One unwrapped accumulator carries the idle drift, the drag and the throw; the wrap happens once, in the follow tween's `modifiers`, as `mod(x, period) - period`. Because that is a true modulo it is total — a delta of four periods in one frame lands correctly — and because it is the identity for `x` already inside `[-period, 0)` it never shows a seam. Pressing scatters the cards on a single paused timeline that is played forwards and reversed, and releasing hands the row over to a plugin-free inertial throw.
Also installs use-gsap, use-in-view, use-reduced-motion, use-resize-observer, damp, prng, wrap from this registry.
03
Prompt
The whole technique, written for an agent.
Build it with your agent
A single self-contained brief: the technique, the constants and why they hold, the pitfalls, and the definition of done. Paste it and the component gets written in your own conventions instead of copied in ours.
# Build: Drag MarqueeOne unwrapped accumulator carries the idle drift, the drag and the throw; the wrap happens once, in the follow tween's `modifiers`, as `mod(x, period) - period`. Because that is a true modulo it is total — a delta of four periods in one frame lands correctly — and because it is the identity for `x` already inside `[-period, 0)` it never shows a seam. Pressing scatters the cards on a single paused timeline that is played forwards and reversed, and releasing hands the row over to a plugin-free inertial throw.Build this as a React component in my project. Match my existing conventions —file layout, styling system, and naming — rather than the ones implied below.Everything after this line is specification, not code to copy verbatim.## What it doesAn endless row that drifts, takes a drag and a throw, and scatters its cards while your hand is down.- Category: layout- Runtime cost: dom- Dependencies: gsap@^3.15.0## How it works1. The row is `N` copies of the children inside a `w-max` flex track. `period` is the measured width of one copy — `getBoundingClientRect().width`, not `offsetWidth`, because the latter rounds and half a pixel of error is half a pixel of gap that only ever shows at the seam. The copy count is `clamp(ceil(hostWidth / period) + 1, 2, 8)`, which is exactly enough that a translation bounded by one period can never expose the end of the track.2. Everything that moves the row adds to one number that is never corrected: the drift subtracts `speed * dt`, each `pointermove` adds `dx`, the release adds the throw distance. It walks off to -50000 and nothing cares, because the only consumer of it applies a modulo.3. That modulo lives in `gsap.quickTo`'s `modifiers`, which post-processes the value on its way to the target. It cannot feed back: `resetTo` advances the tween's start from its own `s + ratio * c` rather than re-reading the target, so the wrapped value is output-only. Wrapping in `onUpdate` instead makes the next retarget interpolate from a value the tween does not believe in, and the row lurches a whole period.4. For `x` in `[-period, 0)`, `mod(x, period) === x + period`, so `mod(x, period) - period === x`. The wrap is therefore the identity across the entire range the row normally occupies and only bites when the accumulator leaves it — the two sides of the boundary paint identical pixels, so there is nothing to snap.5. The gap is a trailing `margin-right` on each tile *inside* a copy rather than `gap` on the track. A track-level gap sits between copies too, so the measured copy width would no longer equal the wrap period and the seam would gain one gap of drift every lap.6. Release velocity is measured over a rolling ~70 ms window of `(accumulator, time)`, then projected with the `power3.out` identity: `p(t) = 1 - (1 - t)^3` has `p'(0) = 3`, so a tween of duration `D` covering `delta` departs at `3 * delta / D`. Retargeting by `v * D / 3` continues the gesture at exactly the speed the hand left, with the core library and no `InertiaPlugin`.7. The press scatter is one paused timeline built once and stored in a ref, `play()` on `pointerdown` and `reverse()` on the release path. Per-tile rotation and offset come from a seeded generator indexed by position *within* a copy, so every copy of a tile scatters identically and the duplication stays invisible while the cards move.## Constants — use these valuesThese are tuned. Each one has a reason; do not round them off or replace themwith values that "look cleaner".- `copies = clamp(ceil(hostWidth / period) + 1, 2, 8)` The `+ 1` is the copy that covers the wrap: with the translation bounded to one period, the window can start one full period into the track and still needs `hostWidth` of content after it. Drop it and the tail of the row shows background for part of every lap. The floor of 2 is the minimum that can hide a seam at all; the ceiling of 8 stops a one-word tile in a wide hero from producing hundreds of nodes.- `POWER3_OUT_SLOPE = 3` The initial derivative of `power3.out`, and the divisor in `delta = v * D / 3`. Exact, not tuned: change the follow tween's ease and this changes with it — `power2` needs 2, `power4` needs 4. Leave it at 3 against a different ease and every throw is off by a constant factor.- `smoothing = 0.5` Seconds the row takes to catch up with the pointer, and the `D` in the throw projection. Under ~0.2 s the row is welded to the finger and the throw is over before it registers; over ~0.8 s the lag between hand and content is large enough to read as dropped frames rather than as weight.- `speed = 60` Idle drift in px/s. Below ~20 the row looks frozen at a glance and the affordance is lost; above ~120 the text is unreadable at rest, which defeats the point of putting words in it. At 0 the ticker is never registered at all, so a parked marquee costs nothing per frame.- `VELOCITY_WINDOW = 0.07` Seconds of gesture history the release speed is averaged over. Shorter is effectively the last delta, which is noisy at 120 Hz and gives visibly different throws for identical gestures; much longer averages away a deliberate slow-down before release, so the row flies off when the user meant to place it.- `MAX_VELOCITY = 4000` px/s the measured speed is clamped to. A coalesced pointer batch, a tab switch mid-drag or a synthetic event can report tens of thousands; without the clamp one bad sample throws the row several periods, and the wrap makes the result look random rather than fast.- `MAX_THROW = 1200` Pixels one throw may carry. Roughly a screen and a half — far enough that a hard flick feels unbounded, close enough that the content the user was looking at is still findable when it stops.- `DRAG_THRESHOLD = 5` Pixels of travel before a press becomes a drag. Below ~3 the tremor in a normal tap counts as a drag and every tap on a card is swallowed; above ~10 a small deliberate nudge does nothing at all.- `scatter / spin = 6 (percent) / 10 (deg)` Half-ranges for the per-tile offset and rotation on press. The offset is a percentage of each tile's own size, so mixed tile widths scatter proportionally instead of the small ones flying off. Past ~15% and ~25° the tiles overlap their neighbours and the row stops reading as a row; below ~3% and ~5° the press produces no visible acknowledgement.- `ease: back.inOut(3) = 3` The overshoot of the scatter, applied at both ends because the same timeline is played and reversed. It is what makes the cards spring apart and spring back rather than easing politely; at 1 the overshoot is invisible, past ~5 the return visibly overshoots the resting layout and the row wobbles after release.## API```tsfunction DragMarquee(props: { children: ReactNode; speed?: number; gap?: number; smoothing?: number; scatter?: number; spin?: number; pressScale?: number; scatterDuration?: number; seed?: number | string; className?: string; tileClassName?: string; 'aria-label'?: string }): JSX.Element```- `children: ReactNode` One tile per child. The whole set is duplicated as many times as the width needs.- `speed: number` — default `60` Idle drift in px/s. Positive drifts left; 0 parks the row and skips the ticker entirely.- `gap: number` — default `24` Pixels between tiles, applied inside a copy so the spacing also spans the seam.- `smoothing: number` — default `0.5` Seconds the row takes to catch up with the pointer. Doubles as the throw duration.- `scatter: number` — default `6` Scatter distance on press, as a percentage of each tile's own size.- `spin: number` — default `10` Half-range of the per-tile rotation on press, in degrees.- `pressScale: number` — default `0.95` Tile scale while the pointer is down.- `scatterDuration: number` — default `0.5` Seconds for the scatter out, and the same again back.- `seed: number | string` — default `'drag-marquee'` Seeds the scatter. The same seed gives the same arrangement on server and client.- `className: string` Merged onto the drag surface.- `tileClassName: string` Merged onto every tile. Size the items here.- `aria-label: string` — default `'Marquee'` Label for the focusable row, which also takes left and right arrow keys.## Reference implementation of the coreThis is the part that is hard to get right. Adapt it; do not treat the rest ofthe component as fixed.```tsx/** The only place the track's transform is written. */const paint = useCallback(() => { const track = trackRef.current; if (!track) return; track.style.transform = `translate3d(${proxyRef.current.x.toFixed(2)}px, 0px, 0px)`;}, []);/** * Move the accumulator to `value`. With motion allowed this retargets the * follow tween — `quickTo` reuses one tween and one `PropTween` rather than * allocating a tween per frame — and the wrap happens in its modifier. With * reduced motion there is no tween, so the wrap is applied here instead. */const push = useCallback( (value: number) => { rawRef.current = value; const xTo = xToRef.current; if (xTo) { xTo(value); return; } const period = periodRef.current; proxyRef.current.x = period < 1 ? 0 : mod(value, period) - period; paint(); }, [paint],);/** * One follow tween for the life of the component. The wrap lives in * `modifiers`, which post-processes the value on its way to the target and * never feeds back: `resetTo` advances the tween's start from its own * `s + ratio * c`, not by re-reading `proxy.x`. Put the wrap anywhere else * — in `onUpdate`, say — and the next retarget interpolates from a value the * tween does not believe in, and the row lurches a full period. */useEffect(() => { const proxy = proxyRef.current; if (reduced) { xToRef.current = null; return; } const xTo = gsap.quickTo(proxy, 'x', { duration: smoothing, ease: 'power3', modifiers: { // Reads the ref, so a resize changes the period without rebuilding // the tween — rebuilding mid-throw would restart the ease from rest. x: (value: number) => { const period = periodRef.current; return period < 1 ? 0 : mod(value, period) - period; }, }, onUpdate: paint, }); xToRef.current = xTo; return () => { xToRef.current = null; gsap.killTweensOf(proxy); };}, [reduced, smoothing, paint]);useEffect(() => { const host = hostRef.current; if (!host) return; let pointerId: number | null = null; let lastX = 0; let pressX = 0; let pressY = 0; let moved = false; let swallowClick = false; /** Rolling window: the accumulator and clock at the start of the window. */ let sampleRaw = 0; let sampleTime = 0; const now = () => performance.now() / 1000; const onPointerDown = (e: PointerEvent) => { // One pointer owns the row. A second finger arriving mid-throw would // otherwise reset the origin and the row would jump. if (pointerId !== null || !e.isPrimary) return; if (e.pointerType === 'mouse' && e.button !== 0) return; pointerId = e.pointerId; lastX = e.clientX; pressX = e.clientX; pressY = e.clientY; moved = false; sampleRaw = rawRef.current; sampleTime = now(); pressedRef.current = true; // Capture on press, not once the threshold is crossed: by then the // pointer may already have left the element and `pointermove` would have // stopped arriving. host.setPointerCapture(e.pointerId); // Scatter on press, like a physical stack of cards being pinned — the // press, not the drag, is what the eye reads as "I have hold of this". scatterRef.current?.play(); }; const onPointerMove = (e: PointerEvent) => { if (pointerId !== e.pointerId) return; const dx = e.clientX - lastX; lastX = e.clientX; if (!moved) { if (Math.hypot(e.clientX - pressX, e.clientY - pressY) < DRAG_THRESHOLD) return; moved = true; } push(rawRef.current + dx); // Retire the velocity window once it is full. Measuring over a window // rather than off the last delta is what stops "drag, pause, lift" from // throwing the row: with no movement there are no events, the window // never advances, and the measured speed decays toward zero on its own. const t = now(); if (t - sampleTime > VELOCITY_WINDOW) { sampleRaw = rawRef.current; sampleTime = t; } }; /** * Idempotent. Called from `pointerup`, `pointercancel` and * `lostpointercapture`, all three of which can be the last event a gesture * produces, and at least one of which always arrives — including when the * pointer is released outside the window or the OS takes it away for a * gesture of its own. Guarding on `pointerId` makes the extra calls no-ops * instead of a double throw, and it is what stops a drag that ended * off-screen from leaving the row stuck mid-throw with the cards still * scattered. */ const finish = (e: PointerEvent) => { if (pointerId !== e.pointerId) return; const id = pointerId; pointerId = null; pressedRef.current = false; const elapsed = now() - sampleTime; const velocity = moved && elapsed > 0 ? clamp((rawRef.current - sampleRaw) / elapsed, -MAX_VELOCITY, MAX_VELOCITY) : 0; swallowClick = moved; moved = false; if (host.hasPointerCapture(id)) host.releasePointerCapture(id); scatterRef.current?.reverse(); if (velocity !== 0) { // v·D/3 is the distance a `power3.out` of duration D covers when it // departs at v. Retargeting by exactly that hands the row over from // the finger without a change of speed. push( rawRef.current + clamp((velocity * smoothing) / POWER3_OUT_SLOPE, -MAX_THROW, MAX_THROW), ); } }; // Capture phase, ahead of any child's own handler. A drag ends with a // `click` on whatever happens to be under the pointer, so without this the // gesture that scrolls the row also activates a card. const onClick = (e: MouseEvent) => { if (!swallowClick) return; swallowClick = false; e.preventDefault(); e.stopPropagation(); }; const onKeyDown = (e: KeyboardEvent) => { const direction = e.key === 'ArrowRight' ? 1 : e.key === 'ArrowLeft' ? -1 : 0; if (direction === 0) return; e.preventDefault(); const step = perCopy > 0 ? periodRef.current / perCopy : periodRef.current; push(rawRef.current + direction * step); }; host.addEventListener('pointerdown', onPointerDown); host.addEventListener('pointermove', onPointerMove); host.addEventListener('pointerup', finish); host.addEventListener('pointercancel', finish); host.addEventListener('lostpointercapture', finish); host.addEventListener('click', onClick, true); host.addEventListener('keydown', onKeyDown); return () => { host.removeEventListener('pointerdown', onPointerDown); host.removeEventListener('pointermove', onPointerMove); host.removeEventListener('pointerup', finish); host.removeEventListener('pointercancel', finish); host.removeEventListener('lostpointercapture', finish); host.removeEventListener('click', onClick, true); host.removeEventListener('keydown', onKeyDown); if (pointerId !== null && host.hasPointerCapture(pointerId)) { host.releasePointerCapture(pointerId); } pointerId = null; pressedRef.current = false; };}, [push, smoothing, perCopy]);```## RequirementsThese are not optional. A version of this component that skips any of them isnot finished.**Cleanup.** Removes `pointerdown`, `pointermove`, `pointerup`, `pointercancel`, `lostpointercapture`, the capture-phase `click` and `keydown`; releases pointer capture if a gesture is still live at unmount; removes the drift callback from `gsap.ticker`; kills the tweens on the proxy object so an in-flight throw cannot call `onUpdate` against a detached track; and reverts the `gsap.context` holding the scatter timeline, which also restores the tiles' inline transforms. Both shared resize observers and the shared intersection observer unregister.**Reduced motion.** Dragging is unchanged — it is the user's own motion, and tracking it is the component. Everything the component would have animated by itself is dropped: the idle drift is never registered on the ticker, the follow tween is never created (so the row is written straight to the wrapped position, one-to-one with the pointer, and a release does not throw), and the scatter timeline is not built, so pressing moves nothing but the row. Arrow keys still step one tile, instantly.**Frame-rate independence.** Any smoothing must be a function of delta time.`x += (target - x) * 0.1` converges twice as fast at 120 Hz as at 60 Hz; use`x = target + (x - target) * Math.pow(smoothing, dt)` instead, where`smoothing` is the fraction of the gap remaining after one second.**Strict mode.** Assume effects run twice in development. Setup must beidempotent and teardown must fully undo it.## Known pitfalls — avoid these specifically- Correcting the offset with `if (x < -period) x += period` instead of a modulo. It only ever undoes one period, so a fast flick, a coalesced pointer batch, or a tab that was backgrounded for a second leaves the row several periods out and it jumps to the wrong tile. `mod` is total: any magnitude, one step, right answer.- Applying the wrap in `onUpdate` rather than in `modifiers`. The tween then interpolates from a start value it computed internally toward a target the wrap has already moved, so the next retarget travels a whole extra period. `modifiers` is post-processing on the way out and never feeds back into the tween's own bookkeeping.- Putting the gap on the track with `gap` or `space-x`. It lands between copies as well as between tiles, so the measured copy width no longer equals the wrap period; the seam gains one gap per lap and slowly slides out of register. The gap belongs inside the copy, as a trailing margin on every tile.- Measuring the period with `offsetWidth`. It rounds to whole pixels, and a sub-pixel error in the period is a permanent sub-pixel misalignment at the seam that shows as a hairline flicker once per lap.- Hard-coding two copies. Two is enough only while one copy is at least as wide as the container; a short tile set in a wide hero runs out of content mid-lap and the row ends in empty space. The count has to come from the measured width.- Randomising the scatter per DOM node. The duplicates are the whole trick, and the instant the cards move with different rotations the eye reads them as different content — the seam becomes obvious. Index the seed by position within a copy, so copy 3 tile 5 matches copy 1 tile 5.- Rebuilding the scatter timeline per press, or putting the pressed flag in the `useGsap` deps. `revert()` strips the inline transforms GSAP wrote, so the reverse starts from the untouched stylesheet values and animates nowhere — the cards stay scattered. One paused timeline, `play()` and `reverse()` from the pointer handlers.- Leaving the idle drift running during a drag. The row creeps out from under the finger, which is precisely what one-to-one tracking exists to prevent; over a slow careful drag the divergence is several tiles.- Calling `setPointerCapture` only after the drag threshold is crossed. A fast gesture has already left the element by then, `pointermove` stops arriving, and the row sticks at the offset it had when the pointer crossed the boundary.- Handling only `pointerup`. Release outside the window, or let the OS claim the gesture, and no `pointerup` arrives: the row stays captured, the drift never resumes, and the cards stay scattered mid-throw. `pointercancel` and `lostpointercapture` route to the same idempotent finish, guarded on the stored `pointerId` so the duplicate is a no-op rather than a second throw.- Letting the click through after a drag. The gesture ends with a `click` on whichever card is under the pointer, so dragging the row also opens a project. It is swallowed in the capture phase, once, and only when the gesture actually moved.## Notes- The follow tween is retargeted, not recreated: `gsap.quickTo` keeps one tween and one `PropTween` alive and calls `resetTo` on it, so a marquee dragged for ten seconds allocates nothing per frame.- The drift is registered on `gsap.ticker` rather than a second rAF loop, so the target and the tween that chases it advance in the same tick. On separate loops the row is one frame stale every other frame, which reads as a faint shimmer at speed.- Because the drift keeps retargeting the same tween after release, the throw decays exponentially with a time constant of `smoothing / 3` rather than tracing a literal `power3` curve. The departure speed is still exactly the hand's, which is the part the eye judges.- Only the first copy is exposed to assistive technology; the rest carry `aria-hidden`, so a screen reader reads the list once rather than four times.## Definition of doneThe row drifts on its own. Grab it and it follows your hand exactly, with no creep in the drift direction, and the cards tilt and shrink apart the instant you press — then settle back when you let go. Flick and release: it coasts on at the speed you left, slows, and rejoins the drift with no visible seam or jump. Drag several screens' worth in one fast swipe and the tiles stay in order — nothing teleports. Watch one tile go off the left edge and it reappears on the right at the same spacing as every other gap. Release the pointer outside the browser window and the row keeps drifting instead of freezing scattered. Release over a card and no click reaches it; tap without moving and it does. Resize the container narrower and wider — the seam never appears. Scroll it out of view and the drift stops until it is back.When you are finished, tell me which of the requirements above you implementedand where, so I can check them.
344 lines · 3560 words
04
Source
8 files, exactly as installed.
installs tocomponents/motion/drag-marquee.tsx
'use client';import gsap from 'gsap';import { Children, isValidElement, useCallback, useEffect, useRef, useState, type ReactNode,} from 'react';import { cn } from '@/lib/utils';import { useGsap } from '@/hooks/use-gsap';import { useInView } from '@/hooks/use-in-view';import { useReducedMotion } from '@/hooks/use-reduced-motion';import { useResizeObserver } from '@/hooks/use-resize-observer';import { clamp } from '@/lib/damp';import { createRng } from '@/lib/prng';import { mod } from '@/lib/wrap';/* ========================================================================== Drag Marquee -------------------------------------------------------------------------- A row that drifts forever, that you can grab and throw, and that scatters its cards while your hand is down. Three ideas hold it together. 1. **One unwrapped number.** Everything — the idle drift, the drag, the throw — adds to a single accumulator that is never corrected. It walks off to -50000 and nobody cares. The wrap happens once, in the tween's `modifiers`, as `mod(x, period) - period`. Because a true modulo is total, a delta of 4.3 periods in one frame lands in exactly the right place; the usual `if (x < -period) x += period` correction only ever undoes one period, so a fast flick or a tab that was backgrounded for a second lands the row on the wrong tile and the seam tears. 2. **The wrap is invisible on the near side.** For `x` already inside `[-period, 0)`, `mod(x, period) - period === x`, so the modifier is the identity in the range the row normally lives in and only bites when the accumulator leaves it. Nothing snaps at the boundary because the two sides of the boundary paint the same pixels. 3. **Enough copies that the seam is never on screen.** `period` is the measured width of one copy of the children, gap included, and the row holds `ceil(hostWidth / period) + 1` copies. With `x` bounded to one period, the visible window can never run past the last copy. The throw needs no plugin: `power3.out` is `p(t) = 1 - (1 - t)^3`, so `p'(0) = 3`, and a tween of duration `D` that covers `Δ` leaves at `3Δ/D` px/s. Retargeting the follow tween to `x + v·D/3` on release therefore continues the gesture at the exact speed the hand left it. ========================================================================== */export interface DragMarqueeProps { /** One tile per child. The set is duplicated as many times as it takes. */ children: ReactNode; /** Idle drift in px/s. Positive drifts left; 0 parks the row. */ speed?: number; /** Pixels between tiles. Applied inside a copy so it also spans the seam. */ gap?: number; /** Seconds the row takes to catch up with the pointer. Also the throw time. */ smoothing?: number; /** Scatter distance on press, as a percentage of each tile's own size. */ scatter?: number; /** Half-range of the per-tile rotation on press, in degrees. */ spin?: number; /** Tile scale while the pointer is down. */ pressScale?: number; /** Seconds of the scatter in and back out. */ scatterDuration?: number; /** Seeds the scatter. Same seed, same arrangement, on server and client. */ seed?: number | string; className?: string; /** Applied to every tile — size the items here. */ tileClassName?: string; 'aria-label'?: string;}const SPEED = 60;const GAP = 24;const SMOOTHING = 0.5;const SCATTER = 6;const SPIN = 10;const PRESS_SCALE = 0.95;const SCATTER_DURATION = 0.5;/** Initial slope of `power3.out`. `d/dt [1 - (1 - t)^3]` at t = 0. */const POWER3_OUT_SLOPE = 3;/** Pixels of travel before a press counts as a drag rather than a tap. */const DRAG_THRESHOLD = 5;/** Seconds of gesture history the release velocity is measured over. */const VELOCITY_WINDOW = 0.07;/** px/s. Above this a fling is a mis-measurement, not a throw. */const MAX_VELOCITY = 4000;/** Hard cap on how far one throw may carry, in pixels. */const MAX_THROW = 1200;/** * Two copies is the minimum that can hide a seam; eight is a guard against a * one-word tile in a wide hero producing hundreds of nodes. */const MIN_COPIES = 2;const MAX_COPIES = 8;export function DragMarquee({ children, speed = SPEED, gap = GAP, smoothing = SMOOTHING, scatter = SCATTER, spin = SPIN, pressScale = PRESS_SCALE, scatterDuration = SCATTER_DURATION, seed = 'drag-marquee', className, tileClassName, 'aria-label': ariaLabel = 'Marquee',}: DragMarqueeProps) { const hostRef = useRef<HTMLDivElement>(null); const trackRef = useRef<HTMLDivElement>(null); const copyRef = useRef<HTMLDivElement>(null); /** The unwrapped accumulator. Drift, drag and throw all add to this. */ const rawRef = useRef(0); /** What the tween actually animates. Its `x` is already wrapped. */ const proxyRef = useRef({ x: 0 }); /** Measured width of one copy, gap included. Read live inside the modifier. */ const periodRef = useRef(0); const xToRef = useRef<ReturnType<typeof gsap.quickTo> | null>(null); const scatterRef = useRef<gsap.core.Timeline | null>(null); const pressedRef = useRef(false); const [copies, setCopies] = useState(MIN_COPIES); const reduced = useReducedMotion(); const hostSize = useResizeObserver(hostRef); const copySize = useResizeObserver(copyRef); const { inView } = useInView(hostRef); const tiles = Children.toArray(children); const perCopy = tiles.length; // #region critical /** The only place the track's transform is written. */ const paint = useCallback(() => { const track = trackRef.current; if (!track) return; track.style.transform = `translate3d(${proxyRef.current.x.toFixed(2)}px, 0px, 0px)`; }, []); /** * Move the accumulator to `value`. With motion allowed this retargets the * follow tween — `quickTo` reuses one tween and one `PropTween` rather than * allocating a tween per frame — and the wrap happens in its modifier. With * reduced motion there is no tween, so the wrap is applied here instead. */ const push = useCallback( (value: number) => { rawRef.current = value; const xTo = xToRef.current; if (xTo) { xTo(value); return; } const period = periodRef.current; proxyRef.current.x = period < 1 ? 0 : mod(value, period) - period; paint(); }, [paint], ); /** * One follow tween for the life of the component. The wrap lives in * `modifiers`, which post-processes the value on its way to the target and * never feeds back: `resetTo` advances the tween's start from its own * `s + ratio * c`, not by re-reading `proxy.x`. Put the wrap anywhere else * — in `onUpdate`, say — and the next retarget interpolates from a value the * tween does not believe in, and the row lurches a full period. */ useEffect(() => { const proxy = proxyRef.current; if (reduced) { xToRef.current = null; return; } const xTo = gsap.quickTo(proxy, 'x', { duration: smoothing, ease: 'power3', modifiers: { // Reads the ref, so a resize changes the period without rebuilding // the tween — rebuilding mid-throw would restart the ease from rest. x: (value: number) => { const period = periodRef.current; return period < 1 ? 0 : mod(value, period) - period; }, }, onUpdate: paint, }); xToRef.current = xTo; return () => { xToRef.current = null; gsap.killTweensOf(proxy); }; }, [reduced, smoothing, paint]); useEffect(() => { const host = hostRef.current; if (!host) return; let pointerId: number | null = null; let lastX = 0; let pressX = 0; let pressY = 0; let moved = false; let swallowClick = false; /** Rolling window: the accumulator and clock at the start of the window. */ let sampleRaw = 0; let sampleTime = 0; const now = () => performance.now() / 1000; const onPointerDown = (e: PointerEvent) => { // One pointer owns the row. A second finger arriving mid-throw would // otherwise reset the origin and the row would jump. if (pointerId !== null || !e.isPrimary) return; if (e.pointerType === 'mouse' && e.button !== 0) return; pointerId = e.pointerId; lastX = e.clientX; pressX = e.clientX; pressY = e.clientY; moved = false; sampleRaw = rawRef.current; sampleTime = now(); pressedRef.current = true; // Capture on press, not once the threshold is crossed: by then the // pointer may already have left the element and `pointermove` would have // stopped arriving. host.setPointerCapture(e.pointerId); // Scatter on press, like a physical stack of cards being pinned — the // press, not the drag, is what the eye reads as "I have hold of this". scatterRef.current?.play(); }; const onPointerMove = (e: PointerEvent) => { if (pointerId !== e.pointerId) return; const dx = e.clientX - lastX; lastX = e.clientX; if (!moved) { if (Math.hypot(e.clientX - pressX, e.clientY - pressY) < DRAG_THRESHOLD) return; moved = true; } push(rawRef.current + dx); // Retire the velocity window once it is full. Measuring over a window // rather than off the last delta is what stops "drag, pause, lift" from // throwing the row: with no movement there are no events, the window // never advances, and the measured speed decays toward zero on its own. const t = now(); if (t - sampleTime > VELOCITY_WINDOW) { sampleRaw = rawRef.current; sampleTime = t; } }; /** * Idempotent. Called from `pointerup`, `pointercancel` and * `lostpointercapture`, all three of which can be the last event a gesture * produces, and at least one of which always arrives — including when the * pointer is released outside the window or the OS takes it away for a * gesture of its own. Guarding on `pointerId` makes the extra calls no-ops * instead of a double throw, and it is what stops a drag that ended * off-screen from leaving the row stuck mid-throw with the cards still * scattered. */ const finish = (e: PointerEvent) => { if (pointerId !== e.pointerId) return; const id = pointerId; pointerId = null; pressedRef.current = false; const elapsed = now() - sampleTime; const velocity = moved && elapsed > 0 ? clamp((rawRef.current - sampleRaw) / elapsed, -MAX_VELOCITY, MAX_VELOCITY) : 0; swallowClick = moved; moved = false; if (host.hasPointerCapture(id)) host.releasePointerCapture(id); scatterRef.current?.reverse(); if (velocity !== 0) { // v·D/3 is the distance a `power3.out` of duration D covers when it // departs at v. Retargeting by exactly that hands the row over from // the finger without a change of speed. push( rawRef.current + clamp((velocity * smoothing) / POWER3_OUT_SLOPE, -MAX_THROW, MAX_THROW), ); } }; // Capture phase, ahead of any child's own handler. A drag ends with a // `click` on whatever happens to be under the pointer, so without this the // gesture that scrolls the row also activates a card. const onClick = (e: MouseEvent) => { if (!swallowClick) return; swallowClick = false; e.preventDefault(); e.stopPropagation(); }; const onKeyDown = (e: KeyboardEvent) => { const direction = e.key === 'ArrowRight' ? 1 : e.key === 'ArrowLeft' ? -1 : 0; if (direction === 0) return; e.preventDefault(); const step = perCopy > 0 ? periodRef.current / perCopy : periodRef.current; push(rawRef.current + direction * step); }; host.addEventListener('pointerdown', onPointerDown); host.addEventListener('pointermove', onPointerMove); host.addEventListener('pointerup', finish); host.addEventListener('pointercancel', finish); host.addEventListener('lostpointercapture', finish); host.addEventListener('click', onClick, true); host.addEventListener('keydown', onKeyDown); return () => { host.removeEventListener('pointerdown', onPointerDown); host.removeEventListener('pointermove', onPointerMove); host.removeEventListener('pointerup', finish); host.removeEventListener('pointercancel', finish); host.removeEventListener('lostpointercapture', finish); host.removeEventListener('click', onClick, true); host.removeEventListener('keydown', onKeyDown); if (pointerId !== null && host.hasPointerCapture(pointerId)) { host.releasePointerCapture(pointerId); } pointerId = null; pressedRef.current = false; }; }, [push, smoothing, perCopy]); // #endregion critical /** * Measure one copy and decide how many there need to be. * `getBoundingClientRect`, not `offsetWidth`: the latter rounds to whole * pixels, and half a pixel of error in the period is half a pixel of gap * that only ever shows up at the seam. */ useEffect(() => { const host = hostRef.current; const copy = copyRef.current; if (!host || !copy) return; const width = copy.getBoundingClientRect().width; if (width < 1) return; periodRef.current = width; setCopies(clamp(Math.ceil(host.clientWidth / width) + 1, MIN_COPIES, MAX_COPIES)); }, [hostSize.width, copySize.width, perCopy, gap]); /** * Idle drift. `gsap.ticker` rather than a second rAF loop so the drift and * the follow tween are updated in the same tick — on separate loops the row * is one frame stale every other frame, which reads as a shimmer. */ useEffect(() => { // Off-screen rows do not need to be redrawn 60 times a second. Where // there is no IntersectionObserver at all the gate opens rather than // closes — a missing API should cost battery, not the animation. const gated = typeof IntersectionObserver !== 'undefined' && !inView; if (reduced || speed === 0 || gated) return; const tick = (_time: number, deltaTime: number) => { // The drift stops while the pointer is down. Left running, the row // creeps out from under the finger, which is exactly the thing the // one-to-one tracking is there to avoid. if (pressedRef.current) return; push(rawRef.current - (deltaTime / 1000) * speed); }; gsap.ticker.add(tick); return () => { gsap.ticker.remove(tick); }; }, [reduced, speed, inView, push]); /** * The scatter. One paused timeline, played forwards on press and reversed on * release — never rebuilt per press. A press/release flag in the deps would * make `revert()` strip the inline transforms GSAP wrote, so the reverse * would start from the stylesheet default and animate nowhere. */ useGsap( gsap, () => { const track = trackRef.current; if (!track || reduced || perCopy === 0) return; const nodes = Array.from(track.querySelectorAll<HTMLElement>('[data-kx-tile]')); if (nodes.length === 0) return; // Seeded, and indexed by position *within* a copy, so every copy of a // tile scatters identically. Per-node randomness makes the duplicate // visible the moment the cards move. const rng = createRng(seed); const spread = Array.from({ length: perCopy }, () => ({ rotate: (rng() - 0.5) * 2 * spin, x: (rng() - 0.5) * 2 * scatter, y: (rng() - 0.5) * 2 * scatter, })); const at = (i: number) => spread[i % perCopy]; const tl = gsap.timeline({ paused: true }); tl.to(nodes, { rotate: (i: number) => at(i)?.rotate ?? 0, xPercent: (i: number) => at(i)?.x ?? 0, yPercent: (i: number) => at(i)?.y ?? 0, scale: pressScale, duration: scatterDuration, // `back.inOut` overshoots at both ends, so the cards spring apart and // spring back rather than easing politely in both directions. ease: 'back.inOut(3)', }); scatterRef.current = tl; return () => { scatterRef.current = null; }; }, hostRef, [reduced, copies, perCopy, scatter, spin, pressScale, scatterDuration, seed], ); const copyIndices = Array.from({ length: copies }, (_unused, i) => i); return ( <div ref={hostRef} role="group" aria-label={ariaLabel} tabIndex={0} className={cn( // `touch-action: none`, not `pan-y`: on a phone the browser claims the // first 10 px of a horizontal drag for a scroll unless the element // says outright that it wants every pointer event. 'relative h-full w-full touch-none select-none overflow-hidden', 'cursor-grab active:cursor-grabbing focus-visible:outline-none', className, )} > <div ref={trackRef} className="flex h-full w-max flex-nowrap items-center will-change-transform" > {copyIndices.map((copyIndex) => ( <div key={copyIndex} ref={copyIndex === 0 ? copyRef : undefined} // Only the first copy is real content. The rest are wallpaper, and // a screen reader that reads the list four times is a bug. aria-hidden={copyIndex > 0 || undefined} className="flex shrink-0 flex-nowrap items-center" > {tiles.map((tile, i) => ( <div key={isValidElement(tile) && tile.key !== null ? tile.key : i} data-kx-tile="" // The gap is a trailing margin inside the copy rather than // `gap` on the track: a track-level gap sits *between* copies // too, so the measured copy width no longer equals the wrap // period and the seam gains one gap of drift per lap. style={{ marginRight: `${gap}px` }} className={cn('shrink-0', tileClassName)} > {tile} </div> ))} </div> ))} </div> </div> );}
/* ========================================================================== Frame-rate-independent interpolation. -------------------------------------------------------------------------- The everywhere-idiom `x += (target - x) * 0.1` is a bug: it converges twice as fast on a 120 Hz display as on a 60 Hz one, so the same code feels different on different hardware and visibly speeds up when the browser drops frames. `damp` fixes it by raising the retention factor to the power of elapsed time, which is the exact continuous form of the same curve. ========================================================================== *//** * Fraction of the remaining distance to close this frame. * * @param smoothing Fraction of the gap that REMAINS after one second. * Smaller is snappier. 0.001 ≈ very fast, 0.01 ≈ fast, 0.1 ≈ soft, * 0.5 ≈ slow drift. * @param dt Seconds elapsed since the previous frame. */export function dampFactor(smoothing: number, dt: number): number { return 1 - Math.pow(smoothing, dt);}/** Move `current` toward `target` at a rate independent of frame rate. */export function damp( current: number, target: number, smoothing: number, dt: number,): number { return current + (target - current) * dampFactor(smoothing, dt);}/** * The per-frame lerp constant an author measured at 60fps, converted into the * `smoothing` argument `damp` wants. Lets a source that says "0.1 per frame" * be ported without re-tuning by eye: * * damp(x, t, perFrameToSmoothing(0.1), dt) */export function perFrameToSmoothing(alpha: number, baseFps = 60): number { return Math.pow(1 - alpha, baseFps);}export function lerp(a: number, b: number, t: number): number { return a + (b - a) * t;}export function clamp(v: number, min: number, max: number): number { return v < min ? min : v > max ? max : v;}export function inverseLerp(a: number, b: number, v: number): number { return a === b ? 0 : (v - a) / (b - a);}export function mapRange( v: number, inMin: number, inMax: number, outMin: number, outMax: number, doClamp = true,): number { const t = inverseLerp(inMin, inMax, v); const r = lerp(outMin, outMax, doClamp ? clamp(t, 0, 1) : t); return r;}/** GLSL `smoothstep`, same semantics, for parity between JS and shader code. */export function smoothstep(edge0: number, edge1: number, x: number): number { const t = clamp(inverseLerp(edge0, edge1, x), 0, 1); return t * t * (3 - 2 * t);}/** * Gaussian falloff, `exp(-d²)`. Yields 1.000 / 0.368 / 0.018 / 0.0001 at * distances 0 / 1 / 2 / 3 — a continuous focus scalar with no thresholds and * no branches, which is why carousels that use it feel analogue rather than * stepped. */export function gaussian(distance: number, falloff = 1): number { const d = distance * falloff; return Math.exp(-(d * d));}
/* ========================================================================== Seeded randomness. -------------------------------------------------------------------------- `Math.random()` in a particle field means the server and the client disagree, which React reports as a hydration mismatch, and it means the layout is different on every reload so a visual regression is invisible. Every component that scatters something uses a seeded generator instead. ========================================================================== */export type Rng = () => number;/** * mulberry32 — 32-bit, fast, and good enough for visual scatter. Returns a * function yielding floats in [0, 1). */export function mulberry32(seed: number): Rng { let a = seed >>> 0; return function next() { a = (a + 0x6d2b79f5) >>> 0; let t = a; t = Math.imul(t ^ (t >>> 15), t | 1); t ^= t + Math.imul(t ^ (t >>> 7), t | 61); return ((t ^ (t >>> 14)) >>> 0) / 4294967296; };}/** Turn any string into a 32-bit seed, so `seed="hero"` is reproducible. */export function hashSeed(input: string): number { let h = 2166136261 >>> 0; for (let i = 0; i < input.length; i++) { h ^= input.charCodeAt(i); h = Math.imul(h, 16777619); } return h >>> 0;}export function createRng(seed: number | string): Rng { return mulberry32(typeof seed === 'string' ? hashSeed(seed) : seed);}export function randRange(rng: Rng, min: number, max: number): number { return min + rng() * (max - min);}export function randInt(rng: Rng, min: number, maxExclusive: number): number { return Math.floor(randRange(rng, min, maxExclusive));}/** * Uniform point on a unit sphere. Naive angle-pairing clusters at the poles; * this inverts the cosine so density is even. */export function randOnSphere(rng: Rng): [number, number, number] { const u = rng() * 2 - 1; const theta = rng() * Math.PI * 2; const r = Math.sqrt(1 - u * u); return [r * Math.cos(theta), r * Math.sin(theta), u];}/** Uniform point in a unit disc — `sqrt` prevents crowding at the centre. */export function randInDisc(rng: Rng): [number, number] { const r = Math.sqrt(rng()); const theta = rng() * Math.PI * 2; return [r * Math.cos(theta), r * Math.sin(theta)];}/** In-place Fisher-Yates using the supplied generator. */export function shuffle<T>(rng: Rng, arr: T[]): T[] { for (let i = arr.length - 1; i > 0; i--) { const j = randInt(rng, 0, i + 1); const a = arr[i] as T; const b = arr[j] as T; arr[i] = b; arr[j] = a; } return arr;}
'use client';import { useEffect, useRef, type DependencyList, type RefObject } from 'react';/* ========================================================================== gsap.context() with the teardown wired up. -------------------------------------------------------------------------- Every animation, ScrollTrigger and SplitText created inside the callback is recorded by the context and killed by `ctx.revert()`. `revert()` — not `kill()` — is the one that also restores inline styles GSAP wrote, which is what stops a component from unmounting mid-tween and leaving a stray `transform` on a DOM node that React then reuses. Under React 19 StrictMode every effect runs twice in development. Without a context that reverts, you get two ScrollTriggers on the same element, each scrubbing the same property, and a 2x-speed animation that only reproduces in dev. ========================================================================== */type ContextFunc = (context: { add: (fn: () => void) => void; [key: string]: unknown;}) => void | (() => void);interface GsapLike { context: ( fn: ContextFunc, scope?: Element | string | object, ) => { revert: () => void };}/** * Runs `callback` inside a `gsap.context()` scoped to `scope`, reverting on * unmount and whenever `deps` change. * * `gsap` is passed in rather than imported so this hook carries no dependency * of its own — the component that animates is the one that imports GSAP. */export function useGsap( gsap: GsapLike, callback: ContextFunc, scope: RefObject<Element | null>, deps: DependencyList = [],): void { const callbackRef = useRef(callback); callbackRef.current = callback; useEffect(() => { const el = scope.current; if (!el) return; const ctx = gsap.context((self) => callbackRef.current(self), el); return () => ctx.revert(); // `callback` is deliberately excluded: it is held in a ref so callers do // not have to memoise it. Re-run by changing `deps`. // eslint-disable-next-line react-hooks/exhaustive-deps }, [gsap, scope, ...deps]);}
'use client';import { useEffect, useRef, useState, type RefObject } from 'react';/* ========================================================================== IntersectionObserver, sharing one observer per option set. -------------------------------------------------------------------------- A hundred cards each constructing their own observer is a hundred observers the compositor has to service. Keying a shared observer by its options collapses that to one per distinct configuration — in practice, two or three for the whole site. ========================================================================== */export interface InViewState { inView: boolean; /** 0-1. The preview slot allocator ranks candidates by this. */ ratio: number;}export interface UseInViewOptions { root?: Element | null; rootMargin?: string; /** Single number or list, same meaning as the native option. */ threshold?: number | number[]; /** Stop observing after the first time it becomes visible. */ once?: boolean;}type Entry = { observer: IntersectionObserver; handlers: Map<Element, (e: IntersectionObserverEntry) => void>;};const pools = new Map<string, Entry>();function poolFor(options: UseInViewOptions): Entry { const key = JSON.stringify({ rootMargin: options.rootMargin ?? '0px', threshold: options.threshold ?? 0, }); const existing = pools.get(key); if (existing) return existing; const handlers = new Map<Element, (e: IntersectionObserverEntry) => void>(); const observer = new IntersectionObserver( (entries) => { for (const entry of entries) handlers.get(entry.target)?.(entry); }, { root: options.root ?? null, rootMargin: options.rootMargin ?? '0px', threshold: options.threshold ?? 0, }, ); const created: Entry = { observer, handlers }; pools.set(key, created); return created;}export function useInView( ref: RefObject<Element | null>, options: UseInViewOptions = {},): InViewState { const [state, setState] = useState<InViewState>({ inView: false, ratio: 0 }); const { root = null, rootMargin = '0px', once = false } = options; const thresholdKey = JSON.stringify(options.threshold ?? 0); const done = useRef(false); useEffect(() => { const el = ref.current; if (!el || typeof IntersectionObserver === 'undefined') return; if (once && done.current) return; const pool = poolFor({ root, rootMargin, threshold: JSON.parse(thresholdKey) as number | number[], }); const handle = (entry: IntersectionObserverEntry) => { setState({ inView: entry.isIntersecting, ratio: entry.intersectionRatio }); if (once && entry.isIntersecting) { done.current = true; pool.handlers.delete(el); pool.observer.unobserve(el); } }; pool.handlers.set(el, handle); pool.observer.observe(el); return () => { pool.handlers.delete(el); pool.observer.unobserve(el); }; }, [ref, root, rootMargin, thresholdKey, once]); return state;}
'use client';import { useSyncExternalStore } from 'react';/* ========================================================================== prefers-reduced-motion, SSR-safe. -------------------------------------------------------------------------- useSyncExternalStore rather than useState + useEffect: the server snapshot is an explicit `false`, so the markup React renders on the server and the markup it hydrates with agree, and the real value lands in the same commit as hydration instead of one frame later. A useEffect version flashes the animated variant before removing it — the exact thing the user asked not to see. Reduced motion is not "duration: 0". For most components here it means a different render: the final state, a static poster, or a paused frame. ========================================================================== */const QUERY = '(prefers-reduced-motion: reduce)';function subscribe(onChange: () => void) { if (typeof window === 'undefined' || !window.matchMedia) return () => {}; const mql = window.matchMedia(QUERY); mql.addEventListener('change', onChange); return () => mql.removeEventListener('change', onChange);}function getSnapshot() { if (typeof window === 'undefined' || !window.matchMedia) return false; return window.matchMedia(QUERY).matches;}function getServerSnapshot() { return false;}export function useReducedMotion(): boolean { return useSyncExternalStore(subscribe, getSnapshot, getServerSnapshot);}/** Generic media-query hook, same SSR guarantees. */export function useMediaQuery(query: string): boolean { return useSyncExternalStore( (onChange) => { if (typeof window === 'undefined' || !window.matchMedia) return () => {}; const mql = window.matchMedia(query); mql.addEventListener('change', onChange); return () => mql.removeEventListener('change', onChange); }, () => { if (typeof window === 'undefined' || !window.matchMedia) return false; return window.matchMedia(query).matches; }, () => false, );}
'use client';import { useEffect, useState, type RefObject } from 'react';/* ========================================================================== Element size, from one shared ResizeObserver. -------------------------------------------------------------------------- Sized from the element rather than the window because a preview in a grid cell resizes when the grid reflows, not when the viewport does. Reading `window.innerWidth` is the reason so many canvas components are correct on load and wrong after a sidebar opens. ========================================================================== */export interface Size { width: number; height: number;}type Handler = (size: Size) => void;let observer: ResizeObserver | null = null;const handlers = new Map<Element, Handler>();function ensureObserver(): ResizeObserver | null { if (typeof ResizeObserver === 'undefined') return null; observer ??= new ResizeObserver((entries) => { for (const entry of entries) { const box = entry.contentBoxSize?.[0]; const size: Size = box ? { width: box.inlineSize, height: box.blockSize } : { width: entry.contentRect.width, height: entry.contentRect.height }; handlers.get(entry.target)?.(size); } }); return observer;}export function useResizeObserver(ref: RefObject<Element | null>): Size { const [size, setSize] = useState<Size>({ width: 0, height: 0 }); useEffect(() => { const el = ref.current; const ro = ensureObserver(); if (!el || !ro) return; // Seed synchronously: waiting for the first observer callback leaves one // frame where a canvas is sized 0x0, which some drivers log as an error. const rect = el.getBoundingClientRect(); setSize({ width: rect.width, height: rect.height }); handlers.set(el, (next) => setSize((prev) => prev.width === next.width && prev.height === next.height ? prev : next, ), ); ro.observe(el); return () => { handlers.delete(el); ro.unobserve(el); }; }, [ref]); return size;}
/* ========================================================================== Ring index arithmetic. -------------------------------------------------------------------------- Anything that loops — a drum carousel, an infinite marquee, a cylinder of image planes — needs to answer "how far is item i from position p" in a way that treats the sequence as a circle. A plain `i - p` says item 0 is 18 away from item 18 in a list of 19, when really it is 1 step back. ========================================================================== *//** True modulo. Unlike `%`, the result is never negative. */export function mod(n: number, m: number): number { return ((n % m) + m) % m;}/** * Shortest signed distance from `position` to index `i` around a ring of * `count` items. Result is in `(-count/2, count/2]`; negative means "behind". * * This one function is what makes a finite array behave like an infinite one. */export function wrappedOffset(i: number, position: number, count: number): number { if (count <= 0) return 0; let offset = mod(i - position, count); if (offset > count / 2) offset -= count; return offset;}/** Wrap `value` into `[min, max)`, e.g. an angle into `[-PI, PI)`. */export function wrapRange(value: number, min: number, max: number): number { const span = max - min; if (span <= 0) return min; return mod(value - min, span) + min;}/** Wrap an index into `[0, count)`. Accepts fractional and negative input. */export function wrapIndex(i: number, count: number): number { return count <= 0 ? 0 : mod(i, count);}/** * Shortest signed angular distance from `a` to `b` in radians, in `(-PI, PI]`. * Prevents a rotation tween from taking the long way round. */export function shortestAngle(a: number, b: number): number { return wrapRange(b - a, -Math.PI, Math.PI);}
05
API
Every parameter, its type and what happens when you change it.
One tile per child. The whole set is duplicated as many times as the width needs.
speed
number
= 60
Idle drift in px/s. Positive drifts left; 0 parks the row and skips the ticker entirely.
gap
number
= 24
Pixels between tiles, applied inside a copy so the spacing also spans the seam.
smoothing
number
= 0.5
Seconds the row takes to catch up with the pointer. Doubles as the throw duration.
scatter
number
= 6
Scatter distance on press, as a percentage of each tile's own size.
spin
number
= 10
Half-range of the per-tile rotation on press, in degrees.
pressScale
number
= 0.95
Tile scale while the pointer is down.
scatterDuration
number
= 0.5
Seconds for the scatter out, and the same again back.
seed
number | string
= 'drag-marquee'
Seeds the scatter. The same seed gives the same arrangement on server and client.
className
string
—
Merged onto the drag surface.
tileClassName
string
—
Merged onto every tile. Size the items here.
aria-label
string
= 'Marquee'
Label for the focusable row, which also takes left and right arrow keys.
06
How it works
The technique in order, not the code in order.
01
The row is N copies of the children inside a w-max flex track. period is the measured width of one copy — getBoundingClientRect().width, not offsetWidth, because the latter rounds and half a pixel of error is half a pixel of gap that only ever shows at the seam. The copy count is clamp(ceil(hostWidth / period) + 1, 2, 8), which is exactly enough that a translation bounded by one period can never expose the end of the track.
02
Everything that moves the row adds to one number that is never corrected: the drift subtracts speed * dt, each pointermove adds dx, the release adds the throw distance. It walks off to -50000 and nothing cares, because the only consumer of it applies a modulo.
03
That modulo lives in gsap.quickTo's modifiers, which post-processes the value on its way to the target. It cannot feed back: resetTo advances the tween's start from its own s + ratio * c rather than re-reading the target, so the wrapped value is output-only. Wrapping in onUpdate instead makes the next retarget interpolate from a value the tween does not believe in, and the row lurches a whole period.
04
For x in [-period, 0), mod(x, period) === x + period, so mod(x, period) - period === x. The wrap is therefore the identity across the entire range the row normally occupies and only bites when the accumulator leaves it — the two sides of the boundary paint identical pixels, so there is nothing to snap.
05
The gap is a trailing margin-right on each tile *inside* a copy rather than gap on the track. A track-level gap sits between copies too, so the measured copy width would no longer equal the wrap period and the seam would gain one gap of drift every lap.
06
Release velocity is measured over a rolling ~70 ms window of (accumulator, time), then projected with the power3.out identity: p(t) = 1 - (1 - t)^3 has p'(0) = 3, so a tween of duration D covering delta departs at 3 * delta / D. Retargeting by v * D / 3 continues the gesture at exactly the speed the hand left, with the core library and no InertiaPlugin.
07
The press scatter is one paused timeline built once and stored in a ref, play() on pointerdown and reverse() on the release path. Per-tile rotation and offset come from a seeded generator indexed by position *within* a copy, so every copy of a tile scatters identically and the duplication stays invisible while the cards move.
Load-bearing constants
Load-bearing constants
Constant
Value
Why this number
copies
= clamp(ceil(hostWidth / period) + 1, 2, 8)
The + 1 is the copy that covers the wrap: with the translation bounded to one period, the window can start one full period into the track and still needs hostWidth of content after it. Drop it and the tail of the row shows background for part of every lap. The floor of 2 is the minimum that can hide a seam at all; the ceiling of 8 stops a one-word tile in a wide hero from producing hundreds of nodes.
POWER3_OUT_SLOPE
= 3
The initial derivative of power3.out, and the divisor in delta = v * D / 3. Exact, not tuned: change the follow tween's ease and this changes with it — power2 needs 2, power4 needs 4. Leave it at 3 against a different ease and every throw is off by a constant factor.
smoothing
= 0.5
Seconds the row takes to catch up with the pointer, and the D in the throw projection. Under ~0.2 s the row is welded to the finger and the throw is over before it registers; over ~0.8 s the lag between hand and content is large enough to read as dropped frames rather than as weight.
speed
= 60
Idle drift in px/s. Below ~20 the row looks frozen at a glance and the affordance is lost; above ~120 the text is unreadable at rest, which defeats the point of putting words in it. At 0 the ticker is never registered at all, so a parked marquee costs nothing per frame.
VELOCITY_WINDOW
= 0.07
Seconds of gesture history the release speed is averaged over. Shorter is effectively the last delta, which is noisy at 120 Hz and gives visibly different throws for identical gestures; much longer averages away a deliberate slow-down before release, so the row flies off when the user meant to place it.
MAX_VELOCITY
= 4000
px/s the measured speed is clamped to. A coalesced pointer batch, a tab switch mid-drag or a synthetic event can report tens of thousands; without the clamp one bad sample throws the row several periods, and the wrap makes the result look random rather than fast.
MAX_THROW
= 1200
Pixels one throw may carry. Roughly a screen and a half — far enough that a hard flick feels unbounded, close enough that the content the user was looking at is still findable when it stops.
DRAG_THRESHOLD
= 5
Pixels of travel before a press becomes a drag. Below ~3 the tremor in a normal tap counts as a drag and every tap on a card is swallowed; above ~10 a small deliberate nudge does nothing at all.
scatter / spin
= 6 (percent) / 10 (deg)
Half-ranges for the per-tile offset and rotation on press. The offset is a percentage of each tile's own size, so mixed tile widths scatter proportionally instead of the small ones flying off. Past ~15% and ~25° the tiles overlap their neighbours and the row stops reading as a row; below ~3% and ~5° the press produces no visible acknowledgement.
ease: back.inOut(3)
= 3
The overshoot of the scatter, applied at both ends because the same timeline is played and reversed. It is what makes the cards spring apart and spring back rather than easing politely; at 1 the overshoot is invisible, past ~5 the return visibly overshoots the resting layout and the row wobbles after release.
07
Behaviour
What it does about motion sensitivity, teardown and being finished.
Reduced motion
Dragging is unchanged — it is the user's own motion, and tracking it is the component. Everything the component would have animated by itself is dropped: the idle drift is never registered on the ticker, the follow tween is never created (so the row is written straight to the wrapped position, one-to-one with the pointer, and a release does not throw), and the scatter timeline is not built, so pressing moves nothing but the row. Arrow keys still step one tile, instantly.
Cleanup
Removes pointerdown, pointermove, pointerup, pointercancel, lostpointercapture, the capture-phase click and keydown; releases pointer capture if a gesture is still live at unmount; removes the drift callback from gsap.ticker; kills the tweens on the proxy object so an in-flight throw cannot call onUpdate against a detached track; and reverts the gsap.context holding the scatter timeline, which also restores the tiles' inline transforms. Both shared resize observers and the shared intersection observer unregister.
Definition of done
The row drifts on its own. Grab it and it follows your hand exactly, with no creep in the drift direction, and the cards tilt and shrink apart the instant you press — then settle back when you let go. Flick and release: it coasts on at the speed you left, slows, and rejoins the drift with no visible seam or jump. Drag several screens' worth in one fast swipe and the tiles stay in order — nothing teleports. Watch one tile go off the left edge and it reappears on the right at the same spacing as every other gap. Release the pointer outside the browser window and the row keeps drifting instead of freezing scattered. Release over a card and no click reaches it; tap without moving and it does. Resize the container narrower and wider — the seam never appears. Scroll it out of view and the drift stops until it is back.
Pitfalls
Correcting the offset with if (x < -period) x += period instead of a modulo. It only ever undoes one period, so a fast flick, a coalesced pointer batch, or a tab that was backgrounded for a second leaves the row several periods out and it jumps to the wrong tile. mod is total: any magnitude, one step, right answer.
Applying the wrap in onUpdate rather than in modifiers. The tween then interpolates from a start value it computed internally toward a target the wrap has already moved, so the next retarget travels a whole extra period. modifiers is post-processing on the way out and never feeds back into the tween's own bookkeeping.
Putting the gap on the track with gap or space-x. It lands between copies as well as between tiles, so the measured copy width no longer equals the wrap period; the seam gains one gap per lap and slowly slides out of register. The gap belongs inside the copy, as a trailing margin on every tile.
Measuring the period with offsetWidth. It rounds to whole pixels, and a sub-pixel error in the period is a permanent sub-pixel misalignment at the seam that shows as a hairline flicker once per lap.
Hard-coding two copies. Two is enough only while one copy is at least as wide as the container; a short tile set in a wide hero runs out of content mid-lap and the row ends in empty space. The count has to come from the measured width.
Randomising the scatter per DOM node. The duplicates are the whole trick, and the instant the cards move with different rotations the eye reads them as different content — the seam becomes obvious. Index the seed by position within a copy, so copy 3 tile 5 matches copy 1 tile 5.
Rebuilding the scatter timeline per press, or putting the pressed flag in the useGsap deps. revert() strips the inline transforms GSAP wrote, so the reverse starts from the untouched stylesheet values and animates nowhere — the cards stay scattered. One paused timeline, play() and reverse() from the pointer handlers.
Leaving the idle drift running during a drag. The row creeps out from under the finger, which is precisely what one-to-one tracking exists to prevent; over a slow careful drag the divergence is several tiles.
Calling setPointerCapture only after the drag threshold is crossed. A fast gesture has already left the element by then, pointermove stops arriving, and the row sticks at the offset it had when the pointer crossed the boundary.
Handling only pointerup. Release outside the window, or let the OS claim the gesture, and no pointerup arrives: the row stays captured, the drift never resumes, and the cards stay scattered mid-throw. pointercancel and lostpointercapture route to the same idempotent finish, guarded on the stored pointerId so the duplicate is a no-op rather than a second throw.
Letting the click through after a drag. The gesture ends with a click on whichever card is under the pointer, so dragging the row also opens a project. It is swallowed in the capture phase, once, and only when the gesture actually moved.
Notes
The follow tween is retargeted, not recreated: gsap.quickTo keeps one tween and one PropTween alive and calls resetTo on it, so a marquee dragged for ten seconds allocates nothing per frame.
The drift is registered on gsap.ticker rather than a second rAF loop, so the target and the tween that chases it advance in the same tick. On separate loops the row is one frame stale every other frame, which reads as a faint shimmer at speed.
Because the drift keeps retargeting the same tween after release, the throw decays exponentially with a time constant of smoothing / 3 rather than tracing a literal power3 curve. The departure speed is still exactly the hand's, which is the part the eye judges.
Only the first copy is exposed to assistive technology; the rest carry aria-hidden, so a screen reader reads the list once rather than four times.