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

846 B

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).