this just works but doesn't feel alright. One issue I got is if I ever change the endpoint or rename slug I also have to check the variables used in the ViewModel... forcing me to use constants

And there really isn't that much 'magic' there -

hiltViewModel

looks at the

LocalViewModelStoreOwner

. Within a

composable

destination, that would be its

NavBackStackEntry

. Each

NavBackStackEntry

has the set of arguments parsed from your route - those are passed through to Hilt's ViewModelFactory which is based on a `SavedStateViewModelFactory`: https://developer.android.com/reference/androidx/lifecycle/SavedStateViewModelFactory

You'll note the constructor there that takes a set of

defaultArgs

- that's what populates the

SavedStateHandle

with the arguments from your

NavBackStackEntry

There's some work being done in ViewModels themselves, namely in https://issuetracker.google.com/issues/188541057, that makes it way easier to inject additional information into the ViewModel Factory (i.e., exactly what assisted injection tries to do). Still early days (nothing released yet), so it'll be awhile until any Dagger/Hilt integration that leverages that new capability becomes available