The JavaScript packages

The javascript API has been through several iterations and is currently split over a few libraries. In greenfield applications, here's how the library is intended to be used:

Install both the @automerge/automerge and @automerge/automerge-repo packages. Then install the networking and storage plugins you need (typically @automerge/automerge-repo-network-* and @automerge/automerge-repo-storage-*) packages. Take a look at the cookbook for examples of different ways of using these.

@automerge/react and @automerge/vanilla

For React and vanilla JS applications we offer the @automerge/react and @automerge/vanilla packages respectively. These packages just re-export the public items from automerge and automerge-repo and several common network and storage adapters for your convenience.

Relationship between @automerge/automerge and @automerge/automerge-repo

The core automerge libraries (both the original classic library and the WASM implementation) offer a compact storage format and a network agnostic sync protocol, but they don't actually do the work of wiring these things up to real storage engines (such as filesystems) or transports (such as websockets). automerge-repo implements all of this plumbing and is how we recommend using automerge going forward.