Runtime Adapter Interface

The RuntimeAdapter interface decouples the tracker from any specific platform. Implement it to run the tracker in Node.js, Deno, React Native, tests, or any other environment.

Interface

The adapter must provide three capabilities: transport, context, and lifecycle hooks.

interface RuntimeAdapter {
  send: (url: string, options: SendOptions) => Promise<string | void>;
  context: () => EnvironmentContext;
  hooks: {
    onUnload: (fn: () => void) => () => void;
    onVisibilityChange: (fn: (hidden: boolean) => void) => () => void;
    onInteract: (fn: () => void) => () => void;
    onNavigate: (fn: (url: string) => void) => () => void;
  };
}

send(url, options)

The transport layer. Called for both pings (GET) and beacons (POST).

interface SendOptions {
  method: 'GET' | 'POST';
  body?: string;
  keepalive?: boolean;
}

Return value:

• GET: Return the response body as a string. The tracker reads "0" or "1" from the ping response.
• POST: Return void. POST beacons are fire-and-forget.

The options parameter carries all the context the adapter needs:

Field	Used when	Purpose
method	Always	HTTP method
body	POST	JSON-serialized beacon payload
keepalive	POST (unload beacons)	Hint to use sendBeacon or keepalive: true

A correct send implementation must forward keepalive to the underlying transport. The tracker relies on keepalive for unload beacons to ensure delivery during page teardown.

context()

Returns a point-in-time snapshot of environment metadata used to enrich events.

interface EnvironmentContext {
  timeZone: string; // IANA time zone, e.g. "Europe/London"
  userAgent: string; // Raw user-agent string
  referrer: string; // Document referrer URL
  location: {
    host: string; // e.g. "example.com"
    hostname: string; // e.g. "example.com"
    pathname: string; // e.g. "/blog/post-1"
    href: string; // Full URL
  };
}

Called fresh on every register(), track(), and navigation event.

Hooks

Each hook returns an unsubscribe function.

onUnload(fn)

Called when the session is ending (page unload, tab close, timeout). The tracker calls fn to send the final unload beacon.

In a browser, register pagehide, beforeunload, unload listeners. In a CLI tool, register process exit handlers. In an environment without lifecycle events, return a no-op unsubscribe.

onVisibilityChange(fn)

Called when the page/document visibility changes. Receives true when hidden, false when visible. The tracker sends an unload beacon when the page becomes hidden.

In a browser, listen to visibilitychange. In React Native, listen to AppState changes.

onInteract(fn)

Fires on user interaction. The tracker only uses this hook when sessionTimeoutDuration is configured — it resets the inactivity timer so an idle session timeout does not fire while the user is active. The tracker does not use this to automatically create analytics events; custom events are always sent via track().

In a browser, listen to mousedown, keydown, touchstart (passive). If your adapter runs in an environment without user interaction, or you are not using sessionTimeoutDuration, return a no-op unsubscribe.

onNavigate(fn)

Called when navigation occurs. Receives the new URL as a string.

In a browser with history routing, wrap pushState and listen to popstate. In a browser with hash routing, listen to hashchange. In environments without routing, return a no-op unsubscribe.

No-Op Hooks

For environments without browser-like lifecycle events (CLI tools, server processes, cron jobs), hooks can be no-ops:

hooks: {
  onUnload: () => () => {},
  onVisibilityChange: () => () => {},
  onInteract: () => () => {},
  onNavigate: () => () => {},
}

The tracker still functions — it just won't send unload beacons or detect session changes.