boxfan

Serializable JSON filter predicates. Built on Remeda.

Filter descriptors are plain JSON objects — no functions, no classes — so they can be sent over the wire, stored in a database, or embedded in configuration.

Install

pnpm add boxfan

API

filterBy(data, filter)

Filter an array of objects, or test a single object, against a filter descriptor.

import { filterBy } from "boxfan";

const users = [
  { id: 1, name: "kai", role: "admin" },
  { id: 2, name: "bob", role: "user" },
  { id: 3, name: "tim", role: "admin" },
  { id: 4, name: "kristian", role: "user" },
];

// Array → returns filtered array
filterBy(users, { allPass: { role: "admin" } });
// → [{ id: 1, ... }, { id: 3, ... }]

// Single object → returns boolean
filterBy({ name: "kai", role: "admin" }, { allPass: { role: "admin" } });
// → true

Tip: For simple flat exact-match cases, you may not need boxfan at all. Remeda's hasSubObject does the job:

import { hasSubObject } from "remeda";
hasSubObject({ name: "kai", role: "admin" }, { role: "admin" }); // → true

Reach for boxfan when you need wildcards, dot-paths, any-of arrays, compound OR groups, pipelines, or serializable filters embedded in data.

matchContext(collection, context, filterKey)

The inverse of filterBy. Each item in the collection carries its own filter descriptor (at filterKey), tested against a context object. Useful for ad targeting, feature flags, notification routing, etc.

import { matchContext } from "boxfan";

const placements = [
  { id: 1, targeting: { allPass: { "section.id": "marketing" } } },
  { id: 2, targeting: { allPass: { "section.id": "engineering" } } },
  { id: 3, targeting: { anyPass: { "slot.id": ["header", "sidebar"] } } },
  { id: 4 }, // no targeting → always matches
];

const pageContext = {
  section: { id: "marketing" },
  slot: { id: "header" },
};

matchContext(placements, pageContext, "targeting");
// [placements[0], placements[2], placements[3]]

Items with no value (or null) at filterKey are always included.

buildMatcher(collection, filterKey)

Pre-compile a collection's embedded filters into a reusable matcher. The collection is processed once — only the context changes per call. Ideal when the collection is loaded once (e.g. placements, feature flags) but tested against many different contexts (e.g. per page view, per request).

import { buildMatcher } from "boxfan";

const match = buildMatcher(placements, "targeting");

// Per request — filters are already compiled, no re-parsing
match({ section: { id: "marketing" }, slot: { id: "header" } });
// → [placements[0], placements[2], placements[3]]

match({ section: { id: "engineering" }, slot: { id: "footer" } });
// → [placements[1], placements[3]]

buildPredicate(filter)

Compile a filter into a reusable predicate function. Compile once, use many times. Accepts a descriptor object or a pipeline array.

import { buildPredicate } from "boxfan";

const isAdmin = buildPredicate({ allPass: { role: "admin" } });
isAdmin({ role: "admin" }); // → true
isAdmin({ role: "user" });  // → false

// Pipeline compiled into a single predicate
const isNonBobAdmin = buildPredicate([
  { allPass: { role: "admin" } },
  { nonePass: { name: "bob" } },
]);

// Use directly with Array.filter
const admins = users.filter(buildPredicate({ allPass: { role: "admin" } }));

JSON parsing: buildPredicate accepts objects, not strings. Handle JSON parsing closer to the source — e.g. when reading from a database or API response, parse first, then compile:

const rules = rows.map((row) => ({
  ...row,
  predicate: buildPredicate(JSON.parse(row.filterJson)),
}));

Filter Descriptor

A filter descriptor is a plain object with one or more of these keys:

Key	Behavior	Remeda equivalent
allPass	ALL conditions must match	allPass
anyPass	At least ONE condition must match	anyPass
nonePass	NONE of the conditions may match	negated anyPass

These are reserved keys. Any extra keys alongside them are treated as implicit allPass conditions:

// These are equivalent:
filterBy(data, { anyPass: { color: ["blue", "green"] }, name: "kai" });
filterBy(data, { anyPass: { color: ["blue", "green"] }, allPass: { name: "kai" } });

Avoid using these as field names in your data. The string "*" is a reserved value — it acts as a wildcard (field must exist and be truthy) and cannot be used as a literal match. Strings matching the pattern [><]=?\d+ (e.g. ">3", "<=99.5") are reserved for comparison operators and cannot be used as literal match values.

If none of these keys are present, the object is treated as allPass:

// These are equivalent:
filterBy(data, { name: "kai" });
filterBy(data, { allPass: { name: "kai" } });

Condition values

Each condition maps a dot-notation key to a match value:

// Exact match
{ allPass: { name: "kai" } }

// Wildcard — any truthy value
{ allPass: { pet: "*" } }

// Any-of — value must be one of the listed values
{ anyPass: { color: ["blue", "green"] } }

// Comparison operators — >, <, >=, <=
{ allPass: { score: ">10" } }
{ allPass: { price: "<=99.99" } }
{ allPass: { temp: ">-5" } }

// Dot-notation — resolve nested paths
{ allPass: { "meta.role": "admin" } }

Grouped OR (compound conditions)

anyPass and nonePass accept an array of condition groups for OR-of-ANDs logic:

// (slot=header AND viewport=desktop) OR (slot=sidebar AND viewport=mobile)
filterBy(data, {
  anyPass: [
    { "slot.id": "header", "viewport.id": "desktop" },
    { "slot.id": "sidebar", "viewport.id": "mobile" },
  ],
});

Pipeline (array of descriptors)

Pass an array of descriptors to apply them as a pipeline — each one narrows the result of the previous:

filterBy(data, [
  { allPass: { "section.id": "marketing" } },
  { anyPass: [
    { "slot.id": "header", "viewport.id": "desktop" },
    { "slot.id": "sidebar", "viewport.id": "mobile" },
  ]},
]);

Types

import type { FilterDescriptor, FilterInput } from "boxfan";

• FilterDescriptor — { allPass?, anyPass?, nonePass? }
• FilterInput — a single descriptor, bare conditions, or an array of descriptors (pipeline)

Why not JSON Schema?

JSON Schema is more powerful and standardized, but verbose for simple object matching:

// boxfan
{ "allPass": { "role": "admin", "section.id": "marketing" } }

// JSON Schema equivalent
{
  "type": "object",
  "required": ["role"],
  "properties": {
    "role": { "const": "admin" },
    "section": {
      "type": "object",
      "properties": {
        "id": { "const": "marketing" }
      }
    }
  }
}

JSON Schema doesn't have dot-path access, so nested checks get deeply nested. anyOf/allOf/not map to boxfan's anyPass/allPass/nonePass but with more boilerplate.

Use JSON Schema when: you already validate payloads with it, or need complex type constraints (regex patterns, numeric ranges, array length). Validators like ajv compile schemas to fast predicates too.

Use boxfan when: you're storing targeting rules, feature flags, or filter configs in a database and want something compact, readable, and purpose-built for "does this object match?" rather than "is this object valid?"

vs json-logic-js

json-logic-js is a general-purpose rules engine — it can express any computation as JSON, not just matching. The tradeoff is verbosity:

// boxfan
{ "allPass": { "role": "admin", "section.id": "marketing" } }

// json-logic-js equivalent
{
  "and": [
    { "==": [{ "var": "role" }, "admin"] },
    { "==": [{ "var": "section.id" }, "marketing"] }
  ]
}

// boxfan — any-of
{ "anyPass": { "color": ["blue", "green"] } }

// json-logic-js
{ "in": [{ "var": "color" }, ["blue", "green"]] }

Use json-logic-js when: you need a general-purpose rules engine — arithmetic, string operations, map/reduce, or control flow. It's also cross-language (implementations exist in Python, Ruby, PHP, etc.). (Note: boxfan now supports basic numeric comparisons — ">10", "<=99.5" — for simple threshold checks without needing a full rules engine.)

Use boxfan when: you only need object matching and want descriptors that are compact and self-evident. A non-technical person can read { "allPass": { "role": "admin" } } and understand it.

See also: runflower — a serializable function composition engine built on lodash/fp. If you need serializable transformations (map, pick, flow) in addition to predicates, runflower sits between boxfan and json-logic-js in scope.

License

ISC