Tactility/.claude/rules/app-framework.md
Ken Van Hoeylandt 79d3dd4fdb
Improvements for apps, filesystems, terminal and shell (#659)
app-module

- Apps now have support for:
  - environment variables (inherit from parent app)
  - current workdir
  - window size (when running in terminal)
- Add type aliases like `AppId` and `PackageId`
- Remove data duplication between ledger and app instance records: create `AppManifestSet`
- `AppManifest` usage safety improved: pass by value where needed, or use `AppId` instead of a manifest.

Terminal and shell

- Moved shell commands into coreutils-module as proper apps.
- Refine stack size for terminal and shell because apps now run with their own task and stack (including in-memory apps)

Platform

- Fix for listing root dir on ESP32: wrap posix directory functions and wire in file systems.
- Moved all platform-specific file system init code to platform subprojects

Other

- Fix for screenshot capture (issue with paths)
- Fixes for coreutils app correctness
- Memory optimizations (use more PSRAM where possible) in various locations such as app-module, shell and terminal.
- `ls` and `help` commands now use terminal width and show columns of data by default
- Created fs helpers at `TactilityKernel/include/tactility/filesystem/fs.h` (partially ported from `ShellFs`)
2026-09-25 08:29:27 +02:00

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Markdown

# Architecture: App Framework
Apps are event-driven, C API (`app-module`, `<app/*.h>`), not a C++ class. Each app has an `AppManifest` and a `main(argc, argv)` entry point, like C program's `main()`. Every app instance gets its own dedicated task.
Lifecycle and inter-app communication go through `app_manager_*()` (`app/manager.h`) and `app_event_*()` (`app/event.h`):
Apps are registered at startup via `app_manager_add()`. External apps have a `manifest.properties`, or are side-loaded as binaries (see `app/loader.h`'s `AppLoaderApi`).
Apps can be loaded from:
- memory (`APP_LOCATION_MEMORY`)
- a path pointing to an install folder where an `.app` file was installed (`APP_LOCATION_PATH`)
- a path pointing to an `.elf` or `.so` file (`APP_LOCATION_PATH`)
Apps can build optional UI via the LVGL window-manager module (see `lvgl.md`).