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Inquirex

inquirex is a pure Ruby, declarative, rules-driven questionnaire engine for building conditional intake forms, qualification wizards, and branching surveys.

It is the core gem in the Inquirex ecosystem and focuses on:

  • A conversational DSL (ask, say, header, btw, warning, confirm)
  • A serializable AST rule system (contains, equals, greater_than, less_than, not_empty, all, any)
  • Framework-agnostic widget rendering hints (widget DSL verb, WidgetHint, WidgetRegistry)
  • Named accumulators for running totals (pricing, complexity scoring, credit scoring, lead qualification)
  • An immutable flow definition graph
  • A runtime engine for stateful step traversal
  • JSON round-trip serialization for cross-platform clients
  • A structured Answers wrapper and Mermaid graph export

Status

  • Version: 0.2.0
  • Ruby: >= 4.0.0 (project currently uses 4.0.2)
  • Test suite: 220 examples, 0 failures
  • Coverage: ~94% line coverage

Why Inquirex

Many form builders hard-code branching in controllers, React components, or database callbacks. Inquirex keeps flow logic in one portable graph:

  • Define once in Ruby
  • Serialize to JSON
  • Evaluate transitions consistently using rule AST objects
  • Run the same flow in different frontends (web widget, terminal, etc.)

This design is the foundation for the broader ecosystem (inquirex-ui, inquirex-tty, inquirex-js, inquirex-llm, inquirex-rails).

Installation

Add to your Gemfile:

gem "inquirex"

Then install:

bundle install

Quick Start

require "inquirex"

definition = Inquirex.define id: "tax-intake-2025", version: "1.0.0" do
  meta title: "Tax Preparation Intake", subtitle: "Let's understand your situation"
  start :filing_status

  ask :filing_status do
    type :enum
    question "What is your filing status?"
    options single: "Single", married_jointly: "Married Filing Jointly"
    widget target: :desktop, type: :radio_group, columns: 2
    widget target: :mobile,  type: :dropdown
    transition to: :dependents
  end

  ask :dependents do
    type :integer
    question "How many dependents?"
    default 0
    transition to: :business_income
  end

  confirm :business_income do
    question "Do you have business income?"
    transition to: :business_count, if_rule: equals(:business_income, true)
    transition to: :done
  end

  ask :business_count do
    type :integer
    question "How many businesses?"
    transition to: :done
  end

  say :done do
    text "Thanks for completing the intake."
  end
end

engine = Inquirex::Engine.new(definition)

engine.answer("single") # filing_status
engine.answer(2)        # dependents
engine.answer(false)    # business_income
engine.advance          # done (display step)

engine.finished? # => true

DSL Overview

Flow-level methods

  • start :step_id sets the entry step
  • meta title:, subtitle:, brand:, theme: adds optional frontend metadata (see Theme)
  • accumulator :name, type:, default: declares a running total (see Accumulators)

Step verbs

  • Collecting verbs: ask, confirm
  • Display verbs: say, header, btw, warning

Supported input types

  • :string
  • :text
  • :integer
  • :decimal
  • :currency
  • :boolean
  • :enum
  • :multi_enum
  • :date
  • :email
  • :phone

Step options

  • question "..." for collecting steps
  • text "..." for display steps
  • options [...] or options key: "Label" for enum-style inputs
  • default value or default { |answers| ... }
  • skip_if rule
  • transition to: :next_step, if_rule: rule, requires_server: false
  • compute { |answers| ... } (accepted by the DSL as a server-side hook; currently omitted from runtime JSON)
  • widget target: :desktop, type: :radio_group, columns: 2 (rendering hint for frontend adapters)
  • accumulate :name, lookup:|per_selection:|per_unit:|flat: (contribution to a named running total; see Accumulators)
  • price ... (sugar for accumulate :price, ...)

Widget Rendering Hints

Every collecting step can carry framework-agnostic rendering hints via the widget DSL verb. Frontend adapters (JS widget, TTY, Rails) use these to pick the right UI control.

ask :priority do
  type :enum
  question "How urgent is this?"
  options low: "Low", medium: "Medium", high: "High"
  widget target: :desktop, type: :radio_group, columns: 3
  widget target: :mobile,  type: :dropdown
  widget target: :tty,     type: :select
  transition to: :next_step
end

When no explicit widget is set, WidgetRegistry fills in sensible defaults per data type:

Data Type Desktop Mobile TTY
:enum radio_group dropdown select
:multi_enum checkbox_group checkbox_group multi_select
:boolean toggle yes_no_buttons yes_no
:string text_input text_input text_input
:text textarea textarea multiline
:integer number_input number_input number_input
:currency currency_input currency_input number_input
:date date_picker date_picker text_input

Display verbs (say, header, btw, warning) have no widget hints.

Widget hints are included in JSON serialization under a "widget" key, keyed by target:

"widget": {
  "desktop": { "type": "radio_group", "columns": 3 },
  "mobile":  { "type": "dropdown" },
  "tty":     { "type": "select" }
}

Accessing Hints at Runtime

step = definition.step(:priority)
step.widget_hint_for(target: :desktop)            # explicit hint or nil
step.effective_widget_hint_for(target: :desktop)   # explicit hint or registry default

Note: Widget hints were previously in a separate inquirex-ui gem. As of v0.2.0 they are part of core, since every frontend adapter needs them.

Accumulators

Accumulators are named running totals that a flow maintains as the user answers questions. The canonical use case is pricing — totalling the cost of a tax return, a SaaS quote, or an insurance premium — but the same primitive generalizes to complexity scoring, credit scoring, lead qualification scores, risk scores, or any other numeric tally.

Like rules, accumulator declarations are pure data. They serialize to JSON and evaluate identically on the Ruby server and in the JS widget — no lambdas, no server round-trips.

Declaring accumulators

Each flow declares one or more accumulators with a name, a type, and a starting value:

Inquirex.define id: "tax-pricing-2025" do
  accumulator :price,      type: :currency, default: 0
  accumulator :complexity, type: :integer,  default: 0
  # ...
end

Contributing to an accumulator from a step

Use the accumulate verb inside any ask/confirm step. Exactly one shape key must be provided:

Shape Fits Semantics
lookup: { ... } :enum Adds the amount mapped to the chosen option value
per_selection: { ... } :multi_enum Sums the amounts for every selected option
per_unit: N :integer, :decimal Multiplies the numeric answer by N
flat: N any type Adds N when the step has a truthy, non-empty answer 
ask :filing_status do
  type :enum
  question "Filing status?"
  options single: "Single", mfj: "Married Filing Jointly", hoh: "Head of Household"
  accumulate :price,      lookup: { single: 200, mfj: 400, hoh: 300 }
  accumulate :complexity, lookup: { mfj: 1 }
  transition to: :dependents
end

ask :dependents do
  type :integer
  question "How many dependents?"
  default 0
  accumulate :price, per_unit: 25          # $25 per dependent
  transition to: :schedules
end

ask :schedules do
  type :multi_enum
  question "Which schedules apply?"
  options c: "Schedule C (Business)",
    e: "Schedule E (Rental)",
    d: "Schedule D (Capital Gains)"
  accumulate :price,      per_selection: { c: 150, e: 75, d: 50 }
  accumulate :complexity, per_selection: { c: 2, e: 1, d: 1 }
  transition to: :done
end

A single step can contribute to any number of accumulators.

The price sugar

Since :price is the most common use case (lead qualification, tax prep, SaaS quotes), there's a one-liner:

price single: 200, mfj: 400, hoh: 300   # => accumulate :price, lookup: { ... }
price per_unit: 25                       # => accumulate :price, per_unit: 25
price per_selection: { c: 150, e: 75 }   # => accumulate :price, per_selection: { ... }

If you pass a plain option-value → amount hash (no shape key), price treats it as a lookup.

Reading totals at runtime

The engine maintains running totals as each answer comes in:

engine = Inquirex::Engine.new(definition)
engine.answer("mfj")     # filing_status: +$400, +1 complexity
engine.answer(3)         # dependents:    +$75
engine.answer(%w[c e])   # schedules:     +$225, +3 complexity

engine.total(:price)      # => 700.0
engine.total(:complexity) # => 4
engine.totals             # => { price: 700.0, complexity: 4 }

#to_state includes totals: so persisted sessions resume with the correct running total.

JSON wire format

Accumulators serialize predictably, keeping the contract with inquirex-js explicit:

{
  "accumulators": {
    "price":      { "type": "currency", "default": 0 },
    "complexity": { "type": "integer",  "default": 0 }
  },
  "steps": {
    "filing_status": {
      "verb": "ask",
      "type": "enum",
      "accumulate": {
        "price":      { "lookup": { "single": 200, "mfj": 400, "hoh": 300 } },
        "complexity": { "lookup": { "mfj": 1 } }
      }
    },
    "dependents": {
      "verb": "ask",
      "type": "integer",
      "accumulate": { "price": { "per_unit": 25 } }
    },
    "schedules": {
      "verb": "ask",
      "type": "multi_enum",
      "accumulate": {
        "price":      { "per_selection": { "c": 150, "e": 75, "d": 50 } },
        "complexity": { "per_selection": { "c": 2, "e": 1, "d": 1 } }
      }
    }
  }
}

The inquirex-js widget reads this verbatim and reproduces the same totals client-side.

Theme and Branding

The flow's meta hash carries optional branding and theme overrides for the JS widget. Identity (name, logo) goes in brand:; colors, fonts, and radii go in theme:.

meta title: "Tax Preparation Intake",
  subtitle: "Let's understand your situation",
  brand: { name: "Agentica", logo: "https://cdn.example.com/logo.png" },
  theme: {
    brand:       "#2563eb",
    on_brand:    "#ffffff",
    background:  "#0b1020",
    surface:     "#111827",
    text:        "#f9fafb",
    text_muted:  "#94a3b8",
    border:      "#1f2937",
    radius:      "18px",
    font:        "Inter, system-ui, sans-serif",
    header_font: "Inter, system-ui, sans-serif"
  }

Snake-case keys (on_brand, text_muted, header_font) are idiomatic Ruby; they're automatically translated to the camelCase names (onBrand, textMuted, headerFont) the JS widget expects on the wire. Each theme key maps 1:1 to a CSS custom property on the widget's shadow root.

Rule System (AST, JSON-serializable)

Rule helpers available in DSL blocks:

  • contains(:income_types, "Business")
  • equals(:status, "single")
  • greater_than(:dependents, 0)
  • less_than(:age, 18)
  • not_empty(:email)
  • all(rule1, rule2, ...)
  • any(rule1, rule2, ...)

Example:

transition to: :complex_path,
  if_rule: all(
    contains(:income_types, "Business"),
    greater_than(:business_count, 2)
  )

Runtime Engine

Inquirex::Engine holds runtime state:

  • current_step_id
  • current_step
  • answers (raw hash)
  • history (visited step IDs)
  • totals (running totals per accumulator — see Accumulators)

Behavior:

  • Use answer(value) on collecting steps
  • Use advance on display steps
  • Use finished? to detect completion
  • Use total(:price) / totals to read running totals
  • Use to_state / .from_state for persistence/resume (totals included)

Validation Adapter

Validation is pluggable:

  • Inquirex::Validation::Adapter (abstract)
  • Inquirex::Validation::NullAdapter (default, accepts everything)

Pass a custom adapter to the engine:

engine = Inquirex::Engine.new(definition, validator: my_validator)

Serialization

Definitions support round-trip serialization:

json = definition.to_json
restored = Inquirex::Definition.from_json(json)

Serialized structure includes:

  • Flow metadata (id, version, meta, start)
  • Branding and theme (meta.brand, meta.theme)
  • Accumulator declarations (accumulators) and per-step contributions (accumulate)
  • Steps and transitions
  • Rule AST payloads
  • Widget hints

Important serialization details:

  • Rule objects and accumulator shapes serialize and deserialize cleanly
  • Proc/lambda defaults are stripped from JSON
  • requires_server: true transition flag is preserved
  • Snake-case theme keys are converted to camelCase on serialization to match the JS widget contract

Answers Wrapper

Inquirex::Answers provides structured answer access:

answers = Inquirex::Answers.new(
  filing_status: "single",
  business: { count: 3, type: "llc" }
)

answers.filing_status         # => "single"
answers[:filing_status]       # => "single"
answers.business.count        # => 3
answers.dig("business.count") # => 3
answers.to_flat_h             # => {"filing_status"=>"single", "business.count"=>3, ...}

Mermaid Export

Visualize flow graphs with Mermaid:

exporter = Inquirex::Graph::MermaidExporter.new(definition)
puts exporter.export

Output is flowchart TD syntax with:

  • One node per step
  • Conditional edge labels from rule to_s
  • Truncated node content for readability

Error Types

Common exceptions under Inquirex::Errors:

  • DefinitionError
  • UnknownStepError
  • SerializationError
  • AlreadyFinishedError
  • ValidationError
  • NonCollectingStepError

Development

Setup

bin/setup

Run tests

bundle exec rspec

Lint

bundle exec rubocop

Useful just tasks

just install
just test
just lint
just lint-fix
just ci

Extension Gems

The core gem is designed to be extended by optional gems that inject new DSL verbs at require time:

require "inquirex"       # core DSL, rules, engine, widget hints
require "inquirex-llm"   # adds: clarify, describe, summarize, detour

Inquirex.define do       # one entry point, all verbs available
  # ...
end

Ecosystem

  • inquirex-llm -- LLM-powered verbs (clarify, describe, summarize, detour) for server-side AI processing
  • inquirex-tty -- terminal adapter using TTY Toolkit
  • inquirex-js -- embeddable browser widget (chat-style)
  • inquirex-rails -- Rails Engine for persistence, API, and asset serving

Note: inquirex-ui has been merged into core as of v0.2.0. Widget hints (widget DSL verb, WidgetHint, WidgetRegistry) are now built in.

License

MIT. See LICENSE.txt.