fix: preserve dirty/touched meta on late mount (#5072)

When a field component mounts after its value was changed
programmatically (e.g., via setFieldValue), the dirty and touched
meta flags are now preserved instead of being reset.

Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 4.6 <noreply@anthropic.com>

Author: logaretm

.changeset/fix-5072-dirty-meta-lost.md

@@ -0,0 +1,5 @@
+---
+"vee-validate": patch
+---
+
+Preserve dirty meta when field component mounts after programmatic changes (#5072)

packages/vee-validate/src/useFieldState.ts

@@ -159,7 +159,15 @@ export function _useFieldValue<TValue = unknown>(
   // prioritize model value over form values
   // #3429
   const currentValue = resolveModelValue(modelValue, form, initialValue, path);
-  form.stageInitialValue(unref(path), currentValue, true);
+  // Skip staging if the path already has an initial value on the form and no explicit
+  // modelValue was provided to this field. This preserves dirty state when a field
+  // component mounts after the value was changed programmatically (e.g., via setFieldValue).
+  // Without this check, stageInitialValue would overwrite the original initial value with
+  // the current (dirty) value, making dirty=false (#5072).
+  const existingInitial = getFromPath(form.initialValues.value, unref(path));
+  if (existingInitial === undefined || modelValue !== undefined) {
+    form.stageInitialValue(unref(path), currentValue, true);
+  }
   // otherwise use a computed setter that triggers the `setFieldValue`
   const value = computed<TValue>({
     get() {

packages/vee-validate/src/useForm.ts

@@ -287,11 +287,15 @@ export function useForm<
       UNSET_BATCH.splice(unsetBatchIndex, 1);
     }
 
+    // Preserve touched state from an existing path state that was created
+    // before this field component mounted (e.g., via setFieldValue) (#5072)
+    const existingTouched = pathStateExists ? pathStateExists.touched : false;
+
     const id = FIELD_ID_COUNTER++;
     const state = reactive({
       id,
       path,
-      touched: false,
+      touched: existingTouched,
       pending: false,
       valid: true,
       validated: !!initialErrors[pathValue]?.length,

packages/vee-validate/tests/useForm.spec.ts

@@ -1489,4 +1489,87 @@ describe('useForm()', () => {
     form.setValues({ file: f2 });
     expect(form.values.file).toEqual(f2);
   });
+
+  // #5072
+  test('preserves dirty meta when field component mounts after programmatic value changes', async () => {
+    let form!: FormContext<{ name: string }>;
+    const showField = ref(false);
+
+    mountWithHoc({
+      setup() {
+        form = useForm({
+          initialValues: { name: '' },
+        });
+
+        return {
+          showField,
+        };
+      },
+      template: `
+        <div>
+          <template v-if="showField">
+            <Field name="name" />
+          </template>
+        </div>
+      `,
+    });
+
+    await flushPromises();
+
+    // Set the field value programmatically before the field component is mounted
+    form.setFieldValue('name', 'John');
+    await flushPromises();
+
+    // Verify the field is dirty before mount
+    expect(form.isFieldDirty('name')).toBe(true);
+    expect(form.meta.value.dirty).toBe(true);
+
+    // Now mount the field component
+    showField.value = true;
+    await flushPromises();
+
+    // The dirty state should be preserved after the field component mounts
+    expect(form.values.name).toBe('John');
+    expect(form.isFieldDirty('name')).toBe(true);
+    expect(form.meta.value.dirty).toBe(true);
+  });
+
+  // #5072
+  test('preserves touched meta when field component mounts after programmatic changes', async () => {
+    let form!: FormContext<{ name: string }>;
+    const showField = ref(false);
+
+    mountWithHoc({
+      setup() {
+        form = useForm({
+          initialValues: { name: '' },
+        });
+
+        return {
+          showField,
+        };
+      },
+      template: `
+        <div>
+          <template v-if="showField">
+            <Field name="name" />
+          </template>
+        </div>
+      `,
+    });
+
+    await flushPromises();
+
+    // Set the field as touched programmatically before the field component is mounted
+    form.setFieldValue('name', 'John');
+    form.setFieldTouched('name', true);
+    await flushPromises();
+
+    // Now mount the field component
+    showField.value = true;
+    await flushPromises();
+
+    // The touched state should be preserved after the field component mounts
+    expect(form.isFieldTouched('name')).toBe(true);
+  });
 });