Learning Vue Vapor Mode

Here's the honest setup: if you write Vue, you know the virtual DOM — templates compile to render functions, the runtime diffs and patches. Vapor Mode is Vue's experimental bet that, for a lot of UIs, you can skip that layer entirely and write to the DOM directly. Smaller runtime, cheaper updates.

So this series is me learning it properly, and you're coming with me. We know Vue 3; we just haven't gone deep on this feature yet.

What we cover#

1. What Is Vapor Mode? — the one-line mental model.
2. The Virtual DOM Tax — what the vdom costs per update.
3. How Vapor Compiles — templates to direct DOM ops.
4. Setting Up Vapor Mode — hands-on, pinned version.
5. Block Tree & Fine-Grained Reactivity — the internals.
6. Porting a Component to Vapor — light hands-on.
7. Limitations & What Doesn't Work Yet — what doesn't work yet.
8. Roadmap & When to Use — the adoption call.

How this series works#

Each step takes one idea through the same path: What it is → Why you'd care → Before → After → Do it yourself → Gotchas → Recap.

Mark each step complete as you go — your progress is saved in your browser. Ready? Start with step one.