Files
Ely-GPUI-Components/AGENTS.md
T

12 KiB

AGENTS.md

Ely GPUI Component. A component library for GPUI, in light and dark.

Stack

  • Rust 1.95, edition 2024. One crate: ely-gpui-component.
  • gpui 0.2.2 from crates.io. Feature runtime_shaders is on by default: machines without Xcode lack the Metal compiler.
  • Assets, embedded with rust-embed: Lucide 1.48.0 icons (ISC), Inter 4.1 and JetBrains Mono 2.304 (OFL).
  • Catalog data: emojis (Unicode emoji), isolang (ISO 639, native names), isocountry (ISO 3166), iso_currency (ISO 4217, also minor units for money).
  • macOS extras (tray icon, Dock badge) call AppKit through cocoa 0.26 and objc 0.2, the crates gpui already links.
  • Gallery: examples/gallery. Website: frontend/ (Vite 8, pnpm), built after the components.

Commands

  • cargo run --example gallery opens the gallery. -- --page <slug> starts on a page.
  • cargo run --example gallery -- --capture <dir> writes PNGs of every page, light and dark, top to bottom, then each page's scripted states, including windows the demos open. macOS only.
  • cargo test --lib --features test-support, cargo clippy --all-targets --features test-support -- -D warnings, cargo fmt --check. scripts/check.sh runs them with the house rules.
  • rm -rf target/debug/incremental after each task item keeps the disk lean.
  • scripts/icons.sh <lucide-name>... adds icons. Then add a line to IconName in src/primitives/icon.rs.

Layout

  • src/<chapter>/: one folder per chapter of gpui-components.md.
  • src/theme: palettes, tokens, ActiveTheme. src/motion: durations, easings, spring.
  • examples/gallery/pages/<chapter>.rs: one page per chapter, in PRD order.
  • TASKS.md and tasks/: progress. Every PRD entry has a line and a tag.

Rules

  • Colors, control and icon sizes, text sizes, radii, shadows come from cx.theme(). No raw px() literals inside components.
  • Gaps and padding use gpui's rem scale helpers (gap_2, px_3). That scale is the spacing system.
  • Borders use gpui's fixed-pixel helpers (border_1 is 1px). Hairlines do not scale.
  • One component, one home. Duplicates point to it.
  • Fail fast. No silent fallbacks. Log state changes with log.
  • Files stay at or under 500 lines. Comments are one short line, and rare.
  • A repeating animation (spinner, breath, sweep) holds still under reduced motion instead of shortening, or it would spin at 1 ms a turn.
  • motion::duration() honors reduced motion. Springs overshoot: use them inside animators, never as gpui easings, because gpui asserts eased values stay in 0..=1.
  • svg() paints only with its own text_color. Icon always sets one.
  • Buttons stay out of focus on click (prevent_default on mouse down). Tab still reaches them.
  • The focus ring is a 1px focus-colored border (FocusRing). gpui paints shadows under the element, so a shadow ring floods transparent elements. Focusable elements keep a 1px border, transparent at rest.
  • ely_gpui_component::init binds Tab and Shift-Tab to FocusNext and FocusPrev. Wrap the root in FocusScope with .root() and focus its handle. A root scope takes focus when the focused element leaves the tree, as a toast's or an alert's button does.
  • gpui's Window::dispatch_event returns a private type, so the gallery scripts mouse input by posting NSEvents to its own queue.
  • hover() needs an element id.
  • occlude() blocks the pointer for everything painted before it, its own ancestors too. Put it on the outermost box that should stop the pointer, as the toast stack does, or the ancestors' hover never fires.
  • gpui sends a drag's moves to every listener of its type. Each drag payload carries its owner's EntityId, and handlers check it.
  • A component that takes a starting value from its owner keeps it in layout::seeded: a new value from the owner replaces local drags.
  • The capture harness turns on reduced motion, so shots are still: repeating motion rests on one frame, and a shimmer shows no band.
  • The capture harness finds gpui windows by handle through raw-window-handle. AppKit popups, which gpui does not own, come from the window list by process and level.
  • Posted events cannot move a macOS window, so window drags are not scripted. drag_region follows Zed's title bar.
  • An overlay takes focus with primitives::take_focus and returns it with give_back on every close path. While open, it takes focus back whenever the focused element leaves the tree (gpui's on_focus_lost).
  • A state change made outside render calls cx.notify(), or nothing redraws. A notify made while drawing, as in a canvas's prepaint, marks the view but schedules no frame (gpui's invalidate_view), so it also calls window.request_animation_frame().
  • The macOS share picker draws its content in another process; a capture shows only its frame.
  • NSColorSampler runs in another process too. The harness cannot pick or cancel with it; read_srgb is tested on a constructed NSColor instead.
  • Every text field is a forms::TextInput entity. Its keys live under the ElyInput context, bound in init. Wrappers take Up, Down, Enter and Backspace first with capture_action.
  • TextInput::bounds_for reads the last layout. Text changed this frame clamps to the laid-out end until the next paint.
  • The harness types with dispatch_keystroke through AnyWindowHandle, which leaves the root view free to redraw.
  • The macOS open panel runs out of process too. Escape does not reach it; the harness sends it cancel:.
  • gpui's test-support swaps its executor: block fails on a real dispatcher. It stays behind this crate's test-support feature, never on for the gallery.
  • A tracked FocusHandle is a Tab stop only when built with .tab_stop(true). tab_index on the div reaches only handles gpui makes itself. primitives::tab_stop keeps one per id.
  • Floating lists go below their anchor, or above when only above has room (forms::options::float). gpui's own switch keeps the anchor point, so a flipped list would cover its trigger.
  • A trigger that opens a list goes through forms::select::listing: toggle, keys, blur and popup live there, for Select, TabOverflowMenu and Breadcrumb alike.
  • A palette goes through navigation::palette::Palette: query field, grouped rows, cursor, keys and focus live there. CommandPalette, QuickOpen, QuickSwitcher, SearchPalette and QuickLauncher only build rows.
  • A menu goes through menus::menu: rows, submenus, keys, focus and presses outside live there, for DropdownMenu, OverflowMenu, SplitButton, ContextMenu, SearchableMenu and MenuBar. A press on the host's own box is the host's to handle, so a trigger toggles and a right click moves a context menu without a close and reopen in one event.
  • gpui focuses the nearest focusable ancestor on mouse down, and apps wrap everything in a FocusScope. A press that must leave focus alone calls prevent_default, as buttons and context regions do.
  • gpui draws a window's first frame inside open_window. State the first frame reads, such as cx.set_menus, is set before it opens.
  • gpui clicks a focused element when Enter or Space is released. An overlay that hands focus back picks on release too; a pick on press returns focus first, and the release clicks the opener again.
  • A dialog goes through overlays::Dialog: scrim, focus trap, Escape and focus return live there. AlertDialog, ConfirmDialog and PromptDialog build on it; a fullscreen dialog fills the window below its title bar.
  • primitives::Severity names info, success, warning and danger with their colors and icons, for alerts and feedback alike.
  • Rows that move are keyed. motion::Flip places them absolutely from last frame's heights, so no frame shows a row at its new place before it glides there, and drives the glide from elapsed time: an animation id that changes per move would rebuild the row's keyed state. Reorder holds a row by key, drags with an empty ghost and moves the held row itself.
  • A marker that slides between items (segment thumb, tab line) measures them with motion::slide and eases with glide.
  • A picker hands focus to its popup on open and back to its trigger on pick or Escape; it closes once focus leaves both (forms::date::picker).
  • Motion for a value change keys its animation on motion::changes, so it replays per change and stays still on first paint. Key only the part that moves: a keyed ancestor gives every descendant a new id, and focused buttons lose focus.
  • A spotlight or tour takes its target's box from primitives::Measure; the lit box glides between targets.
  • Thumbs stay inside their component's box: the track is padded by half a thumb (Slider, ColorPicker, GradientEditor).
  • gpui's Hsla::opacity scales alpha; alpha sets it.
  • A rounded box does not clip its children. Each layer inside takes the radius itself; checker takes one.
  • A window keeps one feedback::Toaster and renders one ToastViewport; anything holding the entity pushes to it. Messages share primitives::Severity.
  • Only gpui can build ExternalPaths with paths, so drop rules live in forms::files::dropped, where tests reach them.
  • gpui runs key bindings before key listeners. A container takes a child's bound key through the action with capture_action, as Form takes Submit.
  • ScrollHandle::scroll_to_item runs in the container's prepaint before its bounds are stored, so a first-frame call misfires. Call it from a child's prepaint once the handle has bounds, then request one frame (navigation::editor_tabs). Never poll layout with request_animation_frame.
  • gpui animations run on the wall clock; timers run on the executor's clock, which tests advance by hand. A test that needs an animation settled turns on the theme's reduced motion. Clocks read background_executor().now() and wake only their own view.
  • The test platform never runs next-frame callbacks, and its text metrics are simplified: each character takes a fixed advance. Tests refresh the window in place of the display link, and click where layout does not hang on text, such as padding and slots.
  • An absolute element with no insets sits where it would flow: after the content in a block, inside the padding in a flex box. A canvas that measures its parent pins itself with .top_0().left_0().
  • Keyed state lives while its element renders in consecutive frames. An overlay rendered only while open starts fresh each time.
  • Long grids scroll in a uniform_list. gpui has no nearest scroll, so a key move up scrolls with Top and down with Bottom (forms::glyphs).
  • Masks reshape edits inside TextInput::set_fit, which sees the replaced range and the typed text. A diff after the fact cannot tell typed characters from kept ones.
  • Ids inside a reusable component carry its owner's id or EntityId, animation ids too. Twin ids share focus, click and animation state.
  • Text wraps at the width its box had when measured. A cross-axis max_w comes too late, and a flex column counts wrapped text as one line. Put prose in a plain block inside a flex row with flex_1().max_w(..) (feedback::states).
  • Set an explicit line height on any box that clips text. gpui's default leading is taller than a tight box, and the clip eats descenders.
  • gpui's img takes its picture's pixel size for any Auto side, and its aspect ratio beats percent heights in flow. Image pins it absolute at full size, so an Image needs a sized box.
  • img() keeps loading state only with an id. Content masks are rectangles, so rounded corners survive only when the image fills its box without cropping.

Decisions

  • 2026-09-24: official gpui 0.2.2 over the gpui-pre snapshot. Older API, first-party publisher.
  • 2026-09-24: one crate. Revisit if an incremental check passes 90 seconds.
  • 2026-09-24: gpui 0.2.2 has no accessibility tree and no tray, badge, or notification API. Those entries carry blocked or prove.
  • 2026-09-24: the gallery photographs its own window with CGWindowListCreateImage. No Screen Recording permission needed.
  • 2026-09-24: license MIT OR Apache-2.0.
  • 2026-09-25: layouts persist as versioned JSON through serde. Unknown fields are ignored. Newer versions, unknown panels and bad pane trees are refused, and restore is all or nothing.
  • 2026-09-25: an entry built from a later chapter's parts lands with that chapter; its line points there. MenuBar goes to Menus, QuickLauncher to Navigation.
  • 2026-09-25: SystemNotification is blocked. An unbundled app has no notification center (probed on macOS 27.2), and gpui 0.2.2 has no API.
  • 2026-09-25: unexpected_cfgs declares feature = "cargo-clippy", which the objc 0.2 macros test.