metatools
SDTM supplemental-qualifier merging got sturdier, then the package went quiet for two years.
Comparison · Analytics
cfr vs mirai
A side-by-side editorial comparison of cfr and mirai — release velocity, themes, recent moves, and the top alternatives to consider.
cfr vs mirai: at a glance
What is cfr?
cfr packaged delay-corrected severity estimation, then went quiet on maintenance.
The package estimates disease severity and case ascertainment while correcting for the delay between a case being reported and its outcome being known. After the 0.1.1 rework of the estimation internals and a maintainer handover to Adam Kucharski, activity dropped to a vignette and an R-devel compatibility patch in February 2025.
What is mirai?
mirai removed its dispatcher process and added memory backpressure to the queue.
The async evaluation framework releases roughly monthly and moves fast at the architecture level. In 2.7.0 the dispatcher stopped being a separate process and became a thread, after its loop had already been rewritten in C inside nanonext one release earlier. The same release added an opt-in memory budget for queued task payloads and try_mirai(), which returns NULL immediately rather than blocking when that budget is exhausted.
cfr vs mirai: editorial side-by-side
cfr
0.0ANALYTICS
cfr packaged delay-corrected severity estimation, then went quiet on maintenance.
◆ Current state
The package estimates disease severity and case ascertainment while correcting for the delay between a case being reported and its outcome being known. After the 0.1.1 rework of the estimation internals and a maintainer handover to Adam Kucharski, activity dropped to a vignette and an R-devel compatibility patch in February 2025.
◆ Where it's heading
The methodological work is done and consolidated: likelihood approximation is now selected automatically from outbreak size and an initial severity estimate, and the internals were renamed with a dot prefix to close the public surface down to cfr_static(), cfr_rolling() and the data-preparation generic. Releases since have been documentation and compatibility only.
◆ Prediction
The 0.1.0 notes flagged time-varying ascertainment as future work and it has not appeared in the two releases since; nothing in these entries indicates when or whether it lands.
mirai
2.5ANALYTICS
mirai removed its dispatcher process and added memory backpressure to the queue.
◆ Current state
The async evaluation framework releases roughly monthly and moves fast at the architecture level. In 2.7.0 the dispatcher stopped being a separate process and became a thread, after its loop had already been rewritten in C inside nanonext one release earlier. The same release added an opt-in memory budget for queued task payloads and try_mirai(), which returns NULL immediately rather than blocking when that budget is exhausted.
◆ Where it's heading
Two threads of work run together: cutting overhead out of the task path — thread-based dispatcher, in-process transport for synchronous daemons, lower per-element dispatch cost in mirai_map() — and making the framework safe to embed in an event loop, where blocking the host R thread is not acceptable. Deployment reach is growing too, with http_config() launching remote daemons over HTTP APIs and auto-configuring for Posit Workbench. Each release pins a minimum nanonext version, so the two packages advance as one unit.
◆ Prediction
With backpressure in place but opt-in, the open question these notes leave is whether a default memory budget arrives; continued overhead reduction and Shiny-facing non-blocking paths are the safer bet.
Alternatives to cfr and mirai
Other Analytics products tracked by Sparkpulse, ranked by recent ship velocity. Each card links to a full editorial trajectory and lets you pivot into a head-to-head comparison with either cfr or mirai.
marquee
marquee is filling in the typographic details — outlines, border types, real font metrics for underlines.
logrx
A clinical-script logger that stopped shipping after its 0.2 line, changelogs made of merged PRs.
lobstr
R's object inspector is losing its view of the internals as CRAN closes off the private C API.
GSODR
A weather-station data client that broke one return type to hand back distances instead of bare IDs.
giscoR
giscoR's 1.0 moved its dataset index into the cache, so new Eurostat releases arrive without a package update.
Recent activity from cfr and mirai
Latest ship moves from both products, interleaved chronologically. ⚡ = editorial spark.
- 25d agomiraiMap collection and daemon lifecycle fixes
- 2mo agomiraiAgent skill ships in-package; HTTP headers take over auth
- 3mo agomiraiDispatcher becomes a thread, and the queue gains a memory budget ⚡
- 5mo agomiraiParallel RNG seeding leaves experimental status
- 6mo agomiraiRemote daemons over HTTP, and a C dispatcher loop
- 8mo agomiraiTelemetry span timing and daemon-switch fix
- 1y agocfrR-devel difftime patch and an individual-data vignette
- 2y agocfrSeverity estimator picks its own likelihood approximation
- 2y agocfrDelay-corrected severity and ascertainment estimation on CRAN ⚡
Frequently asked questions
What is the difference between cfr and mirai?
They serve adjacent needs but don't currently overlap on shipped themes. mirai is currently shipping more aggressively (velocity 2.5 vs 0.0), with 0 editorial sparks in the last 30 days against 0. See the at-a-glance table above for a side-by-side breakdown of velocity, recent sparks, and editorial themes.
Is cfr better than mirai?
Sparkpulse doesn't pick a winner — we score release velocity, not feature parity. mirai is currently shipping more aggressively (velocity 2.5 vs 0.0), with 0 editorial sparks in the last 30 days against 0. For your specific use case, the alternatives sections above list other Analytics products to evaluate alongside.
What are the best alternatives to cfr?
Top cfr alternatives in Analytics are ranked by recent ship velocity. Browse the "cfr alternatives" section above for the current picks, or visit /alternatives/cfr for the full list with editorial commentary on each.
What are the best alternatives to mirai?
Top mirai alternatives in Analytics are ranked by recent ship velocity. Browse the "mirai alternatives" section above for the current picks, or visit /alternatives/mirai for the full list with editorial commentary on each.