — import type from the query file (see [[queries]]).

Related skills

[[routes]] · [[crud]] · [[queries]] · [[layout-shells]] · [[i18n]] · [[actions-events]] · [[testing]]