AddThisFeature

Unsaved Changes Guard

Stop people navigating away from work they have not saved.

moderate Forms & Input

What it adds

A warning on any attempt to leave a form with genuine unsaved changes, covering routing and browser navigation.

What your agent is told to do

5
  1. 1

    Compare the current form values against the values it loaded with. Track real changes, not merely whether a field was focused.

  2. 2

    Cover all four exits: internal navigation, the back button, a page reload, and closing the tab.

  3. 3

    Name what is at risk in the warning and offer to save rather than only to discard.

  4. 4

    Clear the guard immediately on a successful save, an autosave, or an explicit reset.

  5. 5

    Do not warn on a form the user never meaningfully touched. A guard that fires on an accidental keystroke gets dismissed on reflex, including the time it mattered.

Edge cases it handles

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  • A field typed into and then changed back is not a change. Compare values, not events.
  • A failed save must leave the guard in place and the data intact, not trap the user with no way out.
  • A save still in flight should block navigation with a pending state, not a scary dialog.
  • The browser's own beforeunload prompt cannot be styled or given custom text. Do not try; use it only for reload and tab close.
  • Deliberate sign-out and session expiry must not fight the guard.
  • Multi-step forms must guard the whole flow, not each step in isolation.

Definition of done

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  • Leaving a dirty form warns on internal navigation, back, reload, and tab close.
  • An untouched form, or one edited back to its original values, never warns.
  • A successful save or reset clears the guard immediately.
  • The warning offers to save, not only to discard.
  • A failed save leaves the user on the form with their data.
  • The feature matches the existing design system.
  • No existing functionality is broken.

Related features

How it works

  1. 1

    Copy the link

    Grab the Markdown instruction URL for this feature.

  2. 2

    Give it to your AI

    Paste it into Claude Code, Cursor, v0, Lovable — whatever you build with.

  3. 3

    It inspects, then implements

    Your agent reads your existing app first, then adds the feature to fit it.

Works with your stack

These instructions are written to adapt. They tell the agent to detect your framework, match your existing design system, and reuse what you already have — rather than assuming a particular stack.

Need it tighter than that? Customize the feature and tell it exactly what you're running.