Flutter Expert

Senior mobile engineer building high-performance cross-platform applications with Flutter 3 and Dart.

When to Use This Skill

• Building cross-platform Flutter applications
• Implementing state management (Riverpod, Bloc)
• Setting up navigation with GoRouter
• Creating custom widgets and animations
• Optimizing Flutter performance
• Platform-specific implementations

Core Workflow

1. Setup — Scaffold project, add dependencies (flutter pub get), configure routing
2. State — Define Riverpod providers or Bloc/Cubit classes; verify with flutter analyze
   • If flutter analyze reports issues: fix all lints and warnings before proceeding; re-run until clean
3. Widgets — Build reusable, const-optimized components; run flutter test after each feature
   • If tests fail: inspect widget tree with Flutter DevTools, fix failing assertions, re-run flutter test
4. Test — Write widget and integration tests; confirm with flutter test --coverage
   • If coverage drops or tests fail: identify untested branches, add targeted tests, re-run before merging
5. Optimize — Profile with Flutter DevTools (flutter run --profile), eliminate jank, reduce rebuilds
   • If jank persists: check rebuild counts in the Performance overlay, isolate expensive build() calls, apply const or move state closer to consumers

Reference Guide

Load detailed guidance based on context:

Topic	Reference	Load When
Riverpod	references/riverpod-state.md	State management, providers, notifiers
Bloc	references/bloc-state.md	Bloc, Cubit, event-driven state, complex business logic
GoRouter	references/gorouter-navigation.md	Navigation, routing, deep linking
Widgets	references/widget-patterns.md	Building UI components, const optimization
Structure	references/project-structure.md	Setting up project, architecture
Performance	references/performance.md	Optimization, profiling, jank fixes

Code Examples

Riverpod Provider + ConsumerWidget (correct pattern)

// provider definition — Notifier, not the legacy StateNotifier
final counterProvider = NotifierProvider<CounterNotifier, int>(CounterNotifier.new);

class CounterNotifier extends Notifier<int> {
  @override
  int build() => 0;
  void increment() => state = state + 1; // new instance, never mutate
}

// consuming widget — use ConsumerWidget, not StatefulWidget
class CounterView extends ConsumerWidget {
  const CounterView({super.key});

  @override
  Widget build(BuildContext context, WidgetRef ref) {
    final count = ref.watch(counterProvider);
    return Text('$count');
  }
}

Before / After — State Management

// ❌ WRONG: app-wide state in setState
class _BadCounterState extends State<BadCounter> {
  int _count = 0;
  void _inc() => setState(() => _count++); // causes full subtree rebuild
}

// ✅ CORRECT: scoped Riverpod consumer
class GoodCounter extends ConsumerWidget {
  const GoodCounter({super.key});
  @override
  Widget build(BuildContext context, WidgetRef ref) {
    final count = ref.watch(counterProvider);
    return IconButton(
      onPressed: () => ref.read(counterProvider.notifier).increment(),
      icon: const Icon(Icons.add), // const on static widgets
    );
  }
}

Constraints

MUST DO

• Use const constructors wherever possible
• Implement proper keys for lists
• Use Consumer/ConsumerWidget for state (not StatefulWidget)
• Follow Material/Cupertino design guidelines
• Profile with DevTools, fix jank
• Test widgets with flutter_test

MUST NOT DO

• Build widgets inside build() method
• Mutate state directly (always create new instances)
• Use setState for app-wide state
• Skip const on static widgets
• Ignore platform-specific behavior
• Block UI thread with heavy computation (use compute())

Troubleshooting Common Failures

Symptom	Likely Cause	Recovery
flutter analyze errors	Unresolved imports, missing const, type mismatches	Fix flagged lines; run flutter pub get if imports are missing
Widget test assertion failures	Widget tree mismatch or async state not settled	Use tester.pumpAndSettle() after state changes; verify finder selectors
Build fails after adding package	Incompatible dependency version	Run flutter pub upgrade --major-versions; check pub.dev compatibility
Jank / dropped frames	Expensive build() calls, uncached widgets, heavy main-thread work	Use RepaintBoundary, move heavy work to compute(), add const
Hot reload not reflecting changes	State held in Notifier not reset	Use hot restart (R in terminal) to reset full app state

Output Templates

When implementing Flutter features, provide:

1. Widget code with proper const usage
2. Provider/Bloc definitions
3. Route configuration if needed
4. Test file structure

Maintained by @jeffallan, Principal Consultant at Synergetic Solutions

Documentation