A headless questionnaire engine. You own the UI. The library owns snapshots, drafts, and submit validation.

dimah-form is a backend-first questionnaire engine. It freezes the form definition onto every response, validates answers against that snapshot, and gives React a thin fill-session hook. It does not render fields, ship widgets, or own your auth.

System Data Flow

React ClientuseFormResponse + your widgets
HTTP HandlerdimahForm() + your guard
PersistenceSnapshots and responses

When to use it

Use it when you need typed questionnaires with drafts and server-side validation, and you already have a design system.

Skip it if you want a form renderer, a visual builder, or hosted survey SaaS.

The problems it is built around:

Schema drift — an admin can change a live form while someone is still filling a draft. dimah-form validates against the snapshot taken at start, not the live definition.
Drafts — respondents leave, switch devices, or drop packets. Drafts save incrementally, with updatedAt compare-and-swap so two tabs do not silently overwrite each other.
Headless validation — you render with Tailwind, shadcn/ui, or plain HTML. The server still checks required visible fields against the frozen snapshot.

Packages

@dimah-form/core
        ↓
@dimah-form/server  ←  @dimah-form/db (optional)
        │
@dimah-form/react

Package	Where	What you import it for
`@dimah-form/core`	Shared	Protocol types, field validators, error codes. Server and React both depend on it.
`@dimah-form/server`	Node / Edge	`dimahForm()`, HTTP adapters, `form.api`, `memoryAdapter()`.
`@dimah-form/react`	Browser (`"use client"`)	`createFormClient()`, `useFormResponse()`, field helpers.
`@dimah-form/db`	Server	Optional. Production SQL adapter via FumaDB.

How to read these docs

Start with the Quickstart if you want a working Next.js form. Read Architecture and Snapshots when you need the model, not just the copy-paste.