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# quasi |
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quasicoherent: the stack every Make Creative app is built on. `quasi` for short, |
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and that is what you type. |
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A quasi-coherent sheaf is determined by local module data on an affine cover and |
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glues, with no finiteness demanded of the pieces. That is the architecture: one |
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description per host context, agreeing on overlaps, renderers free to be unalike. |
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## What it is |
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``` |
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request (path + params) |
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-> router this repo, imports no host crate |
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-> description makeover-layout |
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-> renderer webview | tui | egui |
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-> host adapter axum route | Tauri protocol | wry | direct call |
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``` |
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The router answers with what a screen *is*. The host decides how that becomes |
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pixels. One codebase reaches desktop, iOS, a terminal, egui, and a hosted web |
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app, because the host is the boundary that stops mattering. |
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## What it owns |
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Seams, not vendors. quasi owns the boundaries between code we own and the major |
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dependencies underneath it, and the test for admitting one is: |
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**Name two implementations that exist or are already committed to.** A boundary |
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with one implementation forever is not a boundary, it is an indirection. |
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By that test, in scope: the host (Tauri, wry, axum, direct call), the renderer |
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(webview, tui, egui, via `makeover-layout`), database configuration and |
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migration across SQLite and Postgres, and eventually a shared session and auth |
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layer, which the server has and the desktop apps do not. |
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Out of scope, deliberately: `tokio`, `serde`, `tracing`, `chrono`, `uuid`, |
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`thiserror`. Ubiquitous, stable, and with no second implementation anyone would |
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adopt, so wrapping them costs a translation tax and returns nothing. |
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Also out of scope: anything whose value *is* its API surface. `sqlx`'s |
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compile-time-checked query macros are the reason to use `sqlx`, so quasi owns |
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which driver is configured and how migrations run, and queries stay written |
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against the driver directly. |
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The two stores are not one query layer, and quasi does not pretend otherwise |
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(settled 2026-08-07). Embedded is `rusqlite` and synchronous; hosted Postgres is |
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`sqlx` and async. A stack claiming a single query layer would have the |
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scaffolder generate the wrong one. |
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Boundaries already owned elsewhere stay where they are and are referenced rather |
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than absorbed: `makeover` and `makeover-geometry` for colour and spacing, |
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`synckit` for sync, `s3-storage` for blobs, `docengine` for rendered content, |
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`tagtree` for tags. One repo per project. quasi names the stack and fills the |
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seams that have no owner. |
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## Layout |
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- `crates/quasi-router/` — the host-agnostic router. The keystone. |
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- `crates/quasi-http/` — the seam the http-shaped hosts share: decoding, |
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status mapping, the htmx contract, the `Serves` trait. |
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- `crates/quasi-axum/` — the axum host adapter. |
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- `crates/quasi-tauri/` — the Tauri custom-protocol host adapter. |
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- `crates/quasi-webview/` — the webview renderer: a screen in, an htmx document |
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out. |
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- `crates/quasi-store/` — the embedded store's migration runner. |
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- `crates/quasi/` — the scaffolder binary, and `template/`, the app it writes. |
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Crates are added when their component starts, not up front. |
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## Getting an app |
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``` |
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cargo run -p quasi -- new fieldnotes |
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cd fieldnotes |
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cargo test the screens, with no host |
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cargo run -p fieldnotes-server http://127.0.0.1:3000 |
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cargo run -p fieldnotes-desktop a window |
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``` |
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What comes out is a workspace of three crates: `-core` holds the state, the |
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store and the described screens and imports no host crate; `-desktop` and |
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`-server` are a window and a listener over the same router. Both serve the same |
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screens and neither knows the other exists. |
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## Status |
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The router, both host adapters, the webview renderer, the store's migration |
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runner and the scaffolder are implemented. |
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The router carries the contract in full: one address space where the verb |
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separates a read from a write, a screen tree composed from `makeover-layout`'s |
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vocabulary, responses that name the region they replace, and failures classified |
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so a host can turn one into a status code and another into a banner. It is sync, |
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because the two renderers shipping first call it inside a frame and an event |
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loop. |
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`quasi-http` is what the two hosts turned out to share once there were two of |
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them. Decoding a query string and a form body, mapping an error's class to a |
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status, naming a fragment's region in an `HX-Retarget` header, and the htmx |
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client configuration a classified error needs. Nothing in it knows which host it |
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is in, and nothing in it is async. |
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`quasi-axum` is the hosted adapter. What is left in it is axum's own: it mounts |
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as a fallback, so ordinary axum routes merged in front keep serving the things a |
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description has no word for (static assets, health, file uploads), it reads the |
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body with a limit, and it makes the blocking hop the sync router needs. |
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`quasi-tauri` is the desktop and iOS adapter, a custom-protocol handler. The |
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window loads from the adapter's own scheme rather than from tauri's asset |
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protocol, which is what keeps every action a screen emits same-origin: no CORS, |
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nothing added to the CSP. A `passthrough` closure is its version of axum's |
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merged routes. There is no platform branch in it, because wry hands a handler |
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`<scheme>://localhost/<path>` on Linux, macOS, iOS and Windows alike. |
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Neither adapter emits markup. A `Serves` implementation supplies that, because |
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both serve HTML to a webview and generating it inside one would guarantee a |
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second copy. `quasi-webview` is that implementation: a screen in, an htmx |
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document out, with the transport entering in a single function. |
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`quasi-store` is what `sqlx::migrate!` used to be. SQL files embedded at build |
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time, applied once, recorded in a ledger with a checksum, so an applied |
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migration is immutable. It is here because goingson and Balanced Breakfast each |
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hand-wrote one after leaving `sqlx-sqlite`, and a generated app would have been |
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the third. |
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`quasi` is the scaffolder. It followed the router on the condition that the |
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router's shape be proven against two hosts, which it was. Its template is real |
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Rust and real manifests under `crates/quasi/template/`, excluded from the |
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workspace and embedded in the binary — readable and diffable, rather than a |
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liquid dialect that compiles nowhere. |
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Design and sequencing live in the wiki note `quasi-overview`; the backlog is in |
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GoingsOn under project `quasicoherent`. |
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## Licence |
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MIT. |
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