AGENTS.md · anomalyco/opentui

Sections

1. Engineering
2. Tooling And Runtimes
3. Verification
4. Portable FFI

First lines (shown under the repo's MIT license)

# OpenTUI Agent Guide

## Engineering

- Reuse existing seams; do not duplicate policy, ownership, or state across TypeScript, Zig, and framework layers.
- For bug fixes, first add a focused regression test of observable behavior or invariants. If automation is impossible,
  record the evidence and remaining manual verification; do not substitute contract sketches or guesses.
- Make native ownership explicit; clean up handles, callbacks, buffers, and listeners on every exit path. Bound
  input-driven work and test lifecycle failures.
- Do not interchange byte lengths, code points, graphemes, and terminal display-cell widths.
- `oxfmt` is the formatting source of truth (`semi: false`, `printWidth: 120`); avoid unrelated formatting churn.
- In delegated tasks, name the local rendering behavior, owned files, and required checks. Describe ordinary
  renderer work as correctness and compatibility testing; reserve security terminology for actual security work.
  Use concrete scopes such as frame parity, callback ordering, resource cleanup, or loopback SSH output tests.
  Request an independent correctness review and a separate reproduction check of actionable findings.

## Tooling And Runtimes

- Use Bun for dependency management and development commands: `bun install`, `bun run <script>`, `bun test`, and `bun <file>`.
- Run package scripts from the package directory unless the script is defined at the repository root.
- Shared runtime code must preserve the supported Bun and Node paths. Keep runtime-specific behavior behind existing
  platform/runtime/build seams; do not introduce Bun-only APIs into shared modules. Node checks use the minimum
  version enforced by `scripts/node26.mjs`.

## Verification

- Run the narrowest relevant test first, then the affected package suite.
- Ordinary TypeScript source changes do not require the root build. Use the affected package's `test`, `typecheck`,
  `build`, or validation scripts as applicable.
- Run `bun run build` from the repository root after native or cross-package build/output changes, or when tests report
  a missing/stale native artifact. It does not build web or examples; use their package scripts.
- For native changes, run `bun run test:native` from `packages/core`. Filter with `bun run test:native -Dtest-filter="test name"` while iterating.
- For runtime, FFI, build, or export changes, run the relevant Node and packed-distribution scripts from that package
  (such as `test:js:node` or `test:dist`) when present.
- Use root `bun run fmt:check` and `bun run lint` for final static checks when relevant.

Prefer tests and `TestRenderer` for automated debugging. For interactive behavior, load the `terminal-control` skill and
use its terminal tool to run, drive, and inspect the app; repository examples bind backtick to
`renderer.console.toggle()` for captured `console.log` output. Ask for a user-run reproduction only when the required
terminal or platform is unavailable locally.

## Portable FFI

- Portable symbol signatures must stay within the `node:ffi`/`bun:ffi` intersection. Use explicit widths such as
  `u32`/`u64`, not backend-only ABI names such as `usize`, `napi_env`, or `napi_value`; represent `i64`/`u64` as `bigint`,
  native booleans as `0`/`1`, and shared pointers as `number | bigint`.
- Default to `buffer` for transient, non-null `TypedArray` parameters and pass the view directly. Do not call `ptr()`.
- For a raw `ArrayBuffer`, create one `Uint8Array` view over it, keep that view, and declare `buffer`. A `buffer` call
  costs less than a `ptr` call. `buffer` rejects an argument that is not a view with a `TypeError`. `ptr` sends a bad
  argument to native code as an address.
- Use `ptr` only when a parameter can be null, accepts a numeric native address, or is a callback. Pass transient owner
  objects directly to `ptr` parameters. Do not pre-resolve them.
- Bun 1.3 does not accept `DataView` directly for `buffer` or `ptr` parameters. Pass an equivalent typed array such as
  `new Uint8Array(view.buffer, view.byteOffset, view.byteLength)`.
- On Bun 1.4+, use `buffer` when you pass a `DataView` directly to FFI.
- Use `ptr(view)` only when native code stores the address beyond the call. Before resolving it, access `view.buffer` to
  move any inline typed-array storage into a stable `ArrayBuffer`, then keep the view alive for the complete native
  lifetime. The order is required: `const owner = view.buffer; const address = ptr(view)`. Calling `ptr(view)` first and
  accessing `view.buffer` later can move the storage and invalidate `address`.
- Model C-string inputs as pointer parameters and pass owned, NUL-terminated byte buffers directly; string returns are
  not portable. Create callbacks through the loaded library/platform facade, not `new JSCallback(...)`, and assume only
  same-thread callbacks.