README

SugarCraft

Formerly published as sugarcraft/candy-core (renamed 2026-10).

composer require sugarcraft/sugar-core

sugar-core — the Model–Update–View TUI runtime for PHP 8.3+: every app is a Model, an update() that folds messages into new state, and a view() that renders it — driven by an event loop with subscriptions, commands and a full-screen diffing renderer.

use SugarCraft\Core\{Cmd, KeyType, Model, Msg, Program, Subscriptions};
use SugarCraft\Core\Msg\{KeyMsg, WindowSizeMsg};

final class Counter implements Model
{
    public function __construct(public readonly int $count = 0) {}
    public function init(): ?\Closure { return null; }

    public function update(Msg $msg): array
    {
        if ($msg instanceof KeyMsg) {
            return match (true) {
                $msg->type === KeyType::Char && $msg->rune === 'q' => [$this, Cmd::quit()],
                $msg->type === KeyType::Up    => [new self($this->count + 1), null],
                $msg->type === KeyType::Down  => [new self($this->count - 1), null],
                default => [$this, null],
            };
        }
        return [$this, null];
    }

    public function view(): string { return "count: $this->count\n(↑/↓ to change, q to quit)"; }

    // Model::subscriptions() is part of the contract — return null when
    // the model needs none (or `use SubscriptionCapable;` to get that
    // default for free).
    public function subscriptions(): ?Subscriptions { return null; }
}

(new Program(new Counter()))->run();

Requirements

PHP 8.3+ (PHP 8.4+ recommended on Windows for FFI SetConsoleCtrlHandler support)
mbstring — required, and declared as ext-mbstring in composer.json. Escape decoding and clipboard paths call mb_* functions on hot paths.
intl — required, and declared as ext-intl in composer.json. Width's grapheme segmentation is built on ICU via grapheme_extract(). Without it every width measure falls back to per-codepoint counting, which is self-consistent but wrong for any cluster — a skin-toned emoji measures 4 cells instead of 2 — and the cell-budget invariants the TUI renderers rely on stop holding. It was a silent requirement before the 2026-08 hardening pass: the manifest omitted it while this list already named it.
pcntl (signal handling — POSIX only; not available on Windows)
FFI extension (required on Windows for raw TTY support)
react/event-loop ^1.6 (Composer)
sugarcraft/sugar-pty @dev — the runtime's raw-mode/termios backend. sugar-core and sugar-pty hard-require each other (sugar-pty consumes core's primitives); CI injects the path-repo closure so the cycle resolves inside the monorepo, and standalone installs take both from Packagist. Util\Tty\Termios therefore appears in a public constructor type (ProgramOptions::$termios).
Windows 10 version 1809+ (for ENABLE_VIRTUAL_TERMINAL_PROCESSING)

Install note: sibling sugarcraft/* packages track @dev and the monorepo sets minimum-stability: dev with prefer-stable: true. A consumer pinning stable releases only should mirror that pair in its own root manifest or install fails to resolve.

Environment variables

Every environment variable sugar-core reads, who reads it, and what happens when it is unset. Apps may of course read their own; this is the library's full surface.

Variable	Read by	When unset
`TERM`	`Util\ColorProfile::detect()`	falls through to the `Ascii` tier
`COLORTERM`	`Util\ColorProfile::detect()`	no early TrueColor bail
`TERM_PROGRAM`	`Util\ColorProfile::detect()`, `Util\Tty\EnvDetect` (mintty), `Util\Clipboard` (backend plan)	no known-terminal match
`NO_COLOR`	`Util\ColorProfile::detect()`	colour stays enabled
`CLICOLOR`	`Util\ColorProfile::detect()` (`CLICOLOR=0` opts out of colour)	no opt-out signal
`CLICOLOR_FORCE`	`Util\ColorProfile::detect()`	no force (truthy = non-empty, not `0`, not `false`)
`FORCE_COLOR`	`Util\ColorProfile::detect()`	no force
`WT_SESSION`	`Util\ColorProfile::detect()`	not Windows Terminal
`CI`	`Util\ColorProfile::detect()`	not treated as CI
`GITHUB_ACTIONS`	`Util\ColorProfile::detect()`	not treated as CI
`GITLAB_CI`	`Util\ColorProfile::detect()`	not treated as CI
`BUILDKITE`	`Util\ColorProfile::detect()`	not treated as CI
`WSL_DISTRO_NAME`	`Util\Tty\EnvDetect` (WSL id), `Util\Open` (opener choice)	not WSL by this signal
`WSL_INTEROP`	`Util\Tty\EnvDetect` (WSL id), `Util\Open` (opener choice)	not WSL by this signal
`MSYSTEM`	`Util\Tty\EnvDetect` (MSYS2 id)	not MSYS2
`MINTTY_SHORTCUT`	`Util\Tty\EnvDetect` (mintty id)	not mintty by this signal
`OSTYPE`	`Util\Tty\EnvDetect` (`cygwin` id)	not Cygwin
`PATH`	`Util\Executable\Locator` (the search path `locate()` walks, after any `$extraPath` argument)	empty — nothing is found unless the caller passed `$extraPath`
`PATHEXT`	`Util\Executable\Locator` (Windows extensions; POSIX never reads it)	`DEFAULT_WINDOWS_EXTENSIONS` = `.COM`, `.EXE`, `.BAT`, `.CMD`
`COLUMNS`	`Util\Tty\PosixBackend` (size fallback when stdout is not a tty)	ignored (read as 0) — next fallback wins
`LINES`	`Util\Tty\PosixBackend` (same shape as `COLUMNS`)	ignored (read as 0) — next fallback wins
`HOME`	`WorkerPool` (worker environment seed)	`/tmp`
`VISUAL`	`Util\Editor` (discovery: explicit override → `VISUAL` → `EDITOR` → platform default)	falls to `EDITOR`
`EDITOR`	`Util\Editor`	falls to the platform default editor
`TMPDIR`	PHP's `sys_get_temp_dir()`, consumed by `Util\Editor`'s temp-file scaffold	system temp (`/tmp`)
`LC_ALL`	`I18n\T::detect()` (chain `LC_ALL` → `LC_MESSAGES` → `LANG`; `$_SERVER` first, then `getenv()`)	falls to `LC_MESSAGES`
`LC_MESSAGES`	`I18n\T::detect()`	falls to `LANG`
`LANG`	`I18n\T::detect()`	locale `en`
`TMUX`	`Util\Clipboard` (backend plan)	not inside tmux
`DISPLAY`	`Util\Clipboard` (X11 backend plan)	no X11 clipboard candidate
`WAYLAND_DISPLAY`	`Util\Clipboard` (Wayland backend plan)	no Wayland clipboard candidate

Color-profile detection order

ColorProfile::detect() decides in exactly this order (the docblock on the enum carries the same list; both are derived from the code):

CLICOLOR_FORCE or FORCE_COLOR truthy counts as a terminal; otherwise, when a stdout resource is passed and it is not a tty → NoTty (so NO_COLOR on a pipe yields NoTty, never escape bytes).
TERM=dumb → NoTty unless forced.
NO_COLOR truthy → Ascii (decoration kept, per no-color.org) — it outranks the force variables because it is consulted first.
CLICOLOR=0 → Ascii (the BSD opt-out: colour disabled, decoration kept), unless a force variable already won.
Forced (CLICOLOR_FORCE/FORCE_COLOR) → TrueColor.
COLORTERM = truecolor or 24bit → TrueColor.
Known TERM_PROGRAM values → the matched tier (iTerm/WezTerm/VS Code/ Kitty/alacritty/Ghostty/Hyper → TrueColor; Apple_Terminal → Ansi256).
WT_SESSION set → TrueColor.
TERM contains truecolor or direct → TrueColor; contains 256 → Ansi256; contains color or equals xterm/screen/tmux → Ansi.
Any CI variable truthy (CI, GITHUB_ACTIONS, GITLAB_CI, BUILDKITE) → Ansi.
Fallback → Ascii.

Colour note: the runtime's own renderer emits SGR unconditionally — ColorProfile tells your code which tier the terminal supports, but it is not a suppression switch inside the renderer. If your app must honour NO_COLOR end-to-end, consult ColorProfile::detect() and emit plain text yourself; there is no automatic downgrade.

Architecture

Model — your app implements init(), update(Msg), view(), subscriptions().
Msg — marker interface for events. Built-ins: KeyMsg, WindowSizeMsg, QuitMsg (the full catalogue is indexed under Message catalogue).
Cmd — Closure(): ?Msg. Async work whose result is dispatched as a Msg. Helpers in Cmd::quit(), Cmd::batch(), Cmd::send().
Program — orchestrator. Sets up TTY, runs the ReactPHP event loop, dispatches Msgs, drives renders at the configured framerate.
Timer accuracy — on a libuv-backed loop (ExtUvLoop, picked automatically when ext-uv is installed) a timer's deadline is computed against a clock refreshed once per loop iteration, so a timer armed after long blocking work in a callback fires early by that much. Keep callbacks short; see the notes on Program::run() for the measured numbers and the safe paths.
Timers in tests — a PHPUnit process runs the loop in short bursts with long synchronous gaps, which is the same hazard writ large: a safety timer can fire instantly. Suites that arm one should pin a clock-fresh loop from tests/bootstrap.php with sugar-testing's SugarCraft\Testing\LoopPin::pinStableClock().
InputReader — stateful byte-stream parser; handles split escape sequences across reads.
Renderer — line-diff full-screen renderer by default (repaints only changed rows inside a DEC 2026 synchronized-output update); pass cellDiffRenderer: true for the per-cell "cursed" diff. Both are implemented; there is no plain full-repaint mode.
Util/ — Ansi, Color, ColorProfile, Width, Tty, TtyDetect, RawMode, Open foundation utilities, shared with SugarStyle. RawMode::enable($stream) / RawMode::disable($stream) is the portable stty-based raw-mode toggle for the controlling terminal — a safe no-op on non-tty streams.
KeyBindings (in Keys/) — immutable action→tokens key registry (finding m27): named actions each own a lowercase token set, matches(KeyMsg, id) answers "does this press actuate that action" (press-only, m11; case-folded, m26; both space wire shapes normalize to space), withOverride(id, ...tokens) returns a new registry, and label(id) renders the derived display column help text is composed from — so a user remap lands in dispatch AND the UI from one map. Modifier chords are a declared non-goal (bare letters match as they always did).
Semaphore (in Util/) — bounded-concurrency permit pool over ReactPHP promises: Semaphore::new(6)->run(fn() => fetch($url)) caps in-flight work, parks the rest FIFO, and returns each permit when its promise settles. Share one pool across every component touching the same scarce resource, and close() it when the owner is retired so parked waiters fail (with SemaphoreClosedException) instead of pending. Distinct from WorkerPool (subprocess concurrency) — see its docblock.
LruMap (in Util/) — fixed-capacity least-recently-used map: get() promotes, peek() reads without disturbing recency, put() evicts the longest-unused entry past the cap, evictions() reports how often that happened, and an optional maxCapacity growth guard caps resize(). Iterates most-recently-used first; keys() is the string-safe key view. The size bound that complements a TTL cache; it does not replace one.
Subscription — value object: id, Kind, params, produce closure.
Subscriptions — immutable collection with withTick(), withKey(), withSignal(), withCustom(), all(), has().
Kind — pure enum: Tick / Key / Signal / Custom.
SubscriptionCapable — trait providing the default subscriptions(): null.

Composition primitives

ScreenStack — immutable stack with push() / pop() / current() / breadcrumb() / isEmpty() / count().
Screen — value object: model, optional title, onEnter closure, onExit closure.
ScreenStackCapable — interface: screens(): ScreenStack. Implement to activate screen-stack routing.
RootModelWithScreenStack — concrete root model owning a ScreenStack; routes ScreenStackPushedMsg / ScreenStackPoppedMsg internally, delegates view() to the active screen.
PushScreenCmd / PopScreenCmd (in SugarCraft\Core\Cmd) — Cmd factories that emit ScreenStackPushedMsg / ScreenStackPoppedMsg.
ScreenStackPushedMsg / ScreenStackPoppedMsg — infrastructure messages dispatched through the loop; always handled by the root model, never by the active screen.
Component — interface extending Model; adds onMount(): ?Closure (fired when mounted into a Composite) and onUnmount(): ?Closure (fired when removed). Return a Cmd to run immediately or null for no-op.
Composite — Model that manages a list of child Components. Tracks pendingCmds and drains them during reconcile, calling child onMount()/onUnmount() Cmds synchronously. Children are reconciled by presence: a child that stays in the list keeps its state; adding or removing triggers lifecycle events. Reordering alone does not re-run lifecycle.
Panes / Pane / Rect — split-region bookkeeping for apps that manage multiple viewports. Geometry is advisory: the runtime does not clip a pane's view() output to its Rect — models must size their own frames (see Viewport fit).
WorkerPool — bounded-concurrency pool (default 4 workers) for offloading CPU-bound tasks to subprocesses. Tasks are named global functions or serialized Serializable/closure-free callables; a Closure cannot cross the process boundary, so dispatching one returns an already-rejected promise. Worker children run php without your application autoloader: only PHP built-ins and whatever the worker's own script loads are resolvable inside the child.
WorkerCmd — Cmd factory: WorkerCmd::run($pool, $callable) dispatches a task to the pool and yields a WorkerResultMsg when complete.
WorkerResultMsg — result Msg carrying $result, $error, and $workerId from a pool worker.

Subscriptions

Subscription reconciliation lets a Model declare recurring events (ticks, key events, signals) without managing timers manually. After each update() cycle the runtime diffs the returned Subscriptions set against the active one — new subscriptions start, dropped ones cancel, stable ones keep running.

use SugarCraft\Core\{Model, Msg, Program, Subscriptions};

/** App-local message — sugar-core ships no TickMsg; the produce closure
 *  returns whatever Msg your update() understands. */
final class TickMsg implements Msg {}

final class Clock implements Model
{
    public function __construct(public readonly int $ticks = 0) {}

    public function init(): ?\Closure { return null; }

    public function update(Msg $msg): array
    {
        if ($msg instanceof TickMsg) {
            return [new self($this->ticks + 1), null];
        }
        return [$this, null];
    }

    public function view(): string { return "ticks: $this->ticks\n"; }

    public function subscriptions(): ?Subscriptions
    {
        return (new Subscriptions())->withTick('clock-tick', 1.0, static fn (): Msg => new TickMsg());
    }
}

(new Program(new Clock()))->run();

The SubscriptionCapable trait satisfies Model::subscriptions() with a null default — use it in Models that don't need subscriptions:

use SugarCraft\Core\{Model, SubscriptionCapable};

final class StaticModel implements Model
{
    use SubscriptionCapable;
    // ... init()/update()/view() still required; no subscriptions() needed
}

Two reconciliation facts are worth knowing (both pinned by tests):

Ids are the identity. A subscription is stable while its id is present across cycles. Changing the closure or interval under the same id keeps the originally-started timer — to change cadence or producer, use a different id. Duplicate ids in one Subscriptions collapse to the first entry.
SubscribeCmd is transient. Its SubscriptionsMsg reconciles the given set immediately, but the next update() cycle re-diffs against Model::subscriptions(), which cancels anything the model itself does not declare. For durable subscriptions, return them from subscriptions(); use SubscribeCmd only for one-shot or model-declared-parity sets.

Screen / ScreenStack

Modal and sub-screen workflows use an immutable ScreenStack owned by a ScreenStackCapable root model. The Program routes init() / update() / view() to the active screen's model, writes the screen's next model back into the stack, and keeps infrastructure messages (ScreenStackPushedMsg / ScreenStackPoppedMsg) on the root model.

use SugarCraft\Core\{Cmd, KeyType, Model, Msg, Program, ScreenStack, ScreenStackCapable, SubscriptionCapable};
use SugarCraft\Core\Cmd\{PushScreenCmd, PopScreenCmd};
use SugarCraft\Core\Msg\{KeyMsg, ScreenStackPushedMsg, ScreenStackPoppedMsg};

final class DetailScreen implements Model
{
    public function __construct(public readonly string $id) {}
    public function init(): ?\Closure { return null; }
    public function update(Msg $msg): array
    {
        if ($msg instanceof KeyMsg && $msg->rune === 'b') {
            return [$this, new PopScreenCmd()];
        }
        return [$this, null];
    }
    public function view(): string { return "Detail: {$this->id}\n(press b to go back)\n"; }
    public function subscriptions(): ?Subscriptions { return null; }
}

// Minimal root: the base layer is a plain string; the active screen (if
// any) replaces it. Infrastructure push/pop messages rebuild the stack.
final class App implements Model, ScreenStackCapable
{
    use SubscriptionCapable;

    public function __construct(public ScreenStack $screens = new ScreenStack()) {}
    public function screens(): ScreenStack { return $this->screens; }
    public function init(): ?\Closure { return null; }

    public function update(Msg $msg): array
    {
        if ($msg instanceof ScreenStackPushedMsg) {
            return [new self($this->screens->push($msg->screen)), null];
        }
        if ($msg instanceof ScreenStackPoppedMsg) {
            return [new self($this->screens->pop()), null];
        }
        if ($this->screens->isEmpty() && $msg instanceof KeyMsg && $msg->rune === 'n') {
            return [$this, new PushScreenCmd(new Screen(new DetailScreen('item-1'), title: 'Item 1'))];
        }
        return [$this, null];
    }

    public function view(): string
    {
        return $this->screens->isEmpty()
            ? "Push a screen with n\n"
            : (string) $this->screens->current()->model->view();
    }
}

(new Program(new App()))->run();

sugar-core also ships RootModelWithScreenStack, a ready-made root model with this exact routing pre-implemented — extend-free to use, with pushedIds / poppedIds tracking for tests.

examples/screen-stack.php is a runnable demo showing 3-deep push / pop.

Viewport fit

The runtime paints whatever view() returns. It does not clip frames to the terminal, and Pane/Rect carry bounds purely as advisory metadata — no code path in the renderer reads them. A frame wider than the viewport soft-wraps and shifts every following row, which is why border-alignment defects surface so often across TUI apps. Read WindowSizeMsg (1-based $cols / $rows arrive at startup and on every resize), size your content to it, and truncate with Util\Width::truncateAnsi() so SGR bytes survive the cut.

Demos

Counter Model

Timer

Status

Foundation utilities: 🟢 complete.
Runtime: 🟢 Program loop, mouse (cell-motion + all-motion + SGR 1006), focus / blur, bracketed paste, full function-key set including F13–F63 and the Kitty PUA range, the cell-diff "cursed" renderer (synchronized output 2026 + unicode mode 2027), inline-mode rendering, declarative View struct, plus the Cmd surface (Suspend / Interrupt / Exec / Sequence / Every / Printf / Raw and more — a resume is deliberately not a Cmd: SIGCONT dispatches a ResumeMsg from the runtime) and the Program control methods (wait / kill / releaseTerminal / restoreTerminal).
Terminal recovery: 🟢 setupTerminal() arms a one-shot shutdown backstop. run()'s finally restores the terminal on every path it can see; a die(), exit() or zend bailout that skips pending finally blocks still lands on the registered shutdown function, so the library that entered the alt screen is the library that leaves it and consumers do not need to write their own bin guard. The hook holds a WeakReference and compares the install pid at fire time — finished Programs are never pinned alive by the shutdown queue, and a forked child exiting never releases the parent's terminal.

Companion libraries

SugarCraft is the foundation — the rest of the SugarCraft stack builds on it. From the same monorepo:

SugarStyle — declarative styling + layout.
SugarWidgets — prebuilt terminal components.
SugarForms — multi-page form library.
SugarCharts — sparkline / bar / line / heatmap / OHLC.
CandyScriptui — composer-installable CLI (gum-style subcommands).
SugarMarkdown — Markdown → ANSI renderer.
SugarMouse — mouse-zone tracker.
SugarSpring — spring physics + Newtonian projectile sim.
SugarCli — opinionated CLI presentation helpers.
CandyCodeshot — code → SVG screenshot.
SugarSshServer — SSH server middleware framework.
CandyAnsiInspect — ANSI escape-sequence inspector.

See the matchup table in docs/MATCHUPS.md for status, package names, and namespace mappings.

Localization (i18n)

sugar-core ships a tiny zero-dep translation registry that the rest of the SugarCraft monorepo plugs into. Every library owns a namespace (core, charts, prompt, …) and a lang/<locale>.php file per locale — call sites look strings up by fully-qualified key.

use SugarCraft\Core\I18n\T;

T::setLocale(T::detect());                 // 'en' / 'fr' / 'de' from $LANG
echo T::t('core.color.invalid_hex', ['hex' => '#zz']);
// => "invalid hex color: #zz"

Each library exposes a thin Lang::t($key, $params) wrapper with its namespace baked in, so call sites stay short:

use SugarCraft\Core\Lang;

throw new \InvalidArgumentException(
    Lang::t('color.invalid_hex', ['hex' => $hex])
);

Scope of the registry: it translates validation and user-facing refusal messages — the strings the library routes through Lang::t() (indexed in lang/en.php). Low-level programming errors (\InvalidArgumentException for bad internal arguments, LogicException for protocol misuse) stay raw SPL strings by design: they mark developer bugs, not product copy, and translating them would promise a coverage the registry does not target.

Adding a new locale

Copy sugar-core/lang/en.php to sugar-core/lang/<locale>.php (e.g. fr.php).
Translate the values, keeping keys and {placeholders} intact.
Set the locale at app startup with T::setLocale('fr') or T::setLocale(T::detect()).

Lookup chain: exact locale → base language → en → raw key. So a single fr.php automatically serves fr-fr, fr-ca, fr-be, etc. — only add a regional file (e.g. pt-br.php) when the wording genuinely diverges from the base language. A key missing from your locale file falls back to the English value, so partial locales surface as mixed-language text, never a fatal error; tests/LocaleKeyParityTest fails the build when a shipped locale drifts from the en key set.

See LOCALES.md in the SugarCraft monorepo for the recommended set of codes plus a list of every base language a contributor can target.

Application-level overrides

Apps can ship their own translations of any library's strings without patching upstream:

T::overrideNamespace('charts', '/etc/myapp/lang/charts');

See the SugarCraft\Core\I18n\T docblock for the full API surface (register, translate, setLocale, locale, detect, overrideNamespace, charset, t, reset).

Composing Cmds

The runtime ships several Cmd combinators. The cheat-sheet below maps common orchestration needs to the PHP combinators:

Need	Use
Run several Cmds in parallel	`Cmd::batch(...$cmds)`
Run several Cmds one-after-the-other	`Cmd::sequence(...$cmds)`
Schedule a Msg in N seconds	`Cmd::tick($seconds, fn () => $msg)`
Schedule a Msg on every wall-clock multiple of N seconds	`Cmd::every($seconds, fn () => $msg)`
Dispatch a Msg right away	`Cmd::send($msg)`
Quit the program	`Cmd::quit()`
Hard-kill (after `quit` failed)	`$program->kill()` (from outside the loop)
Print text above the program region	`Cmd::println($s)` / `Cmd::printf($fmt, ...)`
Drop bytes onto the wire	`Cmd::raw($bytes)`
Suspend on Ctrl+Z, resume on SIGCONT	`Cmd::suspend()` (returns to a `ResumeMsg`)
Run an external program (`$EDITOR`)	`Cmd::exec($command, captureOutput: false, onComplete: fn (int $exitCode) => $msg)`
Offload to a worker subprocess	`WorkerCmd::run($pool, $callable)` → `WorkerResultMsg`
Replace the subscription set for this cycle	`new SubscribeCmd($subscriptions)`

init() returns a Cmd (or null) to fire once at startup — for the active model only: a screen pushed later is not re-inited; initialise it in the Screen's onEnter or in its first update() instead. update() returns [Model, ?Cmd] — the runtime applies the Cmd, dispatches its Msg, and feeds the result back into update().

The examples/ directory has runnable demos for each pattern: counter (basic), simple (minimal quit-on-key), timer (tick scheduling), realtime (self-rescheduling tick), sequence (Cmd::sequence), send-msg (custom Msg + Cmd::tick), tabs (state-driven view selection), views (multi-view switcher), splash (animated splash → main view), suspend (Cmd::suspend + ResumeMsg), altscreen-toggle, panes, screen-stack, mouse, focus-blur, window-size, print-key, set-window-title, and prevent-quit.

Message catalogue

Built-in Msg classes under SugarCraft\Core\Msg\ (all implement the Msg marker interface; addressed messages implement ComponentAddressedMsg so a Composite can route by child address):

Group	Classes
Keyboard	`KeyMsg`, `KeyPressMsg`, `KeyReleaseMsg`, `KeyRepeatMsg`
Mouse	`MouseMsg`, `MouseClickMsg`, `MouseReleaseMsg`, `MouseMotionMsg`, `MouseWheelMsg`
Paste	`PasteMsg`, `PasteStartMsg`, `PasteEndMsg`
Lifecycle	`QuitMsg`, `SuspendMsg`, `ResumeMsg`, `InterruptMsg`, `Empty`-family via `RawMsg`
Terminal	`WindowSizeMsg` (`$cols`/`$rows`), `CursorPositionMsg`, `BackgroundColorMsg`, `ForegroundColorMsg`, `CursorColorMsg`, `ColorProfileMsg`, `TerminalVersionMsg`, `ModeReportMsg`, `CapabilityMsg`, `KeyboardEnhancementsMsg`, `ClipboardMsg`
Focus	`FocusGainedMsg`, `FocusLostMsg`
Screen stack	`ScreenStackPushedMsg`, `ScreenStackPoppedMsg`
Composition	`AddComponentMsg`, `RemoveComponentMsg`, `ComponentAddressedMsg` (interface)
Async / infra	`ExceptionMsg`, `ExecMsg`, `EnvMsg`, `PrintMsg`, `RawMsg`, `BatchMsg`, `SequenceMsg`, `SubscriptionsMsg`, `SuggestionsReadyMsg`, `TickRequest` (Msg-shaped request), `WorkerResultMsg`

Alt-screen vs inline mode

The shipped default is neither: useAltScreen: false and inlineMode: false paint over the current screen with the diff renderer.

Pass useAltScreen: true to ProgramOptions and the runtime takes over the alt-screen — the user's previous content is preserved underneath, and Cmd::quit() restores it. Best for fullscreen TUIs.

Pass useAltScreen: false + inlineMode: true for a program that shares scrollback with the surrounding shell. The runtime saves the cursor on first frame and restores it after each repaint, so preceding shell output stays visible. Pair with Cmd::println() to emit lines that scroll above the program region.

A typical CandyScriptui prompt (gum input-style) uses inline mode; a fullscreen filter (gum filter-style) uses alt-screen.

Tutorial — building a shopping list

Every SugarCraft program is three things: a Model (the state), an update (state transitions), and a view (a string). Here's a shopping list that walks through all three.

use SugarCraft\Core\{Cmd, KeyType, Model, Msg, Program, Subscriptions};
use SugarCraft\Core\Msg\KeyMsg;

final class ShoppingList implements Model
{
    /** @param list<string> $items @param array<int,bool> $bought */
    public function __construct(
        public readonly array $items,
        public readonly array $bought = [],
        public readonly int $cursor = 0,
    ) {}

    // 1. init() runs once at startup. Return a Cmd or null.
    public function init(): ?\Closure { return null; }

    // 2. update() takes a Msg and returns [newModel, ?Cmd].
    public function update(Msg $msg): array
    {
        if (!$msg instanceof KeyMsg) {
            return [$this, null];
        }
        return match (true) {
            $msg->type === KeyType::Char && $msg->rune === 'q'
                => [$this, Cmd::quit()],
            $msg->type === KeyType::Up
                => [new self($this->items, $this->bought, max(0, $this->cursor - 1)), null],
            $msg->type === KeyType::Down
                => [new self($this->items, $this->bought, min(count($this->items) - 1, $this->cursor + 1)), null],
            $msg->type === KeyType::Space => [
                new self(
                    $this->items,
                    [...$this->bought, $this->cursor => !($this->bought[$this->cursor] ?? false)],
                    $this->cursor,
                ),
                null,
            ],
            default => [$this, null],
        };
    }

    // 3. view() renders the current state. Pure function — no side effects.
    public function view(): string
    {
        $lines = ["Shopping list:\n"];
        foreach ($this->items as $i => $name) {
            $cursor = $i === $this->cursor ? '>' : ' ';
            $check  = ($this->bought[$i] ?? false) ? '[x]' : '[ ]';
            $lines[] = "  $cursor $check $name";
        }
        $lines[] = "\n(↑/↓ to move, space to toggle, q to quit)";
        return implode("\n", $lines);
    }

    public function subscriptions(): ?Subscriptions { return null; }
}

(new Program(new ShoppingList(['eggs', 'milk', 'bread', 'candy'])))->run();

Three rules carry through to every program:

Model is immutable. update() returns a new Model, never mutates the receiver. This buys you snapshot debugging, time travel, undo — all for free.
Cmds run async. update() decides what should happen; the runtime applies the resulting Cmd. A Cmd is a closure returning a Msg.
view() is pure. Same Model in → same string out. Side effects (writing to disk, hitting an HTTP endpoint, blinking the cursor) all live in Cmds, never in view().

Once you've internalised the loop, every other SugarCraft feature is just a richer Msg or a more interesting Cmd.

Debugging tips

The renderer owns stdout — printing to it from update() or view() will be overwritten on the next frame. The two ways to surface debug info from inside a running program:

Log to a file. Tail the file from another terminal:

error_log('counter is now ' . $count . "\n", 3, '/tmp/candy.log');

$ tail -f /tmp/candy.log

Use Cmd::println(). Lines emitted via Cmd::println() print above the program region (alt-screen and inline mode both honour this) — perfect for "I got here" prints during development.

An uncaught exception thrown from update() or view() reaches the program's exception handler (default: rethrow), which means a raw PHP stack trace with local paths lands on the recovered screen — informative for the developer, alarming for the user. Install withExceptionHandler() if you want to log it and resume (or show a friendlier frame) instead.

Other gotchas:

Don't return null from Model::view(). The runtime expects a string. Return '' for an empty frame.
Don't block the main thread in update() or view() — the runtime won't pump frames while you're sleeping. Long work goes in a Cmd that emits a Msg when it finishes.
Test the Model in isolation. Drive update() with scripted Msgs in PHPUnit; the runtime is irrelevant for state-machine testing. (See sugar-core/tests/ProgramTest.php for the pattern.)
Keep view() deterministic. The line-diff (and especially the cell-diff, cellDiffRenderer: true) renderer skips unchanged rows only when the frame is byte-stable — randomised or time-dependent output defeats the diff and repaints everything every frame.

Mouse support — cell-motion vs all-motion

Pass MouseMode::CellMotion (only emit motion events while a button is held) or MouseMode::AllMotion (emit every motion event including bare-cursor moves) to ProgramOptions. Pick:

CellMotion when the model only cares about clicks + drags (most apps). Fewer Msgs flow through update(), lighter on the parser, plays nicely with terminal copy/paste because the user can hold Shift to bypass mouse capture.
AllMotion when the model reacts to hover state (tooltips, fancy cursor effects, drag-preview overlays). Trade: every motion event lands in update(), so enable it only while a hover-sensitive view is up (View->mouseMode) instead of process-wide.

MouseMsg carries a MouseAction enum (Press / Release / Motion) and 1-based $x / $y coordinates. The wheel is not an action: wheel events arrive as Press with MouseButton::WheelUp / MouseButton::WheelDown. The four MouseClickMsg / MouseReleaseMsg / MouseMotionMsg / MouseWheelMsg subclasses let you match by class when that's more convenient.

examples/mouse.php is a runnable demonstrator.

ProgramOptions

ProgramOptions is a 24-parameter value object (readonly promoted properties). Pass it as Program's second argument:

use SugarCraft\Core\{Program, ProgramOptions};

$program = new Program(
    new Counter(),
    new ProgramOptions(framerate: 60.0, useAltScreen: true, mouseMode: MouseMode::CellMotion),
);
$program->run();

For code that assembles options incrementally there is SugarCraft\Core\ProgramOptions\ProgramOptionsBuilder — a fluent mirror of the same 24 options (withFramerate(), withUseAltScreen(), withMouseMode(), withInlineMode(), …); build() returns the ProgramOptions and performs no validation beyond the types:

use SugarCraft\Core\Program;
use SugarCraft\Core\ProgramOptions\ProgramOptionsBuilder;

$opts = (new ProgramOptionsBuilder())
    ->withUseAltScreen(true)
    ->withFramerate(60.0)
    ->withCellDiffRenderer(true)
    ->build();

(new Program(new Counter(), $opts))->run();

Program helpers

withLogger

Inject a PSR-3-shaped logger to receive runtime lifecycle events. The default is the library's own SugarCraft\Core\Util\NullLogger (a silent sink — sugar-core does not depend on psr/log); any object exposing info() / error() / warning() is accepted, and missing methods are skipped:

use SugarCraft\Core\Program;
use SugarCraft\Core\Util\NullLogger;

$program = (new Program(new Counter()))
    ->withLogger(new NullLogger());   // immutable — returns new instance

withExceptionHandler

use SugarCraft\Core\Program;

$program = (new Program(new Counter()))
    ->withExceptionHandler(fn (\Throwable $t) => error_log($t->getMessage()));

lastFrameDuration

Seconds elapsed for the most recent render cycle — useful for adaptive framerate:

use SugarCraft\Core\Program;

$program = new Program(new Counter());
$program->run();
echo $program->lastFrameDuration();  // 0.0 before first render, >0 after

ProgressReporter

The ProgressReporter interface reports ongoing operation progress. It is a shared vocabulary shipped by the foundation; as of today no monorepo package consumes it — apps (or future library releases) adopt it directly:

use SugarCraft\Core\ProgressReporter;
use SugarCraft\Core\Progress\CallbackProgressReporter;

interface ProgressReporter
{
    /** @param int $current 0-based current step @param int $total Total steps @param string|null $label Optional label */
    public function report(int $current, int $total, ?string $label = null): void;
}

Default implementations:

use SugarCraft\Core\Progress\CallbackProgressReporter;
use SugarCraft\Core\Progress\SilentProgressReporter;

// Callback — fires a closure with ($current, $total, $label)
$reporter = CallbackProgressReporter::new(
    fn (int $current, int $total, ?string $label) => printf("%d/%d %s\n", $current, $total, $label ?? '')
);
$reporter->report(3, 10, 'downloading');

// Silent — no-op (assertable via spy in tests)
$reporter = new SilentProgressReporter();

UndoActionType

Typed enum for apps that want structured undo routing instead of string-prefix detection (str_starts_with($desc, 'delete ') patterns):

use SugarCraft\Core\Undo\UndoActionType;
use SugarCraft\Core\Undo\UndoAction;

enum UndoActionType: string
{
    case Delete = 'delete';
    case Move   = 'move';
    case Rename = 'rename';
    case Copy   = 'copy';
    case Insert = 'insert';
    case Modify = 'modify';
    case Custom = 'custom';
}

// Readonly value object pairing a type with its payload + display label
$action = UndoAction::new(UndoActionType::Delete, ['path' => '/tmp/foo'], 'delete foo');
echo $action->type->value;   // 'delete'
echo $action->label;          // 'delete foo'

Atomic durable JSON files (`Util\AtomicJsonFile`)

The pattern eight sibling libs consolidate onto: AtomicJsonFile::path($file) ->write($data) serialises to a 0600 temp inode, fsyncs, then rename()s, so a reader never sees a half-written file, and takes a Semaphore-guarded lock so concurrent processes serialise.

Operator notes:

Stale .lock sidecar. The lock lives in <file>.lock. If a process is SIGKILLed while holding it, the sidecar can outlive its flock lease; on a multi-uid host the residue may even belong to another user, and every later write fails until an operator removes the stale .lock (the flock itself auto-releases when the owning process is gone — the unlink is purely cosmetic hygiene, safe to rm when flock -n proves nobody holds it).
Publish permissions. Resulting file modes derive from the process umask (opt-in withPermissions() tightens them explicitly); a world-readable umask publishes world-readable state files.

Renamed packages

When a package in this monorepo is renamed, apps should keep working for users who still set old env vars or have data in old directories. Two shims in SugarCraft\Core\Util cover that:

LegacyEnv::import(['SUGARCRUSH_' => 'CANDY_CODE_']) — copies every env var set under a pre-rename prefix onto the new prefix, never overwriting a var the user already set under the new name, and returns the imported old names (sorted) so the app can print a deprecation notice. Call it at the very top of bin/<app>, right after the autoloader.
LegacyPaths::migrate($oldDir, $newDir) — one-time atomic move of a pre-rename data/config directory (parents created 0700); returns a human-readable notice, and never merges when the new path already exists.

Every line that spells an old name must carry the @rename-keep marker, or tools/check-rename-residue.php will flag it.

Test

cd sugar-core && composer install && vendor/bin/phpunit

Credits & inspiration

Originally inspired by the Go Charm ecosystem; SugarCraft is developed as a native PHP project.

sugarcraft / sugar-core

Package info

Security

Statistics

README

SugarCraft

Requirements

Environment variables

Color-profile detection order

Architecture

Composition primitives

Subscriptions

Screen / ScreenStack

Viewport fit

Demos

Counter Model

Timer

Status

Companion libraries

Localization (i18n)

Adding a new locale

Application-level overrides

Composing Cmds

Message catalogue

Alt-screen vs inline mode

Tutorial — building a shopping list

Debugging tips

Mouse support — cell-motion vs all-motion

ProgramOptions

Program helpers

withLogger

withExceptionHandler

lastFrameDuration

ProgressReporter

UndoActionType

Atomic durable JSON files (`Util\AtomicJsonFile`)

Renamed packages

Test

Credits & inspiration

sugarcraft / sugar-core

Package info

Security

Statistics

README

SugarCraft

Requirements

Environment variables

Color-profile detection order

Architecture

Composition primitives

Subscriptions

Screen / ScreenStack

Viewport fit

Demos

Counter Model

Timer

Status

Companion libraries

Localization (i18n)

Adding a new locale

Application-level overrides

Composing Cmds

Message catalogue

Alt-screen vs inline mode

Tutorial — building a shopping list

Debugging tips

Mouse support — cell-motion vs all-motion

ProgramOptions

Program helpers

withLogger

withExceptionHandler

lastFrameDuration

ProgressReporter

UndoActionType

Atomic durable JSON files (Util\AtomicJsonFile)

Renamed packages

Test

Credits & inspiration

Atomic durable JSON files (`Util\AtomicJsonFile`)