open-standards/wai/wai-app/README.md
Transaction Science 608cd843e9 wai-app: Create's crate, a library with no binary, whose export wai create writes
wai/wai-ui becomes wai/wai-app, the library `wai_app`, with no binary and no `cli`
feature: `wai`, built with its feature `app`, is its command line and its MCP
server. Its served files are named wai-app-* (the WebAssembly package wai_app),
the recordings wai-app-*.json.

- export.rs gives the files of a starter project for a program and the facts its
  project file holds (title, summary, `wai dev`'s mode for the app's room, a watch
  room's file, a show's audience); `wai create --from app.oui` writes them, the
  project file and the licence. The export no longer writes app.json, room.toml,
  relay.toml, package.json, check.mjs or serve.mjs: wai.json names the room, `wai
  dev` runs it and `wai app check` checks the project. Its README and AGENTS.md
  say so, and the README its licence.
- runtime.rs reads a Create runtime by its listing (create/wai-app-runtime.json),
  checking each file's SHA-256.
- bridge.rs keeps the bridge on 127.0.0.1 a coding agent streams a program into
  the page through, with a stream helper; the stdio server, its tools and the
  binary's test go (`wai mcp --toolset app` serves them).
- The page's Export hands over app.oui, the program in its canonical form, and the
  command that makes it a project; the ZIP writer and the page's export in
  WebAssembly go. The page names `wai mcp --toolset app` for the coding agent.
- joule-ui/docs/create.md §4 and §5: the export as `wai create --from app.oui`, and
  the agent's tools app_guide, app_check, app_stream and app_export.

Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 5.5 <[email protected]>
2026-10-27 05:13:27 -04:00

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Markdown

# wai-app
WAI's widgets for joule-ui, and **Create**: describe a WAI app, watch it build itself
from WAI widgets while a model writes it, try its room, and take it away as a project. A
library with no binary of its own: `wai`, built with its feature `app`, is its command line
and its MCP server. The design is in [`joule-ui/docs/create.md`](../../joule-ui/docs/create.md);
the line language a model writes the app in is joule-ui's (`joule-ui/SPEC.md` §11).
## The widgets
A joule-ui registry (`src/registry.rs`), each widget backed by the room client of
`joule-moq-web` (`web/components.js`):
| Widget | What it is | Holds |
|---|---|---|
| `App(children, title)` | the app | one room; `Text`, `Receipts`, `EnergyMeter` |
| `Room(children, title)` | a live room: join with camera and microphone, or watch | `Player`, `Chat`, and any room's widgets |
| `WatchTogether(source, children, title)` | a watch room: one file, watched in sync | any room's widgets (a watch room keeps the shared controls alone) |
| `Show(children, title, audience)` | a show: hosts on camera, an audience that votes | `Player`, `Chat`, `Poll`, and any room's widgets |
| `Player(title)` | the room's video, laid out from its signed record | |
| `Chat(title)` | the room's chat, each message a signed, verified event | |
| `Poll(question, options, seconds)` | a vote the show's lead opens and its clock closes and signs | |
| `Participants(title)` | who is present, from the room's lifecycle | |
| `Receipts(title)` | the page's sealed log of every action, verified | |
| `EnergyMeter(title)` | each action's energy, and how it was obtained | |
| `Text(text)` | a paragraph | |
Any room's widgets: `Participants`, `Receipts`, `EnergyMeter`, `Text`. An app holds one
room; a poll has 2 to 32 options; a show's audience is 1 to 255; a watch room's source is
a file within the app (`src/plan.rs`). A line that breaks a rule is refused with its line
and a reason code, and does not render.
## The pieces
- `src/guide.rs`: what a model is told before it writes an app, made from the registry
(`wai app guide`, the tool `app_guide`).
- `src/lib.rs`: `check` and `Create`, a program as a snapshot the page renders, whole or
as it streams, with the room the app needs (`wai app check`, the tool `app_check`).
- `src/export.rs`: the files of a starter project for a program, and the facts its project
file holds: `app.oui`, `index.html`, `README.md`, `AGENTS.md`, `.gitignore`,
`vendor.json`, `vendor/` (the runtime), and for a watch room `media/README.md`.
`wai create <dir> --from app.oui` writes them, with `wai.json` and `LICENSE` from the
writer every `wai create` project has. No key is ever in it: `wai dev` makes development
keys in `.wai/` at run time.
- `src/runtime.rs`: the runtime an export carries, read by its listing
(`create/wai-app-runtime.json`) and checked file by file.
- `src/bridge.rs`: the bridge on 127.0.0.1 that carries a program from a coding agent into
the person's open Create page (`wai mcp --toolset app`, the tool `app_stream`).
- `src/web.rs` (feature `web`): the page's WebAssembly surface, with the interaction log
every action on the page is sealed into (joule-ui-interaction).
- `web/`: the streaming renderer, the components, the room frame, the Create page and the
exported app's page; `web/runtime.mjs` lays the runtime out as the site serves it.
## Run it
```
cargo test # registry, plan, guide, export, runtime, bridge
node --test web/web.test.mjs # the renderer and the model streams
e2e/run.sh # Create in a browser, with wai dev, wai create --from and wai app check
wai app guide # what a model is told (wai built with --features app)
wai app check app.oui # a program's tree, errors and room
wai create my-app --from app.oui --runtime <dir> # a starter project; then wai app check and wai dev in it
wai mcp --toolset app # Create's tools, for a coding agent
```
## Licence
Apache-2.0, and every project `wai create` writes from an app is too.