hx-boost is the footgun people skip past. It turns every link and form into AJAX, so CSRF tokens, flash messages, and full-page redirects the server still emits need an explicit plan — otherwise you get a fragment where a full document was expected.
Fine for pockets of dynamic behaviour. Collaborative editors and offline-first UIs still want local state.
Good point. hx-boost does make progressive enhancement more interesting once redirects, flash messages, and CSRF protection enter the picture. Those details need to be handled deliberately on the server side rather than assuming every response can be swapped into the page.
I agree with your point about collaborative and offline-first applications, too. HTMX works best when the server remains the source of truth and most interactions don’t require complex client-side state. Thanks for adding this perspective!
melonape
Full-stack engineer, 10 years building for the web. Writing about AI tools, open source and the small tools I make.
hx-boostis the footgun people skip past. It turns every link and form into AJAX, so CSRF tokens, flash messages, and full-page redirects the server still emits need an explicit plan — otherwise you get a fragment where a full document was expected.Fine for pockets of dynamic behaviour. Collaborative editors and offline-first UIs still want local state.