docs: theme-faces framing (Arc 4 stage 1) at revision 4

Named UI faces under the reserved ui/ui.* theme namespace, resolved
daemon-side and shipped to semantic frontends over a new ThemeFacts
channel (protocol v15 -> 16). Twelve stage-1 faces with per-face
component masks identical on both frontends; owns-surface-within-mask
application; two monotonic theme mutation counters with transactional
mutators (fixes the pre-existing mid-session StyleGate staleness
bug); authoritative-per-attachment facts baseline; GPU status-band
shaping-cache invalidation.

Revisions 2-3 fold framing review rounds 1-2 (17 findings);
revision 4 folds the user's round 3 (7 findings: candidate-dropdown
GPU site, CompletionPopup byte pin, production transaction helper,
empty-diag-child reset semantics, exhaustive GPU route acceptance,
exact predicate wording, integration-shaped peer-selection test).
Ground truth re-pinned at 3cbb9de after PR #114 moved syntax.rs.

Co-Authored-By: Claude Fable 5 <noreply@anthropic.com>
Claude-Session: https://claude.ai/code/session_01VoiEyuPjoBhvwACf8HAnLB
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Levi Neuwirth 2026-07-14 13:09:30 +01:00
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# Theme faces — framing (Arc 4 stage 1, themes)
**Revision 4 — 2026-07-14. Status: awaiting approval; folds framing
rounds 13.**
Revision 4 (framing round 3, findings 17):
`ui.minibuffer.candidate` now has a real GPU site: its `fg` colors the
existing minibuffer-dropdown candidate glyph layer, while popup
background/selection theming stays deferred; the mask is therefore a
true intersection of both render paths (finding 1). The v15
discriminant guard pins the byte encoding of `CompletionPopup`, the
actual final pre-v16 variant, rather than the earlier `LineNumbers`
variant (finding 2). The deterministic transactional bite now targets
the production ordered-result helper: it consumes an iterator of
`Result<(String, Style)>`, collects every result before taking the
theme lock, and commits only the completed vector, so an `Ok` followed
by an `Err` is both representable and guaranteed to leave the theme
untouched (finding 3). An empty diagnostic child is named as an
explicit reset to the built-in severity color, not as "unset" -- it
blocks parent inheritance -- and acceptance covers a themed
`ui.diag` parent plus an empty `ui.diag.error` child (finding 4). GPU
acceptance now covers every distinct stage-1 route: modeline reverse,
transient status text, minibuffer and isearch text, candidate-dropdown
glyphs, normal/active search washes, and the existing gutter,
selection, and diagnostic paths (finding 5). The prose and unset
fixture use the exact `ui`-or-`ui.*` predicate (finding 6). Finally,
the peer-selection acceptance drives the actual decoration collector
with simultaneous local and peer selections and inspects their
emitted colors; it is not a helper-only assertion (finding 7).
Revision 3 (framing round 2, findings 19): the cross-frontend
contract is structural now — every face carries a stage-1
**component mask**, identical on both frontends and sized to what
both can render today (the GPU gutter has no background layer; wash
quads cannot recolor or reverse glyphs); out-of-mask components are
ignored *everywhere*, so `ui.selection = { fg = 1 }` and
`ui.gutter = { bg = 1 }` are component no-ops on the TUI too, and
mask widening is a named, additive deferral (finding 1). Diag faces
get a representable `Default` policy: `Default` fg means the
built-in severity color, not "plain" — the minimap summary encodes
diagnostic *presence* by copying that color into `underline_color`,
where `Default` reads as "no mark", so an all-default diag face
uses the built-in severity color rather than an unrepresentable plain mark
(finding 2). The face predicate is explicit —
`name == "ui" || name.starts_with("ui.")` — shared by the
reservation, the counter-bump classification, and a merge-bare-`ui`
acceptance case (finding 3). The consecutive-`set` bite interleaves
render/observe between the mutations; two `set`s inside one dispatch
legitimately coalesce into one emission (finding 4). Producer and
gate caches advance on computation, not on emission:
`last_face_epoch` is `Option<u64>` (the gate cannot short-circuit
while the payload baseline is absent, guaranteeing the first
authoritative send against an epoch-0 daemon), an identical rebuild
records the epoch it inspected, and the summary inserts its new key
even when payload equality withholds the message; Rust units pin
single-recompute, which traffic assertions cannot see (finding 5).
`SearchView::new` takes `Option<ThemeHandle>` — a bare core
constructs an unthemed view, no contradiction (finding 6).
`ThemeFacts` is appended after `CompletionPopup`, and a byte-level
encoding pin of the final existing variant guards the placement — postcard
discriminants are ordinal, and the new variant's own round-trip
cannot detect a shift that would corrupt v15 peers (finding 7). The
malformed-merge Lua acceptance pins only the order-independent user
contract; the deterministic bite is a Rust unit on an ordered result
stream, since Lua table iteration order is unspecified
(finding 8). `ui.selection` themes the local selection only: the
GPU splits its resolution path so peer selection rects keep the
constant, and peer theming stays deferred with the peer-cursor
palette (finding 9).
Revision 2 (framing round 1, findings 18): the theme mutation
contract is transactional and monotonic — all four mutators parse
and validate their full input before taking the lock, commit
all-or-nothing, and bump from the prior counter value after every
successful commit; `set` replaces the `by_capture` field, never the
`Theme` value, so counters survive wholesale replacement (finding 1).
The counter is split into `syntax_epoch` (keys the `StyleGate`) and
`face_epoch` (keys the `ThemeFacts` producer), so a face-only edit
never re-runs the tree-sitter span query; the minimap summary keys on
both — diag faces feed its marks — and gains payload-equality
suppression, so a non-diag face edit recomputes once per mutation and
emits nothing (finding 8). Stage 2 takes protocol v17: once a v16
binary ships, a variant added under v16 would let two incompatible
v16 schemas negotiate successfully (finding 2). Face application is
unified as "a set face owns its surface" — both frontends replace
the site default wholesale, with `Default` components meaning that
frontend's *plain* rendering (GPU mapping table in Q#TH5); the
finding-5 divergences (`{ fg }` keeping the GPU band bg, empty
`ui.selection` diverging) are gone, and the residual divergences
(`Indexed` palette meaning; GPU chrome honoring fg/bg/reverse only in
stage 1) are named and tested. `ThemeFacts` is authoritative per
attachment: the baseline seeds to `None`, every attachment receives
exactly one table — empty included — after viewport declaration, so
a frontend retaining face state across attachments is corrected even
by an unthemed daemon (finding 4; the current GPU has no reconnect
path, so this is contract, not accident). GPU ThemeFacts application
invalidates the status-band shaping cache — `E:`/`W:` colors are
baked into shaped rich text and re-shaping is gated on string
equality, so a diag-face change with constant counts kept stale
colors (finding 3). The grid views get a real theme path:
`EditorCore` gains an injected `ThemeHandle` for
`ensure_search_overlay`, and `install_diag` threads the handle to
`DiagnosticView`; acceptance drives the dispatched-search and Lua
diagnostic-attachment paths, not bare constructors (finding 6). The
reserved namespace covers the bare root `ui` as well as `ui.*`,
matching the inheritance walk's terminal (finding 7). Acceptance
adds consecutive-`set` monotonicity, malformed-merge atomicity, GPU
diag-recolor-with-constant-counts, owns-surface cross-frontend
semantics, and absence assertions for face-only mutations.
Revision 1: initial framing.
Arc 4 ("Themes + extensibility surface", `docs/roadmap-2026-07.md:83`)
names three deliverables: named UI faces wired to both frontends, a
`pmacs.gpu.set_font` runtime font swap, and a Lua statusline-segment
API. This framing covers **stage 1 only — named UI faces plus the
`ThemeFacts` wire channel (protocol v15→16)**. Font swap and
statusline segments are stages 2 and 3, each with its own framing
(Q#TH1). One branch (`theme-faces`), one PR.
## Ground truth (as of `3cbb9de`)
### The theme substrate today
- `Theme { by_capture: HashMap<String, Style>, default_style: Style }`
`src/highlight.rs:59-67`. One global instance behind
`ThemeHandle = Arc<Mutex<Theme>>` (`highlight.rs:190`), owned by the
`SyntaxRegistry` (`src/syntax.rs:478`, seeded `Theme::default_dark()`
at `:500`, exposed via `.theme()` at `:509`; line refs re-verified
after PR #114's syntax.rs changes, whose bundled CUDA grammar also
introduces no `ui`-named capture).
- `Theme::lookup` (`highlight.rs:161-172`) tries the full dotted name,
strips one `.`-segment at a time, and **falls back to
`default_style`** — correct for syntax captures, wrong for faces
(an unset face must mean "keep today's hardcoded look", which is
not expressible as a `Style` on the semantic path).
- Lua surface is complete and mounted: `pmacs.theme.{set, merge, get,
clear, default, current}` — `src/lua_bindings/mod.rs:6898-6993`.
`set` replaces `by_capture` wholesale but preserves `default_style`
(`:6913-6915`). Style/color marshalling: `lua_to_style` `:6865`,
`lua_to_color` `:6780` (nil/"default" → `Color::Default`, 0..=255 →
`Indexed`, `{r,g,b}``Rgb`).
- Mutator shapes today: `set` parses the whole table into a scratch
`Theme` *before* locking, then wholesale-replaces the locked value
(`:6906-6915`) — already transactional, but the replacement would
reset any naive counter carried on `Theme`. `merge` locks first and
inserts while iterating (`:6925-6931`) — a malformed later entry
errors out with earlier entries already applied.
- Wire vocabulary already suffices: `Color { Default, Rgb, Indexed }`
and `Style { fg, bg, bold, italic, underline, reverse,
underline_color }` — `pmacs-protocol/src/cell.rs:84-133`. No alpha
channel (relevant for GPU washes, Q#TH8).
- Theme colors already cross the wire *indirectly*: `scoped_style_spans`
(`src/semantic_render.rs:1501-1566`) clones the theme, resolves
capture → `Style`, and ships `StyleSpans`. Nothing chrome-related
crosses at all.
### Chrome colors today — every one a hardcoded literal
Grid path (daemon paints cells for the TUI; `paint_frame`,
`src/editor.rs:2086`, has `&EditorState` and therefore theme access):
| Site | Where | Literal |
|---|---|---|
| Per-window mode line | `editor.rs:2474` (`paint_mode_line`) | `reverse: true` (`:2499-2502`) |
| Status/echo row | `editor.rs:2260` (`paint_status_line`) | `reverse: true` (`:2275-2286`) |
| Line-number gutter | `editor.rs:2320` | `fg: Indexed(8)` (`:2332-2335`) |
| Selection | `editor.rs:2375` | `cell.style.reverse = true` (`:2431`) |
| Minibuffer prompt/input/fill | `editor.rs:2541` | `Style::default()` (`:2571`, `:2588`, `:2613-2617`) |
| Minibuffer candidate suffix | `editor.rs:2605-2608` | `reverse: true` |
| Search prompt row | `editor.rs:2629` | `Style::default()` (`:2659`, `:2677`) |
| Search matches | `src/search.rs:362-378` | bg `Indexed(3)`/fg `Indexed(0)`; active bg `Indexed(11)` |
| Diagnostic severity color | `src/diag.rs:90-97` | `Indexed(1)/(3)/(6)/(8)` — shared by squiggle `underline_color`, column-0 marker, minimap mark |
GPU path (frontend-local constants, `pmacs-gpu/src/main.rs`):
| Site | Where | Literal |
|---|---|---|
| Status band bg | `:130` | `STATUS_BAND_BG [0.105, 0.105, 0.145, 1.0]` |
| Band left text (name/prompt) | `:4511` | `rgb(200,200,210)` |
| Band right readout | `:4496` | `rgb(168,168,180)` |
| Band `E:`/`W:` counters | `:3401`, `:3407` | `rgb(241,76,76)`, `rgb(245,245,67)` |
| Gutter digits | `:4534` | `rgb(120,120,135)` |
| Selection wash | `:6661` | `[0.31, 0.42, 0.82, 0.30]` |
| Search washes | `:6673-6674` | `[0.85,0.78,0.20,0.30]`, `[0.95,0.55,0.12,0.48]` |
| Diag squiggles/signs | `:6606-6623` | Error `[0.945,0.298,0.298]`, Warning `[0.961,0.961,0.263]`, Info `[0.231,0.557,0.918]`, Hint `[0.4,0.4,0.4]` |
| Surface clear / caret / menu / minimap | `:61-66`, `:73-74`, `:145-147`, `:111-114` | out of stage-1 scope (Deferred) |
`Indexed` colors mean different things per frontend: the TUI defers
to the user's terminal palette; the GPU has its own hardcoded xterm
table (`indexed_to_glyphon`, `main.rs:6552-6587`). A face set with
`Indexed` colors will render per-frontend, same as syntax styles do
today — documented, not fixed here (Deferred).
### The facts-channel template (LineNumbers, Q#UX1)
- `PROTOCOL_VERSION = 15` (`pmacs-protocol/src/message.rs:1333`);
`SUPPORTED_PROTOCOL_VERSIONS = [6..=15]` (`:1393`). Standard bump
shape: additive variant + daemon write-loop gate on
`negotiated_protocol_version` (`src/daemon.rs:1119-1121`,
`:1153-1157`); old peers receive nothing on the channel.
- Producer pattern: cached-compare field on `SemanticRenderState`,
emit-on-change from `render_frame`'s emission list
(`src/semantic_render.rs:462-478`; `line_numbers_msg` `:810-825`).
Nothing emits before the frontend declares a viewport (`:307-310`).
- Late join is free: per-session state is built fresh at attach
(`daemon.rs:1377-1381`), and a baseline seeded to the *frontend's
default belief* re-emits exactly the non-default state
(`semantic_render.rs:265-269`). `InlineAdornments` additionally
suppresses "nothing to say, nothing ever sent" (`:297-304`).
- TUI drops the whole family silently (`src/frontend.rs:380-422`) —
its chrome arrives pre-painted in the cell grid.
- Pin tests updated every bump: `assert_eq!(PROTOCOL_VERSION, …)` at
`src/protocol.rs:1710`, the resume-ladder test at `:1774-1797`
(accepted range and the rejected next version), and a postcard
round-trip pin per new variant.
- The dormant `InstanceMessage::ModeLine(Vec<Cell>)` (`message.rs:506`)
is cell-shaped, unproduced, and not what this arc needs; it stays
dormant.
### Pre-existing staleness bug (this arc fixes it)
`StyleGate` (`semantic_render.rs:226-246`) keys the `StyleSpans`
recompute on (parse-bundle `Arc`, CRDT generation, viewport) — never
the theme. `file_style_summary_msg` similarly keys the minimap
summary on `(generation, diag_epoch)` (`:914`). A mid-session
`pmacs.theme.set` therefore re-ships **nothing** to a semantic
frontend until the next buffer edit: the GPU keeps stale colors. The
grid path is immune (`SyntaxHighlightView` clones the theme every
render, `highlight.rs:316`), as is the ungated LSP-token span path.
There is no theme mutation counter anywhere in `src/`. Q#TH6
introduces two (syntax/face) and folds them into the gates.
## Decisions
### Q#TH1 — Scope: stage 1 of Arc 4; faces + wire only
This PR delivers named UI faces resolved daemon-side, applied by both
frontends, controlled through the existing `pmacs.theme` surface, and
shipped to semantic frontends over a new v16 `ThemeFacts` channel.
`pmacs.gpu.set_font` (stage 2) and the statusline-segment API
(stage 3) are deferred with named hooks: **stage 2 takes protocol
v17** — once a v16 binary exists, adding another variant under v16
would let old and new v16 peers negotiate successfully despite
incompatible schemas (postcard is not self-describing); reusing 16
is possible only if stage 2's wire shape lands in this same PR,
which it does not. The segment API lands after faces so segments can
carry face names instead of raw colors.
### Q#TH2 — Faces are theme entries under the reserved `ui` / `ui.*` namespace
A face is an entry in the existing `by_capture` map whose name is
exactly `ui` or starts with `ui.` -- no new type, no second map, no new
Lua API.
`pmacs.theme.merge { ["ui.modeline"] = { bg = 236, fg = 252 } }`
works today, unmodified. The face predicate is one explicit
function, used by every consumer — the docs reservation, Q#TH6's
counter-bump classification, and the producer's key filter:
```rust
fn is_face_name(name: &str) -> bool {
name == "ui" || name.starts_with("ui.")
}
```
The bare root `ui` is included because Q#TH4 makes it the walk's
deliberate catch-all — a `merge { ui = … }` must bump `face_epoch`
and emit `ThemeFacts`, not disappear into the syntax path. No
tree-sitter capture or LSP token type is named `ui` or `ui.*`
(verified against `default_dark` and the grammar queries).
`pmacs.theme.get("ui.x")` keeps its
existing `lookup` semantics (resolves through to `default_style`) —
introspection tolerates that; rendering does not (Q#TH4).
### Q#TH3 — Stage-1 face inventory: twelve faces
The roadmap's five surfaces, plus the two chrome families that
already have daemon-side palettes (search, diagnostics), plus the
minibuffer's one sub-face. Effects per frontend (unset = exactly
today's literal, from the Ground-truth tables):
The **mask** column is the stage-1 component contract of Q#TH5:
identical on both frontends, sized to what both can render today.
| Face | Mask | Grid/TUI effect | GPU effect |
|---|---|---|---|
| `ui.modeline` | fg bg reverse | per-window mode-line row | status-band bg quad; band name + readout text |
| `ui.statusline` | fg | bottom status/echo row | echo-message segment text |
| `ui.minibuffer` | fg | prompt + input + fill; search prompt row | minibuffer/isearch band text |
| `ui.minibuffer.candidate` | fg | inline candidate suffix | minibuffer-dropdown candidate glyphs |
| `ui.gutter` | fg | line-number strip | gutter digit text |
| `ui.selection` | bg | local-region cells (wash) | local-selection wash RGB |
| `ui.search.match` | bg | lazy-match cells (wash) | match wash RGB |
| `ui.search.match.active` | bg | active-match cells (wash) | active wash RGB |
| `ui.diag.error` | fg† | severity color | squiggle + gutter sign + band `E:` counter |
| `ui.diag.warning` | fg† | severity color | squiggle + sign + `W:` counter |
| `ui.diag.info` | fg† | severity color | squiggle + sign |
| `ui.diag.hint` | fg† | severity color | squiggle + sign |
† diag faces carry the special `Default` policy of Q#TH5: `Default`
fg means the built-in severity color, not "plain".
The GPU status band is the mode-line analogue (one band, no separate
echo row — a structural divergence this arc does not resolve), so it
takes `ui.modeline` for its surface and `ui.statusline`/`ui.minibuffer`
only for the text of the corresponding *content* it happens to be
showing. `ui.minibuffer.candidate` colors the existing dropdown's
candidate glyphs only; its background and selected-row quad remain
popup chrome. Deliberately excluded from stage 1 (all named in Deferred):
popup/menu/completion-dropdown backgrounds and selection quads,
completion/menu glyph faces, `ui.background`, `ui.caret`,
`ui.modeline.inactive`, minimap chrome, peer-cursor palette,
inlay-hint face.
### Q#TH4 — Resolution: `Theme::face()`, `None` when unset, never `default_style`
New method on `Theme`:
```rust
pub fn face(&self, name: &str) -> Option<Style>
```
Same dotted-prefix walk as `lookup`, but the walk returns `None` when
nothing matches instead of falling back to `default_style` — an
unset face must leave the paint site's hardcoded default untouched,
and a user's `pmacs.theme.default` (a *syntax* fallback) must never
bleed into chrome. The walk gives inheritance for free:
`ui.search.match.active` falls back to `ui.search.match`, the four
`ui.diag.*` to `ui.diag`, and everything to a deliberate catch-all
`ui` (a theme can tint all chrome in one entry; a consequence of
uniform walk semantics, not a special case). Callers pass full face
names only.
### Q#TH5 — A set face owns its surface, within its component mask
Wire `Style` cannot distinguish an omitted component from an
explicitly-requested default, so per-component fallback to the
site's old literal would diverge across frontends (`ui.modeline =
{ fg = 252 }` would drop the TUI's reverse video while the GPU kept
its band background; an empty `ui.selection` would disable the TUI
wash but leave the GPU wash intact). And an unmasked wholesale rule
is not implementable either: the GPU gutter has only a foreground
text layer (`main.rs:4522`), and the selection/search washes are
background quads that can neither recolor nor reverse glyphs
(`main.rs:4801`) — an unrestricted contract would make
`ui.selection = { fg = 1 }` recolor TUI glyphs with no GPU
counterpart. The unified rule:
- **Unset face** (resolution `None`): the site's hardcoded default,
both frontends, byte-identical to today.
- **Set face**: the surface resets to plain, and the face's
components **within the face's mask** (the Q#TH3 table) apply.
Components outside the mask are ignored on BOTH frontends — the
mask is the cross-frontend contract, sized to the intersection of
what the two render paths can express today, so equivalence is
structural rather than aspirational. `ui.selection = { fg = 1 }`
is a component no-op on the TUI too (an effectively-empty wash
face: wash disabled on both); `ui.gutter = { bg = 1 }` likewise
renders as an all-default gutter face on both. Widening a mask
later (GPU gutter background layer, wash glyph recolor/reverse,
chrome bold/italic/underline) is additive and named in Deferred.
- **`Default` within the mask** means *that frontend's plain
rendering*, never "the old chrome look". On the TUI, plain =
terminal defaults. On the GPU, a fixed mapping: `Default` fg ↦
the buffer-text default `rgb(230,230,235)` (`main.rs:4482`);
`Default` bg ↦ the window background (an untinted band quad; no
wash quad); `reverse` (in-mask only for `ui.modeline`) swaps
fg/bg after the mapping. `ui.modeline = { fg = 252 }` therefore
yields "plain background, color-252 text" on both frontends, and
`ui.selection = {}` disables the selection wash on both —
consistent, if deliberately drab; the user asked for an
all-default surface.
- **Wash faces** (`ui.selection`, `ui.search.match`,
`ui.search.match.active`) remain a *composition* class: the
masked face style (bg only, stage 1) replaces the default
**overlay** argument of the existing `merge_styles(cell, overlay)`
(`src/overlay.rs:136` — non-`Default` components win, booleans
OR), then merges over syntax-styled cells as today, so a wash
never touches glyph fg in stage 1. The unset defaults remain the
full overlay literals of today (`Style { reverse: true, .. }` for
selection; the search literals as-is — the mask constrains *face*
application, not the unset defaults). On the GPU the wash quad
takes the face `bg` RGB with the site's current alpha — wire
`Style` has no alpha; translucency is a rendering choice and
stays frontend-local (Q#UX1 division).
- **`ui.selection` themes the local selection only.** The GPU
currently colors peer selection rects through the same
`DecorationKind::Selection` helper (`main.rs:4946`); the
implementation splits that resolution path — the local path
resolves the face, the peer path keeps the constant — so peer
rendering stays outside the theme system until the deferred
peer-cursor palette arc. (The TUI peer path, `overlay_paint.rs`,
is already separate.)
- **`ui.minibuffer.candidate` has one GPU effect in stage 1:** its
masked `fg` is the `default_color` of the existing minibuffer
dropdown candidate `TextArea` (`main.rs:4594-4610`). This does not
theme the popup background or selected-row quad; those remain on
their current constants and in Deferred. On the grid path the same
face colors the inline selected-candidate suffix.
- **Diag faces**: the `fg` component is the canonical severity color
(the `diag.rs:84-97` contract: squiggle `underline_color`, marker,
minimap mark all share it), with a face-family-specific `Default`
policy: **`Default` fg means the built-in severity color**, not
plain. The severity color doubles as the *presence* encoding in
the minimap summary — `scoped_file_summary` copies it into the
line's `underline_color` (`semantic_render.rs:1779`), and the GPU
reads `underline_color == Default` as "no diagnostic mark"
(`main.rs:5551`) — so a plain severity color is unrepresentable
and `ui.diag.error = {}` explicitly resets that child to the
built-in error color on every surface (squiggle, sign, minimap, band
counter). It is not absent: an exact empty child stops Q#TH4's walk,
so it overrides an inherited `ui.diag` color with the built-in.
Residual divergence, accepted and tested: `Indexed` colors mean the
user's terminal palette on the TUI and the `indexed_to_glyphon`
table on the GPU (pre-existing; identical to syntax styles today).
### Q#TH6 — Two monotonic mutation counters; transactional mutators
`Theme` gains `syntax_epoch: u64` and `face_epoch: u64` (both 0 at
construction), owned by the same mutex. The mutation contract for
the four Lua bindings — the only mid-session mutation paths:
1. **Parse before locking.** The production `set`/`merge` transaction
helper accepts a commit mode plus an ordered iterator of
`mlua::Result<(String, Style)>`, collects the whole iterator into
`mlua::Result<Vec<(String, Style)>>`, and only after `Ok(Vec)`
acquires the theme mutex and commits in the requested mode. The Lua
table iterator maps each raw `(name, style_table)` entry through
`lua_to_style` into that result stream. `default` parses its one
`Style` before locking; `clear` has no input to parse. `set`
already parses into a scratch value pre-lock; `merge` today
inserts while iterating under the lock (`mod.rs:6925-6931`), so a
malformed later entry currently leaves earlier entries applied —
that shape is disallowed.
2. **Commit all-or-nothing.** Every entry applies, or the binding
errors with the theme untouched (and therefore no counter bump
and no downstream emission).
3. **Bump from the prior value after every successful commit.**
`set` replaces the `by_capture` *field* — never `*theme =
new_theme`, whose zeroed counters would let consecutive `set`
calls share an epoch and stay invisible to every gate — then
bumps; counters only ever increment. Per mutator: `set` and
`clear` bump both counters; `merge` classifies every committed
key through `is_face_name` (Q#TH2 — bare `ui` is a face key) and
bumps `syntax_epoch` iff any non-face key committed, `face_epoch`
iff any face key did; `default` bumps `syntax_epoch` only.
Consumers:
- `StyleGate` gains a `syntax_epoch` field, compared in `matches()`
— a capture recolor forces the tree-sitter span recompute and the
changed spans ship (the fix for the pre-existing GPU staleness
bug, bite-able on its own: mid-session `pmacs.theme.set` with no
buffer edit must produce a `StyleSpans` re-emission). A face-only
edit leaves `syntax_epoch` untouched and never re-runs the query.
- `file_style_summary_msg`'s cache key becomes `(generation,
diag_epoch, syntax_epoch, face_epoch)` — `face_epoch` belongs in
the key because `ui.diag.*` feeds the minimap marks — **plus a
payload-equality suppression**: a face edit that leaves the
summary unchanged (e.g. `ui.modeline`) recomputes it once per
mutation, not per tick, and emits nothing. The cache key advances
on *computation*, not on emission — the suppressed send still
inserts the new key, or the recompute repeats every tick and the
performance contract is a fiction. Rust units pin the
single-recompute (by asserting the advanced cache state); traffic
assertions cannot see repeated computation.
- The `ThemeFacts` producer gates on `face_epoch` (Q#TH7).
The LSP-token span path and the whole grid path already re-resolve
per tick/frame and need nothing.
### Q#TH7 — `ThemeFacts` channel: bufferless resolved-face table, protocol v15→16
```rust
/// Themes arc (Q#TH7, protocol v16). The daemon-resolved UI faces.
/// The theme is one global instance, so this is bufferless (the
/// `MinibufferPrompt` shape). Complete replacement each send: a
/// face absent from `faces` is unset, and the frontend uses its
/// own default for that surface. Cached-compare suppressed;
/// daemon-gated `>= 16`.
ThemeFacts {
/// Every stage-1 face that resolves to a style (Q#TH4 walk),
/// full names, sorted by name for deterministic comparison.
faces: Vec<ThemeFace>,
},
pub struct ThemeFace {
pub name: String,
pub style: crate::cell::Style,
}
```
- **Resolution is daemon-side**: the producer walks the known face
list (the Q#TH3 twelve) through `Theme::face()` and ships concrete
entries — frontends do exact-name lookup, no walk, no inheritance
logic. The daemon owns face semantics; frontends own pixels
(Q#UX1). No epoch on the wire — the payload is self-contained and
the house facts style carries no counters.
- **Producer**: `theme_facts_msg` on `SemanticRenderState`, called
from the `render_frame` emission list. Per-tick cheapness comes
from a `last_face_epoch: Option<u64>` gate **seeded `None`**
`Option`, not a bare zero, because an unthemed daemon sits at
`face_epoch == 0` and a `0 == 0` short-circuit would starve the
first authoritative send; the gate can only short-circuit once it
has recorded an inspected epoch. Emission truth comes from
comparing the rebuilt table against `last_theme_faces`, also
seeded `None`. Both records advance on *computation*: an
identical rebuild (e.g. after a payload-equal re-merge) records
the epoch it inspected even though nothing ships, so subsequent
ticks skip — a Rust unit pins the no-rebuild second tick. Every
attachment receives exactly one authoritative table — the empty
table included — with its first emission after viewport
declaration, cached-compare suppressed thereafter. One small
message per unthemed session buys a reconnect-safe contract: a
frontend that retains face state across attachments is corrected
even by an unthemed daemon, instead of depending on every frontend
starting empty. (The current GPU has no reconnect path — a
disconnect only swaps the displayed text, `main.rs:1435` — so this
is contract, not a load-bearing assumption about today's client.)
- **Variant placement**: `ThemeFacts` is **appended after
`CompletionPopup`** (`message.rs:961`), the current final
`InstanceMessage` variant. Postcard discriminants are ordinal — a
variant inserted earlier shifts every later variant's tag and
silently corrupts v15 peers on channels that are *not* gated, and
the new variant's own round-trip test cannot detect the shift. A
byte-level encoding pin of `CompletionPopup` -- the final existing
variant, so any insertion before any v15 variant moves its ordinal --
asserts its serialized bytes, discriminant included, are unchanged
by the v16 build.
- **Gating**: `PROTOCOL_VERSION` 15→16 with a ladder paragraph;
`SUPPORTED_PROTOCOL_VERSIONS` grows 16; daemon write-loop
`peer_knows_theme_facts = negotiated_protocol_version >= 16` +
skip arm; TUI silent-drop arm (`frontend.rs:380-422`); GPU
debug-name arm (`main.rs:5606-5628`); `ThemeFace` re-exported from
`pmacs-protocol/src/lib.rs`; pin tests at `protocol.rs:1710` and
the ladder test (accept 16, reject 17); postcard round-trip pin.
- `docs/semantic-frontend-protocol.md` gains the channel's contract
section.
### Q#TH8 — GPU application: exact-name map, Q#TH5 mapping, shaping-cache invalidation
`State` gains `faces: HashMap<String, Style>`; the
`apply_attach_message` arm replaces the map, **invalidates the
status-band shaping cache**, and `request_redraw()`s (extending the
`LineNumbers` arm shape, `main.rs:2686-2692`). The invalidation is
load-bearing, not belt-and-braces: the `E:`/`W:` counter colors are
baked into glyphon rich-text attributes at compose time
(`compose_status_spans`, `main.rs:3390-3441`), and
`refresh_status_line` skips re-shaping whenever the composed strings
are unchanged (`main.rs:3502-3546`) — without clearing those cached
comparison strings, a diag-face change with constant counts keeps
stale counter colors indefinitely.
Each themed site resolves per draw with the Q#TH5 rule: face absent
→ today's site constant; face present → the face's **in-mask**
components, with `Default` fg ↦ the buffer-text default, `Default`
bg ↦ the window background (untinted quad / no wash quad),
`reverse` (`ui.modeline` only) as a post-map swap, and the diag
`Default`-fg ↦ built-in-severity-color policy. Out-of-mask
components are never read. `Rgb` maps directly; `Indexed` through
the existing `indexed_to_glyphon` table; quad colors convert u8 RGB
into the same color space the current float constants use;
band/wash alphas keep their current values. Peer selection rects
resolve through the split constant path, never the face (Q#TH5).
The minibuffer candidate face supplies the existing dropdown
`TextArea.default_color`; `refresh_mb_buffer` already runs before each
dropdown paint (`main.rs:4337-4341`), and the default color is resolved
again when preparing the `TextArea`, so no new shaping-cache contract is
needed for its fg-only mask.
### Q#TH9 — Grid application: one theme clone per frame; views gain the handle
`paint_frame` clones the `Theme` once per frame (single mutex lock,
same discipline as `SyntaxHighlightView::render`) and passes `&Theme`
down to `paint_mode_line` / `paint_status_line` / `paint_minibuffer` /
`paint_search_prompt` / `paint_line_number_gutter` /
`paint_local_selection` (signature additions; `paint_mode_line` takes
the resolved `Style` since it is a pure formatter). `SearchView` and
`DiagnosticView` gain a `ThemeHandle` constructor parameter and
resolve faces under the lock per render — the exact
`SyntaxHighlightView::new` precedent (`highlight.rs:246`).
Ownership, named: `SearchView` is constructed inside
`EditorCore::ensure_search_overlay` (`src/editor_core.rs:858`), and
`EditorCore` owns no syntax state — so `EditorCore` gains a
`theme: Option<ThemeHandle>` field, injected once at editor bring-up
right after `SyntaxRegistry` construction, and
`SearchView::new(store, theme: Option<ThemeHandle>)` takes the
`Option` directly: `ensure_search_overlay` passes the field through
unconditionally, so a bare core (unit-test construction, field
`None`) still constructs a working view that resolves no faces and
paints today's literals — no contradiction between "views take the
handle" and "bare cores have none". `DiagnosticView`
is attached by the Lua path — `install_diag`
(`src/lua_bindings/diag.rs:46`, construction at `:220`) — which gains
the handle as a parameter, threaded from the installer call site
(`mod.rs:8626`). Acceptance exercises the real attachment paths: a
dispatched `C-s` reaching `ensure_search_overlay`, and the Lua
diagnostic attachment — never bare constructors. The completion
popup and menu keep their literals (faces deferred).
### Q#TH10 — `pmacs.theme.set` wholesale semantics include faces
`set` replaces the whole `by_capture` map today and therefore wipes
faces along with captures; `merge` is the incremental path. This is
kept unchanged — a "theme" legitimately includes its chrome, and a
theme-switching user wants no stale faces from the previous theme.
Documented in the Lua API docs alongside the `ui.` namespace
reservation.
## Bets
- The reserved-namespace design (Q#TH2) means zero new Lua API and
zero protocol vocabulary beyond one variant — the whole feature
rides existing `Style` plumbing.
- The authoritative-per-attachment contract (seed `None`) makes
late-join and stateful reconnect correct by construction for the
price of one small message per session; unthemed steady-state
traffic remains zero.
- Daemon-side resolution keeps both frontends walk-free and makes
face inheritance testable in one place.
- The split-counter fix (Q#TH6) closes the mid-session staleness bug
at one-u64-compare per-tick cost, while face-only edits stay off
the tree-sitter path entirely; the one whole-file summary
recompute per face mutation is user-action-rate, not tick-rate.
- The owns-surface-within-mask rule (Q#TH5) is the only semantic
expressible with the existing `Style` (no omitted-vs-default
distinction) that renders equivalently on both frontends, and the
masks make that equivalence structural — the contract promises
only what both render paths can draw today, and widening a mask
later is additive. Its cost — partial faces reset the rest of
their surface to plain, and some components are simply not
themable yet — is documented and falls only on users who theme.
- Unset faces reproduce today's rendering byte-identically on both
frontends — the acceptance baseline tests pin this, so shipping
stage 1 changes nothing for users who theme nothing.
- Twelve faces cover the roadmap's named surfaces; the deferred
chrome (popups, background, caret) reuses the same substrate
without another protocol bump.
## Deferred (named)
Popup/menu/completion-dropdown background, selected-row, and general
glyph faces (`ui.popup`, `ui.menu`, …; the fg-only
`ui.minibuffer.candidate` exception is in scope);
`ui.background` and `ui.caret` (GPU-only effect; background interacts
with the TUI's terminal-default philosophy and deserves its own
decision); `ui.modeline.inactive` (active/inactive split);
minimap chrome faces; peer-cursor palette theming
(`overlay_color.rs` — deliberately not on the wire today);
inlay-hint face (`ui.inlay_hint` — `semantic_render.rs:1137` names
the gap; its adornment producer needs the same epoch treatment when
it lands); alpha on the wire (washes keep frontend-local alpha until
a real theme needs to change it); unifying `Indexed` palette meaning
across frontends; named-theme registry / light-theme builtin /
persistence (no unified config surface yet — handoff §6); the
grid-vs-wire `default_style` asymmetry (uncaptured text: wire ships
nothing where the grid paints the base style — orthogonal to faces);
mask widening (GPU gutter background layer; wash glyph
recolor/reverse; a distinct GPU echo surface so `ui.statusline`
could carry bg; chrome bold/italic/underline — attribute re-shaping
that compounds the Q#TH8 shaping-cache invalidation);
`ui.selection` for peer selections (rides the deferred peer-cursor
palette; the GPU resolution path is already split);
`pmacs.gpu.set_font` (stage 2,
**protocol v17** per finding 2 — and the `pmacs-gpu-design.md:299`
claim that font customization needs no wire change is superseded by
the Q#UX1 lesson, to be corrected in that framing); Lua
statusline-segment API (stage 3 — should ship segments carrying face
names, hence after this arc).
## Acceptance
Suites: `tests/theme_faces_acceptance.rs` (grid-path rendering +
Lua surface + wire facts) and the existing pin/round-trip homes
(`src/protocol.rs`); GPU behavior in `pmacs-gpu` behind
`PMACS_REQUIRE_GPU=1` (frame-difference pattern, `main.rs:7877+`).
Keybinding-driven tests dispatch keys, never `pmacs.command.invoke`.
1. **Unset = today, byte-identical**: with neither a bare `ui` entry
nor any `ui.*` entry, a
painted frame (mode line, status row, gutter, minibuffer,
selection, search matches, diag squiggle) is cell-for-cell
identical to the pre-arc rendering; additionally a loud
`pmacs.theme.default` (syntax fallback) leaks into **no** chrome
cell (pins Q#TH4's `None`-not-`default_style`).
2. **Each surface face applies** (grid): setting `ui.modeline`,
`ui.statusline`, `ui.minibuffer`, `ui.minibuffer.candidate`,
`ui.gutter` each changes exactly its rows'/strip's cells to the
masked face style on the next frame, per-cell asserted.
3. **Owns-surface semantics** (Q#TH5): `ui.modeline = { fg = 252 }`
paints the grid mode line with fg 252 and **no** reverse video
(partial face resets the surface to plain); `ui.selection = {}`
leaves selected cells identical to unselected ones.
4. **Mask enforcement** (round 2 finding 1): `ui.selection = { fg = 1,
reverse = true, bg = B }` renders exactly as `{ bg = B }` on both
frontends — grid per-cell (glyph fg untouched under the wash),
GPU frame identical to the bg-only variant; `ui.gutter = { bg =
1, reverse = true, fg = F }` renders exactly as `{ fg = F }` on
both.
5. **Wash faces merge**: `ui.selection` and both search faces
compose over syntax-styled cells with `merge_styles` semantics —
a bg-only wash keeps the syntax `fg` under the wash (per-cell
fg+bg assertions, not any-styled-cell). Search asserted through a
dispatched `C-s` reaching `ensure_search_overlay` (the real
construction path), never a bare constructor.
6. **Diag faces**: `ui.diag.warning` recolors the squiggle
`underline_color`, the column-0 marker, and the minimap mark,
attached via the real Lua diagnostic path (`install_diag`);
unset severities keep `Indexed` defaults. **Empty diag face**
(round 2 finding 2, clarified in round 3): with no parent,
`ui.diag.error = {}` renders identically to the built-in error face
on every surface -- squiggle, sign, minimap mark (present, not
vanished), band counter. With `ui.diag = { fg = C }` also set, the
exact empty `ui.diag.error` child blocks inheritance and resets
errors to the built-in color while warning/info/hint remain `C`.
7. **Inheritance**: with only `ui.diag` set, all four severities
resolve to it; an explicit `ui.diag.error` then wins for errors
only. Same for `ui.search.match.active``ui.search.match`.
8. **Bare `ui` is a face** (round 2 finding 3):
`pmacs.theme.merge { ui = … }` bumps `face_epoch` and ships a
`ThemeFacts` table with every stage-1 face resolved to the
catch-all, with **no** `StyleSpans` re-emission (the key
classifies as face, not syntax).
9. **Mid-session recolor, no edit (the staleness bite)**: a semantic
session with a grammar-backed buffer receives fresh `StyleSpans`
after `pmacs.theme.set` changes a capture color with zero buffer
edits — fails against pre-arc `StyleGate`. Twin for the minimap:
`FileStyleSummary` re-emits on a diag-face change.
10. **Consecutive `set` monotonicity** (round 1 finding 1,
observation shape per round 2 finding 4): `set`
render/observe one `StyleSpans` emission → `set` (different
capture colors) → render/observe a second emission — fails if
wholesale replacement resets the counters and the second `set`
shares the first's epoch. Two mutations inside one dispatch
legitimately coalesce: a companion assertion pins that
back-to-back `set`s followed by one render yield one emission.
11. **Malformed merge is atomic**: the Lua acceptance pins the
order-independent user contract — one `pmacs.theme.merge`
carrying a valid and a malformed entry errors, every entry of
that merge is absent afterwards, and no `ThemeFacts` or
`StyleSpans` re-emission occurs. Lua table iteration order is
unspecified (round 2 finding 8), so the deterministic bite drives
the production transaction helper with an ordered iterator
`[Ok((valid_name, valid_style)), Err(malformed)]`. The helper must
return the error before acquiring the theme lock; the unit asserts
the pre-existing map, `syntax_epoch`, and `face_epoch` are all
unchanged. An implementation that locks and inserts while
consuming the iterator fails deterministically.
12. **ThemeFacts emission discipline**: every v16 semantic attachment
receives exactly one authoritative table after viewport
declaration — the **empty table** for an unthemed session
(`face_epoch` still 0; pins the `Option` gate of Q#TH7) — then
silence; after `pmacs.theme.merge` of a face, exactly one
message with the resolved sorted table; an identical re-merge
emits nothing; `pmacs.theme.clear` emits the empty table.
13. **Face-only mutations stay cheap** (round 1 finding 8): after a
`ui.modeline` merge, no `StyleSpans` and no `FileStyleSummary`
re-emission occurs (absence assertions) while `ThemeFacts`
ships.
14. **Caches advance on computation** (round 2 finding 5, Rust
units): after an identical re-merge, `theme_facts_msg` rebuilds
once and the next tick skips via the recorded epoch; after a
non-diag face mutation, the summary recomputes once and its
cache key advances despite the suppressed emission — asserted
on the internal cache state, since traffic cannot show repeated
computation.
15. **Resolution is daemon-side**: with only `ui.diag` set, the
shipped table contains the four concrete `ui.diag.*` entries
(frontends never walk).
16. **Late join**: faces set via init.lua/first session; a second
semantic frontend attaching later receives the face table among
its first frames without any mutation occurring post-attach.
17. **Version gate and placement**: a v15 peer session never
receives `ThemeFacts` (daemon skip arm); pin tests updated —
`assert_eq!(PROTOCOL_VERSION, 16)`, ladder accepts 6..=16 and
rejects 17, `ThemeFacts` postcard round-trip pin, **and a
byte-level encoding pin of `CompletionPopup`**, the final v15
variant, proving the appended placement shifted no existing
discriminant (round 2 finding 7, corrected in round 3).
18. **TUI drop arm**: grid-session frontend consumes a `ThemeFacts`
message without error (silent drop, family test pattern).
19. **`set` wipes faces** (Q#TH10): `pmacs.theme.set` with a
captures-only table removes prior faces — next frame chrome is
back to defaults and `ThemeFacts` ships the empty table.
20. **GPU surface/text routes** (`PMACS_REQUIRE_GPU=1`): an empty
`ThemeFacts` table renders identically to never-themed. A
`ui.modeline` bg changes the band, and a modeline face with
`reverse = true` swaps the sampled band/text colors after Default
mapping. A `ui.gutter` fg changes only the gutter digits. With the
composed strings held constant, `ui.statusline` recolors a
transient-message left segment, while `ui.minibuffer` recolors
both a live minibuffer and an isearch band without recoloring the
ordinary buffer-name state. `ui.minibuffer.candidate` recolors the
actual dropdown candidate glyph region while leaving its popup
background and selected-row quad at their constants.
21. **GPU wash routes** (`PMACS_REQUIRE_GPU=1`): a local selection
uses `ui.selection` (including the mask-equivalence assertion in
item 4); simultaneous normal and active search decorations use
`ui.search.match` and `ui.search.match.active` respectively, with
distinct sampled/decoded quad colors and unchanged glyph fg.
22. **GPU diagnostic route and shaping invalidation**
(`PMACS_REQUIRE_GPU=1`): changing `ui.diag.error` while the
composed band text and diagnostic counts stay constant changes
the squiggle, gutter sign, minimap mark, and `E:` counter. The
counter assertion fails without clearing the rich-text comparison
cache; the empty-child reset case is item 6.
23. **Peer selections keep the constant** (round 2 finding 9,
integration shape corrected in round 3): construct simultaneous,
non-overlapping local and peer selections and drive the actual
`decoration_background_vertex_bytes` / `collect_peer_rects` path.
Decode the emitted vertex colors: the local rectangle uses
`ui.selection`, while the peer rectangle remains the hardcoded
constant. A helper-only resolver assertion is insufficient.
24. **Lua surface unchanged**: `pmacs.theme.current()` lists both bare
`ui` and `ui.*` entries alongside captures; `get("ui.modeline")`
returns the set style (existing lookup semantics).