fp-async — quality + safety report

---
name: fp-async
description: Practical async patterns using TaskEither - clean pipelines instead of try/catch hell, with real API examples
risk: unknown
source: community
version: 1.0.0
author: kadu
tags:
  - fp-ts
  - typescript
  - async
  - error-handling
  - practical
  - promises
  - api
  - fetch
---

# Practical Async Patterns with fp-ts

Stop writing nested try/catch blocks. Stop losing error context. Start building clean async pipelines that handle errors properly.

**TaskEither is simply an async operation that tracks success or failure.** That's it. No fancy terminology needed.

## When to Use
- You need async error handling in TypeScript with `TaskEither`.
- The task involves wrapping Promises, composing API calls, or replacing nested `try/catch` flows.
- You want practical fp-ts async patterns instead of academic explanations.

```typescript
// TaskEither<Error, User> means:
// "An async operation that either fails with Error or succeeds with User"
```

---

## 1. Wrapping Promises Safely

### The Problem: Try/Catch Everywhere

```typescript
// BEFORE: Try/catch hell
async function getUserData(userId: string) {
  try {
    const response = await fetch(`/api/users/${userId}`)
    if (!response.ok) {
      throw new Error(`HTTP ${response.status}`)
    }
    const user = await response.json()

    try {
      const posts = await fetch(`/api/users/${userId}/posts`)
      if (!posts.ok) {
        throw new Error(`HTTP ${posts.status}`)
      }
      const postsData = await posts.json()
      return { user, posts: postsData }
    } catch (postsError) {
      // Now what? Return partial data? Rethrow? Log?
      console.error('Failed to fetch posts:', postsError)
      return { user, posts: [] }
    }
  } catch (error) {
    // Lost all context about what failed
    console.error('Something failed:', error)
    throw error
  }
}
```

### The Solution: Wrap Once, Handle Cleanly

```typescript
import * as TE from 'fp-ts/TaskEither'
import * as E from 'fp-ts/Either'
import { pipe } from 'fp-ts/function'

// One wrapper function - reuse everywhere
const fetchJson = <T>(url: string): TE.TaskEither<Error, T> =>
  TE.tryCatch(
    async () => {
      const response = await fetch(url)
      if (!response.ok) {
        throw new Error(`HTTP ${response.status}: ${response.statusText}`)
      }
      return response.json()
    },
    (error) => error instanceof Error ? error : new Error(String(error))
  )

// AFTER: Clean and composable
const getUser = (userId: string) => fetchJson<User>(`/api/users/${userId}`)
const getPosts = (userId: string) => fetchJson<Post[]>(`/api/users/${userId}/posts`)
```

### tryCatch Explained

`TE.tryCatch` takes two things:
1. An async function that might throw
2. A function to convert the thrown value into your error type

```typescript
TE.tryCatch(
  () => somePromise,           // The async work
  (thrown) => toError(thrown)  // Convert failures to your error type
)
```

### Creating Success and Failure Values

```typescript
// Wrap a value as success
const success = TE.right<Error, number>(42)

// Wrap a value as failure
const failure = TE.left<Error, number>(new Error('Nope'))

// From a nullable value (null/undefined becomes error)
const fromNullable = TE.fromNullable(new Error('Value was null'))
const result = fromNullable(maybeUser) // TaskEither<Error, User>

// From a condition
const mustBePositive = TE.fromPredicate(
  (n: number) => n > 0,
  (n) => new Error(`Expected positive, got ${n}`)
)
```

---

## 2. Chaining Async Operations

### The Problem: Callback Hell / Nested Awaits

```typescript
// BEFORE: Deeply nested, hard to follow
async function processOrder(orderId: string) {
  try {
    const order = await fetchOrder(orderId)
    if (!order) throw new Error('Order not found')

    try {
      const user = await fetchUser(order.userId)
      if (!user) throw new Error('User not found')

      try {
        const inventory = await checkInventory(order.items)
        if (!inventory.available) throw new Error('Out of stock')

        try {
          const payment = await chargePayment(user, order.total)
          if (!payment.success) throw new Error('Payment failed')

          try {
            const shipment = await createShipment(order, user)
            return { order, shipment, payment }
          } catch (e) {
            // Refund payment? Log? What's the state now?
            await refundPayment(payment.id)
            throw e
          }
        } catch (e) {
          throw e
        }
      } catch (e) {
        throw e
      }
    } catch (e) {
      throw e
    }
  } catch (e) {
    console.error('Order processing failed', e)
    throw e
  }
}
```

### The Solution: Clean Pipelines with chain

```typescript
// AFTER: Flat, readable pipeline
const processOrder = (orderId: string) =>
  pipe(
    fetchOrder(orderId),
    TE.chain(order => fetchUser(order.userId)),
    TE.chain(user =>
      pipe(
        checkInventory(order.items),
        TE.chain(inventory => chargePayment(user, order.total))
      )
    ),
    TE.chain(payment => createShipment(order, user, payment))
  )
```

### chain vs map

Use `map` when your transformation is synchronous and can't fail:

```typescript
pipe(
  fetchUser(userId),
  TE.map(user => user.name.toUpperCase())  // Just transforms the value
)
```

Use `chain` (or `flatMap`) when your transformation is async or can fail:

```typescript
pipe(
  fetchUser(userId),
  TE.chain(user => fetchOrders(user.id))  // Returns another TaskEither
)
```

### Building Context with Do Notation

When you need values from multiple steps:

```typescript
// BEFORE: Have to thread values through manually
const processOrderManual = (orderId: string) =>
  pipe(
    fetchOrder(orderId),
    TE.chain(order =>
      pipe(
        fetchUser(order.userId),
        TE.chain(user =>
          pipe(
            chargePayment(user, order.total),
            TE.map(payment => ({ order, user, payment }))
          )
        )
      )
    )
  )

// AFTER: Do notation keeps everything accessible
const processOrder = (orderId: string) =>
  pipe(
    TE.Do,
    TE.bind('order', () => fetchOrder(orderId)),
    TE.bind('user', ({ order }) => fetchUser(order.userId)),
    TE.bind('payment', ({ user, order }) => chargePayment(user, order.total)),
    TE.bind('shipment', ({ order, user }) => createShipment(order, user)),
    TE.map(({ order, payment, shipment }) => ({
      orderId: order.id,
      paymentId: payment.id,
      trackingNumber: shipment.tracking
    }))
  )
```

---

## 3. Parallel vs Sequential Execution

### When to Use Each

**Sequential** (one after another):
- When each operation depends on the previous result
- When you need to respect rate limits
- When order matters

**Parallel** (all at once):
- When operations are independent
- When you want speed
- When fetching multiple resources by ID

### Sequential Chaining

```typescript
// Operations depend on each other - must be sequential
const getUserWithOrg = (userId: string) =>
  pipe(
    fetchUser(userId),                              // First: get user
    TE.chain(user => fetchTeam(user.teamId)),      // Then: get their team
    TE.chain(team => fetchOrganization(team.orgId)) // Finally: get org
  )
```

### Parallel Execution

```typescript
import { sequenceT } from 'fp-ts/Apply'

// Independent operations - run in parallel
const getDashboardData = (userId: string) =>
  sequenceT(TE.ApplyPar)(
    fetchUser(userId),
    fetchNotifications(userId),
    fetchRecentActivity(userId)
  ) // Returns TaskEither<Error, [User, Notification[], Activity[]]>

// With destructuring:
const getDashboard = (userId: string) =>
  pipe(
    sequenceT(TE.ApplyPar)(
      fetchUser(userId),
      fetchNotifications(userId),
      fetchRecentActivity(userId)
    ),
    TE.map(([user, notifications, activities]) => ({
      user,
      notifications,
      activities,
      unreadCount: notifications.filter(n => !n.read).length
    }))
  )
```

### Parallel Array Operations

```typescript
// Fetch multiple users in parallel
const userIds = ['1', '2', '3', '4', '5']

// TE.traverseArray runs all fetches in parallel
const fetchAllUsers = pipe(
  userIds,
  TE.traverseArray(fetchUser)
) // TaskEither<Error, readonly User[]>

// Note: Fails fast - if ANY request fails, the whole thing fails
// All errors after the first are lost
```

### Parallel with Batch Control

When you need to limit concurrent requests:

```typescript
const chunk = <T>(arr: T[], size: number): T[][] => {
  const chunks: T[][] = []
  for (let i = 0; i < arr.length; i += size) {
    chunks.push(arr.slice(i, i + size))
  }
  return chunks
}

// Process in batches of 5 concurrent requests
const fetchUsersWithLimit = (userIds: string[]) => {
  const batches = chunk(userIds, 5)

  return pipe(
    batches,
    // Process batches sequentially
    TE.traverseArray(batch =>
      // But within each batch, run in parallel
      pipe(batch, TE.traverseArray(fetchUser))
    ),
    TE.map(results => results.flat())
  )
}
```

### Sequential When Parallel Looks Tempting

```typescript
// WRONG: This looks parallel but order might matter for DB operations
const createUserAndProfile = (userData: UserData) =>
  sequenceT(TE.ApplyPar)(
    createUser(userData),           // Creates user with ID
    createProfile(userData.profile) // Needs user ID - race condition!
  )

// RIGHT: Sequential when there's a dependency
const createUserAndProfile = (userData: UserData) =>
  pipe(
    createUser(userData),
    TE.chain(user =>
      pipe(
        createProfile(user.id, userData.profile),
        TE.map(profile => ({ user, profile }))
      )
    )
  )
```

---

## 4. Error Recovery Patterns

### Fallback to Alternative

```typescript
// Try primary API, fall back to cache
const getUserWithFallback = (userId: string) =>
  pipe(
    fetchUserFromApi(userId),
    TE.orElse(() => fetchUserFromCache(userId))
  )

// Chain multiple fallbacks
const getConfigRobust = () =>
  pipe(
    fetchRemoteConfig(),
    TE.orElse(() => loadLocalConfig()),
    TE.orElse(() => TE.right(defaultConfig))
  )
```

### Conditional Recovery

```typescript
// Only recover from specific errors
const fetchUserOrCreate = (userId: string) =>
  pipe(
    fetchUser(userId),
    TE.orElse(error =>
      error.message.includes('404') || error.message.includes('not found')
        ? createDefaultUser(userId)
        : TE.left(error)  // Re-throw other errors
    )
  )
```

### Typed Error Recovery

```typescript
type ApiError =
  | { _tag: 'NotFound'; id: string }
  | { _tag: 'NetworkError'; cause: Error }
  | { _tag: 'Unauthorized' }

const fetchUser = (id: string): TE.TaskEither<ApiError, User> =>
  TE.tryCatch(
    async () => {
      const res = await fetch(`/api/users/${id}`)
      if (res.status === 404) throw { _tag: 'NotFound', id }
      if (res.status === 401) throw { _tag: 'Unauthorized' }
      if (!res.ok) throw { _tag: 'NetworkError', cause: new Error(`HTTP ${res.status}`) }
      return res.json()
    },
    (e): ApiError =>
      typeof e === 'object' && e !== null && '_tag' in e
        ? e as ApiError
        : { _tag: 'NetworkError', cause: e instanceof Error ? e : new Error(String(e)) }
  )

// Handle specific errors differently
const getUserOrGuest = (userId: string) =>
  pipe(
    fetchUser(userId),
    TE.orElse(error => {
      switch (error._tag) {
        case 'NotFound':
          return TE.right(createGuestUser())
        case 'Unauthorized':
          return TE.left(error) // Propagate auth errors
        case 'NetworkError':
          return fetchUserFromCache(userId) // Try cache on network issues
      }
    })
  )
```

### Retry with Exponential Backoff

```typescript
import * as T from 'fp-ts/Task'

const wait = (ms: number): T.Task<void> =>
  () => new Promise(resolve => setTimeout(resolve, ms))

const retry = <E, A>(
  operation: TE.TaskEither<E, A>,
  maxAttempts: number,
  baseDelayMs: number = 1000
): TE.TaskEither<E, A> => {

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