Reagent :component-did-mount

As sbensu says with-meta only seems to work in reagent on a function. This means it can be used with identity to produce a reusable wrapper as hoped

(def initial-focus-wrapper 
  (with-meta identity
    {:component-did-mount #(.focus (reagent/dom-node %))}))

(defn chat-input []
  (fn []
    [initial-focus-wrapper
      [:input {:type "text"}]]))

I think with-meta should take a function as an argument. From the docs:

(def my-html (atom ""))

(defn plain-component []
  [:p "My html is " @my-html])

(def component-with-callback
  (with-meta plain-component
    {:component-did-mount
     (fn [this]
       (reset! my-html (.-innerHTML (reagent/dom-node this))))}))

So your code should be:

(defn initial-focus-wrapper [element]
  (with-meta element
    {:component-did-mount #(.focus (reagent/dom-node %))}))

(defn chat-input []
  [initial-focus-wrapper
    (fn []
      [:input {:type "text"}]]))