The Maintenance Advantage
Why building on packaged components beats from-scratch code, whether a human or an AI writes it.
There are two ways to get a data table with sorting and inline editing into Salesforce. Write it from scratch, by hand or with an AI assistant, and own every line. Or write about 30 lines of markup on top of a packaged component. Both look identical in the demo. They age very differently.
Side by side
A data table with sorting and inline editing
Hundreds to thousands of lines of custom code
About 30 lines of markup and configuration
Where the complexity lives
In your codebase
In the managed package
Who maintains it
You
Avonni, with every release
When Salesforce updates
Re-test and patch your custom code
Update the package; your markup keeps working
Evolving it later
Dig through the old code first
Change a few attributes
A thin layer on a deep layer
Every interface splits into two layers. The deep layer is the hard part: rendering, sorting, drag-and-drop, accessibility, keyboard navigation, edge cases. The thin layer is what makes it yours: which fields, which query, which actions, which colors.
From-scratch code makes you own both layers. Building on this library, you only own the thin one:
🛡️ The deep layer is ours
The machinery lives inside the packaged avonni-* components: tested, versioned, and updated by Avonni with every release. You never debug it, and you never re-test it when Salesforce changes.
✍️ The thin layer is yours
What lands in your component stays small enough to read in one sitting. Small code is easy to review, easy to hand over, and easy to change six months later.
It compounds with AI
AI assistants multiply how fast code gets written. The real question is what they write. Pointed at a blank file, an assistant multiplies from-scratch code, and with it your maintenance debt. Pointed at this library, it multiplies configuration: the same speed, without the ownership cost. Small, declarative markup is also what assistants update most reliably later.
Where to see it
The 12 Data Driven Components are where the contrast is starkest: data table, kanban, scheduler, pivot table, timeline, tree, map, and more, each replacing what would otherwise be a serious custom build. The 43 Core Components do the same for the building blocks around them.
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