Agent Skills: R3: Modern Reactive Extensions for .NET

R3: Modern Reactive Extensions for .NET

R3 is Cysharp's ground-up reimplementation of Reactive Extensions — "the new future of dotnet/reactive and UniRx." It keeps the LINQ-over-events programming model but rebuilds the core types, error contract, and scheduler to fix long-standing problems in System.Reactive (Rx.NET). Use this skill when composing event streams, UI input, timers, or push-based pipelines in C#.

Canonical sources (link to these from code and docs):

• Repository: https://github.com/Cysharp/R3
• README (full operator reference): https://github.com/Cysharp/R3/blob/main/README.md
• Author's design rationale: https://neuecc.medium.com/r3-a-new-modern-reimplementation-of-reactive-extensions-for-c-cf29abcc5826

When to Use This Skill

Use this skill when:

• Composing events over time — UI input, sensor/feed updates, websocket messages, domain events
• You need operators like debounce, throttle, merge, combine-latest, distinct-until-changed
• Building MVVM state with ReactiveProperty / BindableReactiveProperty
• Bridging push-based streams with Task / async and IAsyncEnumerable
• Migrating from System.Reactive, UniRx, or IObservable<T> code
• You hit Rx pain points: subscriptions dying on exceptions, scheduler overhead, or leak hunting

Not the right tool for: request/response I/O (use async/await), bounded producer/consumer with backpressure (use System.Threading.Channels), or server-side stream processing with batching/backpressure (use Akka.NET Streams). R3, like all Rx, is push-based with no backpressure. See the csharp-concurrency-patterns skill for choosing between these.

Reference Files

• rx-net-differences.md: Every meaningful difference vs System.Reactive (Rx.NET) — the new core types, the error model, operator renames, dropped APIs, the scheduler swap, and a migration checklist.
• async-and-integration-patterns.md: Common patterns — async dispatch with AwaitOperation, Task integration, IAsyncEnumerable round-tripping, ReactiveProperty/MVVM, subjects, and subscription lifecycle.
• scheduling-and-concurrency.md: How R3 handles concurrent updates (the threading contract, Synchronize, ObserveOn), TimeProvider vs FrameProvider, when each is necessary, and deterministic testing with fake providers.

Everything in this skill was validated empirically against R3 1.3.1. Captured output appears in the reference files as evidence.

Why R3 Exists (the "why use it")

The author (neuecc) built R3 to fix concrete defects in System.Reactive:

1. Exceptions silently kill subscriptions. In Rx, one exception in the pipeline calls OnError and unsubscribes forever — "a billion-dollar mistake" for long-lived event streams (a single bad UI event tears down the whole subscription). R3 routes errors to OnErrorResume and keeps the subscription alive by default.
2. IScheduler is heavy and confusing. ImmediateScheduler/Merge were measured causing real server memory/CPU bloat. R3 deletes IScheduler and uses .NET 8's TimeProvider (wall-clock) plus a new FrameProvider (frame-clock).
3. Subscription leaks are hard to find. R3 makes every Observable<T> an abstract class so all subscriptions funnel through one place, enabling ObservableTracker to list every live subscription with stack traces.
4. Rx and async were awkwardly fused. R3 treats Rx as event-first and adds explicit bridges (AwaitOperation, FromAsync, ToAsyncEnumerable) instead of pretending events are pull-based sequences.
5. One library, every UI. A platform-neutral core plus thin provider packages for Unity, Godot, WPF, WinForms, Avalonia, WinUI3, MAUI, Stride, MonoGame, and Blazor.

Install

dotnet add package R3
# Platform glue (pick what applies): R3.WPF, R3.Avalonia, R3.WinForms, R3.Unity (UPM),
# R3.Godot, ObservableCollections.R3, etc. See the repo README for the full list.

using R3;

The Mental Model

R3 replaces Rx's interfaces with abstract classes, and replaces Rx's two-method error contract with a single completion that carries a result.

public abstract class Observable<T>
{
    public IDisposable Subscribe(Observer<T> observer);     // tracked centrally
    protected abstract IDisposable SubscribeCore(Observer<T> observer);
}

public abstract class Observer<T> : IDisposable               // the observer IS the subscription
{
    public void OnNext(T value);
    public void OnErrorResume(Exception error);               // error WITHOUT unsubscribing
    public void OnCompleted(Result result);                   // success OR failure terminates
}

The grammar is (OnNext | OnErrorResume)* OnCompleted(Result)?. Note the difference from Rx's OnNext* (OnError | OnCompleted)?: errors and termination are decoupled. An error is just a notification; only OnCompleted ends the stream, and it carries a Result that is either Result.Success or Result.Failure(exception).

Quick start

using R3;

var subscription = Observable
    .EveryValueChanged(model, m => m.SearchText)   // emits when the property changes
    .Debounce(TimeSpan.FromMilliseconds(300))      // Rx called this "Throttle" (see differences)
    .DistinctUntilChanged()
    .SubscribeAwait(async (text, ct) =>
    {
        var results = await _api.SearchAsync(text, ct);
        Render(results);
    }, AwaitOperation.Switch);                      // cancel the in-flight search on a new keystroke

// Dispose to unsubscribe; or route into a DisposableBag / AddTo(token).
subscription.Dispose();

Core Behavior, Verified

Errors do not terminate by default

var subject = new Subject<int>();
subject.Select(x => 100 / x).Subscribe(
    onNext:        x => Console.WriteLine($"next {x}"),
    onErrorResume: e => Console.WriteLine($"errorResume {e.GetType().Name}"),
    onCompleted:   (Result r) => Console.WriteLine($"completed IsSuccess={r.IsSuccess}"));

subject.OnNext(2);   // next 50
subject.OnNext(0);   // errorResume DivideByZeroException   <-- NOT terminated
subject.OnNext(5);   // next 20                             <-- subscription is still alive!
subject.OnCompleted(); // completed IsSuccess=True

This is the single biggest behavioral change from Rx. To opt back into classic "an error terminates the sequence" behavior, insert .OnErrorResumeAsFailure() — the error then flows to OnCompleted(Result.Failure(e)) and downstream OnNexts stop. Recover with Catch. Full captured runs and the (deliberately absent) Retry story are in rx-net-differences.md.

Async dispatch is explicit

R3's async operators (SubscribeAwait, SelectAwait, WhereAwait, …) take an AwaitOperation that decides what happens when values arrive faster than the async work completes:

| AwaitOperation | Overlap behavior | Typical use | |------------------|------------------|-------------| | Sequential (default) | Queue values, run one at a time | Ordered processing | | Drop | Ignore new values while one is running | Debounced submit / cooldown | | Switch | Cancel the running one, start the new | Search-as-you-type, latest-wins | | Parallel | Run all concurrently | Independent fan-out | | SequentialParallel | Run concurrently, emit results in order | Parallel map, ordered output | | ThrottleFirstLast | Run first + last of a burst | Leading/trailing sampling |

These were verified to behave exactly as described (including Switch cancelling the superseded operation's CancellationToken). See async-and-integration-patterns.md.

Task and IAsyncEnumerable bridges

// Task -> Observable
await Observable.FromAsync(async ct => await LoadAsync(ct)).FirstAsync();

// Observable -> Task (terminal operators return Task<T>)
List<int> all = await source.ToListAsync();
int last      = await source.LastAsync();

// IAsyncEnumerable -> Observable, and back
await asyncEnumerable.ToObservable().ForEachAsync(Handle);
await foreach (var x in source.ToAsyncEnumerable()) { /* ... */ }

All verified working. Details and the full terminal-operator list are in async-and-integration-patterns.md.

How R3 Handles Concurrent Updates

R3 does not serialize concurrent producers. Like Rx, it assumes the Rx grammar: OnNext must not be called concurrently or re-entrantly from multiple threads. Operators (Where, Select, Subject, …) are not internally locked. Pushing OnNext from many threads at once into a stateful downstream corrupts state — in testing, 20,000 concurrent OnNext calls into a List<T> subscriber lost ~half the items and threw inside the operator chain.

The fix is to make the boundary explicit:

// Multiple producer threads -> one serialized consumer
subject.Synchronize()                  // lock-based gate; delivery becomes single-threaded
       .Where(x => x.IsValid)
       .Subscribe(Handle);             // verified: 10000/10000 items, no corruption

// Or marshal onto a context/threadpool, which also serializes delivery:
source.ObserveOnThreadPool().Subscribe(Handle);

// For shared MVVM state written from many threads:
var counter = new SynchronizedReactiveProperty<int>(0);   // thread-safe writes

Practical rule: if more than one thread can publish into a stream, put Synchronize() (or an ObserveOn*) immediately after the source, or use SynchronizedReactiveProperty. Full race reproductions and outputs are in scheduling-and-concurrency.md.

Time vs Frames: TimeProvider and FrameProvider

R3 has two notions of "when," and both are abstractions you can fake in tests:

• TimeProvider (the .NET 8 BCL type) = wall-clock time. Used by Delay, Debounce, Interval, Timer, Timeout. This is what server/business code uses.
• FrameProvider (R3-specific) = a frame clock. Used by EveryUpdate, DelayFrame(n), IntervalFrame(n), etc.

When is a FrameProvider necessary? Whenever "progress" is measured in render/update ticks instead of elapsed time:

• Game engines (Unity, Godot, Stride, MonoGame) — logic ticks with the engine's update loop, so it respects pause and time-scale and stays in lockstep with rendering.
• UI render loops (WPF/Avalonia/WinUI composition frames) — react per frame.
• Deterministic tests — FakeFrameProvider.Advance(n) drives frames with zero real time, exactly as FakeTimeProvider.Advance(timeSpan) drives the clock.

Plain server/business code virtually never needs FrameProvider — that's TimeProvider territory. Both fakes make time-dependent pipelines fully deterministic; examples in scheduling-and-concurrency.md.

Best Practices Summary

DO

• Treat OnErrorResume as the default: design streams that survive individual bad events.
• Add .OnErrorResumeAsFailure() when you genuinely want an error to terminate the stream.
• Choose an AwaitOperation deliberately for every async operator (Switch for latest-wins, Sequential for ordering, Drop for cooldowns).
• Put Synchronize() / ObserveOn* after any source that multiple threads publish into.
• Pass a TimeProvider to time operators and a FrameProvider to frame operators so tests can use FakeTimeProvider / FakeFrameProvider.
• Manage lifetime: route subscriptions into a DisposableBag, CompositeDisposable, or .AddTo(cancellationToken); turn on ObservableTracker in dev to catch leaks.
• Use ReactiveProperty for de-duplicated observable state; BindableReactiveProperty for XAML-bound state.

DON'T

• Don't assume an exception ends the stream (that's Rx, not R3).
• Don't reach for Rx names that R3 renamed: it's Debounce (not Throttle), ThrottleLast (not Sample), Chunk (not Buffer). Retry, GroupBy, Finally, and plain Buffer are absent in 1.3.1 — see the differences file for replacements.
• Don't call OnNext concurrently/re-entrantly from multiple threads without Synchronize().
• Don't use R3 for backpressured throughput pipelines — use Channels or Akka.NET Streams.
• Don't block on terminal operators (.Result/.Wait()); they return Task<T> — await them.

Additional Resources

• R3 repository: https://github.com/Cysharp/R3
• Full README / operator reference: https://github.com/Cysharp/R3/blob/main/README.md
• Design rationale (neuecc): https://neuecc.medium.com/r3-a-new-modern-reimplementation-of-reactive-extensions-for-c-cf29abcc5826
• NuGet: https://www.nuget.org/packages/R3
• TimeProvider (BCL): https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/dotnet/api/system.timeprovider
• FakeTimeProvider: https://www.nuget.org/packages/Microsoft.Extensions.TimeProvider.Testing
• Related skill: csharp-concurrency-patterns (choosing R3 vs async/await vs Channels vs Akka.NET)