zireael-rendering-diff

name: zireael-rendering-diff description: Implement framebuffer and diff renderer with grapheme safety and minimal terminal output. metadata: short-description: Framebuffer + diff renderer

When to use

Use this skill when working on:

• framebuffer cell model or double-buffering
• drawlist execution semantics
• diff renderer and terminal output emission
• cursor/style state tracking

Source of truth

• docs/modules/DRAWLIST_FORMAT_AND_PARSER.md — drawlist execution
• docs/GOLDEN_FIXTURE_FORMAT.md — golden test format
• docs/VERSION_PINS.md — pinned policies
• src/core/zr_fb.h — framebuffer interface
• src/core/zr_diff.h — diff renderer interface

Architecture

• Offscreen framebuffer, double-buffered (prev/next)
• Cell model: Unicode grapheme-safe, colors, attrs
• Clipping stack (push/pop) respected by all draw ops
• Diff renderer:
  • computes minimal changes (prev → next)
  • tracks cursor/style to minimize escape sequences
  • dirty-line detection + span emission
  • builds output into one buffer, single flush per frame

Grapheme safety invariants

• Never split a grapheme cluster across cells
• Never emit only half of a wide glyph
• Continuation cells represented explicitly (width=0)
• Diff expands spans safely around wide glyphs

Diff renderer design

Pure callable for testing:

zr_diff_render(prev_fb, next_fb, caps, initial_state) → emitted_bytes

Outputs:

• VT/ANSI escape sequences
• Cursor positioning (CUP)
• Style changes (SGR)
• Raw text bytes

Golden testing

Fixtures must pin:

• capabilities (truecolor vs 256 vs 16)
• width policy mode
• initial cursor/style

Output compared byte-for-byte.