Simplify Async Flow with Promise.withResolvers and Promise.try in JavaScript

Promise.withResolvers

In typical business code a Promise is used as a switch to control flow. The classic pattern looks like this:

let resolve;
const promise = new Promise((res, rej) => {
  resolve = res;
});
promise.then(() => {
  // do some thing
});
// Trigger resolve to run the then‑handler; resolve acts like a switch.
resolve();

With Promise.withResolvers() the same logic becomes much simpler:

const { promise, resolve } = Promise.withResolvers();
promise.then(() => {
  // do some thing
});
// Trigger resolve to run the then‑handler.
resolve();

Promise.withResolvers

is a static method that returns an object containing the promise, resolve, and reject functions, eliminating the need to create a new Promise manually.

Using it makes flow control more intuitive. For example, you can aggregate a fixed number of events and resolve or reject once the threshold is reached:

function eventHandler(eventsCount) {
  const events = [];
  const { promise, resolve, reject } = Promise.withResolvers();

  return {
    add: (event) => {
      if (events.length < eventsCount) events.push(event);
      if (events.length === eventsCount) resolve(events);
    },
    abort: () => reject("Events aggregation aborted."),
    events: promise,
  };
}

const eventsAggregator = eventHandler(3);

eventsAggregator.events
  .then((events) => console.log("Resolved:", events))
  .catch((reason) => console.error("Rejected:", reason));

eventsAggregator.add("event-one");
eventsAggregator.abort();
eventsAggregator.add("event-two");
eventsAggregator.add("event-three");
// Output: Rejected: Events aggregation aborted.

In this example the Promise is used to control the number of events; once the count reaches the limit, resolve or reject ends the flow.

The method is supported in Chrome starting from version 119 (released 2023‑10‑31).

Promise.try

Promise.try

has existed for a long time in libraries such as Bluebird, Q, and when. Its purpose is to provide a uniform handling mechanism for both synchronous and asynchronous operations.

Consider this example:

const f = () => console.log('now');
Promise.resolve().then(f);
console.log('next');
// Output: next now

Although f is a synchronous function, placing it in then defers its execution to the end of the current event loop, making it appear asynchronous. Promise.try lets you execute a function immediately while still returning a promise, so you can chain then and catch uniformly:

const f = () => console.log('now');
Promise.try(f);
console.log('next');

Because Promise.try provides a consistent API, you can wrap both synchronous and asynchronous calls, enabling unified error handling:

Promise.try(() => database.users.get({ id: userId }))
  .then(...)
  .catch(...);

In effect, Promise.try simulates a try block for promise chains, similar to how catch handles errors in a promise chain.