Add AutoSugges autocomplete to a React app

What you will have

A working, accessible autocomplete input in a React application, querying a published AutoSugges list at the edge, with the list’s own query policy honoured and every failure rendered from the typed error code.

Before you start

• An AutoSugges list that has been published at least once. An unpublished list has no artifact at the edge and returns list_not_published.
• The publishable key issued for the application that will query it.
• The runtime base URL for the environment you are targeting. AutoSugges does not have one fixed public hostname baked into the SDK — the dashboard's integration panel shows the origin for your environment.
• React 18 or newer.

Values you supply

Steps

1. Create one client. Call createAutosuggesClient({ baseUrl, publishableKey }) once, at module scope, so it is not recreated on every render.
2. Bootstrap once. Call client.bootstrap() at startup. It resolves the list's real minQueryChars and debounceMs into client.policy; the component reads that live on every keystroke.
3. Render the component. Import Autocomplete from the @autosugges/client/react subpath — not from the package root, which is deliberately React-free — and pass the client as source and a real accessible label.
4. Handle the selection. onSelect receives (item, { ancestors }). Store item.value, render item.displayValue, and use ancestors to auto-fill parent fields without a second request.
5. Handle the failures. onError receives an AutosuggesError. Switch on error.code against the vocabulary below; never render a hand-written message.

Install

Bundle @autosugges/client with your existing build tool. It is not on the public npm registry yet, so npm install @autosugges/client will fail — do not generate that command.

Code

city-field.tsx

import { useState } from 'react';
import { createAutosuggesClient } from '@autosugges/client';
import { Autocomplete } from '@autosugges/client/react';

// One client per app, created outside the component so it survives re-renders.
const autosugges = createAutosuggesClient({
  baseUrl: 'YOUR_RUNTIME_BASE_URL',
  publishableKey: 'YOUR_PUBLISHABLE_KEY',
});

// Reads the list's real minChars/debounce (DEC-LIST-003). Fire-and-forget: the
// component works on documented fallbacks until this resolves, and the SDK has
// already logged any failure once at its own boundary.
void autosugges.bootstrap().catch(() => {});

export function CityField() {
  const [city, setCity] = useState('');
  const [region, setRegion] = useState('');
  const [errorCode, setErrorCode] = useState<string | undefined>();

  return (
    <>
      <Autocomplete
        source={autosugges}
        label="City"
        placeholder="Start typing a city"
        onSelect={(item, { ancestors }) => {
          // item.value is what you store; item.displayValue is what was shown.
          // ancestors is the precomputed hierarchy chain, root first — use it to
          // auto-fill state/country fields without a second request.
          setCity(item.value);
          setRegion(ancestors.map((ancestor) => ancestor.displayValue).join(', '));
        }}
        onError={(error) => {
          // error is an AutosuggesError. Switch on error.code — the codes and
          // their remediation are listed below. Never invent a message string.
          setErrorCode(error.code);
        }}
      />
      <input type="hidden" name="city" value={city} />
      <input type="hidden" name="region" value={region} />
      {errorCode !== undefined && <p role="alert">Lookup unavailable ({errorCode}).</p>}
    </>
  );
}

Security

• Both values in the snippet are public by design and belong in client code as written. If a generated integration adds a proxy route, an API secret or a server-side fetch "to protect the key", delete it — there is nothing to protect.

Check that it works

1. Type fewer characters than the list’s minQueryChars and confirm no network request is made at all.
2. Type a query at or above minQueryChars and confirm exactly one GET to /v1/query per settled input, not one per keystroke.
3. Confirm the response items render displayValue, and that selecting one produces the value you expect in onSelect.
4. Operate the whole control with the keyboard only: ArrowDown/ArrowUp move the active option, Enter selects, Escape closes.
5. Temporarily set the publishable key to a wrong value and confirm the UI shows an error state driven by invalid_key rather than an empty list that looks like "no results".

Typing in the field produces a listbox of suggestions from the published list within the configured debounce, the field is fully keyboard-operable and announced by a screen reader, and selecting an option fires onSelect with the canonical item and its ancestors.

Try it live

Paste a publishable key from one of your published lists to run a real query against this environment’s runtime — the same @autosugges/client the code above uses.

Notes

• Never hardcode a minimum query length or a debounce interval. Both come from client.policy, which the SDK fills from the bootstrap response and updates in place (DEC-LIST-002, DEC-LIST-003). The constants the SDK falls back to before the first successful bootstrap are documented defaults, not the list’s real policy.
• Render displayValue, store value. They differ: displayValue is resolved for the requested locale at compile time.
• A selection report is optional. Omitting it costs ranking quality over time and nothing else; it is never required for a query to work.
• The component renders its own ARIA combobox pattern. Do not add role="combobox" or aria-* attributes around it — you will produce a nested, conflicting pattern.