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asset⌬ modulemoduleprimary: init.luau·originates fromworld 07158574-5…●1problem

discovery

Content search in this engine. One question — `discovery.search { q, assetType, match, mode, limit }` — answered in one shape, in one of two modes. `match` belongs to keyword mode.

by◐lumi·posted 26d ago
What it does

discovery

Content search in this engine. One question — discovery.search { q, assetType, match, mode, limit } — answered in one shape, in one of two modes. match belongs to keyword mode.

Keyword reads the files each asset type's type.yaml names under indexing.data for the slot match selects: identity is the identity role (a README, usually); capability is the capability, interface and implementation roles together (code, guide bodies); any is either and all is both. It matches the query's words against those files verbatim and each hit says which role and file matched. It runs on this engine's own files, so unpushed content and a private world's own content are in it.

Semantic is ZeroMind's ranking over what ZeroMind may embed: the builtin library, the origin worlds of installed libraries and imported assets, and this world itself when it is public. Say what you need in q, in plain words. The search decides which asset types the words are about, and a judge reads every candidate against the query; the hits it keeps come back best first. match does not apply to it. Leave assetType out: naming one replaces the search's own choice of types, so only the named types are searched and a type guessed wrong answers nothing even when the library holds what you asked for. Name a type only when the task fixes it. A private world's own content is out of its reach, and the answer's note says what it searched and that keyword mode searches the world's own files.

The two modes never fall back to each other; the answer names the other one when it cannot answer.

The library corpus. library = true asks the semantic ranking over the whole published library instead of the content this engine can reach (discovery.libraryScope() names no world, so the request carries no world filter). Each hit carries local_ when this world already holds it. The same question is then asked of this world's own content by keyword mode (keyword { own = true }, which reads only assets discovery.worldOwn holds to be this world's: not the builtin library, not an installed library, not a dependency, not anything world.installedAssets() lists), and those matches are appended after the library's hits (discovery.withWorldMatches): a hit the library already returned stays where the library put it, every other one is listed after, marked from = "world". The library's hits keep the order the search core gave them; no score is changed or combined. When ZeroMind cannot be asked (resting, unavailable), the world's own matches still answer and the note says the library was not searched and why. An engine bound to no world answers as before. Keyword mode refuses library.

discovery.searchGuides asks the same question the way a guides { query } call does: the documentation types DOC_TYPES names, guide, agentskill and assettype. discovery.searchTools asks it the way a search_tools { query } call does: the types TOOL_TYPES names, tool, toolbox and workflow. Three surfaces mean three things (guides is the docs, search_tools is what an agent runs, discovery.search is the content), so a guides query answers out of the docs alone, and an answer holding no hit carries NO_DOCS_NOTE, which names discovery.search as the surface that reads modules, components, render features, shaders and the rest. Both MCP tools ask with library = true whenever the engine is bound to a world.

Naming no assetType, keyword mode walks discovery.guideTypes() — the types discovery.types() lists that DOC_TYPES names — and semantic mode asks ZeroMind over them (discovery.semanticKinds, each type by the guid of its .assetType) for SEMANTIC_FETCH_MAX hits (100, the most one call answers) and keeps the first limit of those kinds (discovery.onlyKinds). Naming an assetType, it searches exactly those types; a list naming tool, toolbox or workflow is refused with a sentence that points to search_tools, and one naming any other type discovery.types() lists with a sentence that points to discovery.search. searchTools refuses a documentation type by pointing to guides, and a content type by pointing to discovery.search. The hits stay in the search's own rank order.

The answer

{
  mode:    "keyword" | "semantic",   -- the mode that ran; absent on a refusal
  match:   "identity" | "capability" | "any" | "all",   -- keyword answers only
  from:    "bound" | "library",      -- the scope that ran
  status:  "answered" | "private_world" | "resting" | "unavailable" | "refused",
  results: { { q, hits } },          -- one entry per query, in the order asked
  world:    { guid, title, private },   -- the world this ran from, when one is bound
  searched: { { guid, title, why } },   -- the worlds it covered
  note:     string,                     -- the reach this answer had, and where else to look
  scanned:  number,                     -- keyword: the most assets one query read
  cut:      boolean,                    -- keyword: whether a walk stopped at KEYWORD_SCAN_MAX
}

private is stated once the world's visibility has been read. Semantic mode reads it — through discovery.visibility, which asks ZeroMind once per world and holds the answer — because it decides what ZeroMind is asked over. A keyword answer and a refusal ask ZeroMind nothing: they name the world from what the engine holds (discovery.worldHere()), so an unreachable backend never delays them. private_world is the status of an answered semantic search from a private world; a resting or unavailable one keeps that status and its retry_in_s or error.

note is what an answered search says about its own reach. PRIVATE_WORLD_NOTE is what a private world's semantic search covered and which mode reads that world's own files; ALL_KINDS_NOTE is the semantic search that named no kind, so ZeroMind ranked over every kind it holds and a row can be of any of them; NO_DOCS_NOTE is the guides query the documentation held nothing for, and names the surface that searches every other kind. They stand in the one note when more than one applies, the private-world sentence first — status reads private_world there, so the sentence that status names opens what the answer carries.

why is builtin, this world, library or import. A semantic answer's searched is the scope ZeroMind was asked over; a keyword answer's is the corpus it actually read — the builtin library when builtin assets were in it, this world when the world's own were. A library or import entry's title is read from the install record that brought its guid into this world; an install whose record carries none names that origin by guid alone.

A hit carries guid, assetType (the server's wire field kind, renamed where a hit is read), name, summary — the first line of the asset's README that is neither blank nor a heading — and local_, the form of the asset this engine holds: path, plus tool for a tool (the identity a call names, from the tool registry through tools.callable), toolbox for a tool and for a toolbox (the name a drill-in lists the toolbox by), or guide for a guide or an assetType (the identity guides { path } reads), workflow for a workflow (the identity workflow.start runs), skill for an agent skill (the identity agent_skill opens), and readme, the VFS path of the asset's README when it holds one. A tool or toolbox hit also carries local_.registered, which says whether the registry holds what the hit names: the function a call to the tool would run (tools.callable), or the toolbox a drill-in would list (tools.registeredToolbox). A .tool folder whose source registered none has tool = nil and registered = false; a toolbox folder the registry holds nothing for keeps its toolbox name and has registered = false. discovery.identityOf(hit) is the one name the surface acting on a tool-family hit takes: a tool's <toolbox>.<tool>, a toolbox's drill-in name. A hit from keyword mode carries matched = { role, file, terms, words, together }: the role and file that carried the query's words best, how many of those words the asset carried anywhere in its text, how many it carried as words of their own, and the most it carried side by side in the query's order. A hit from semantic mode carries score, ZeroMind's own rank for it, and what the search core stated: p (the judge's probability, which is the order of a library answer), type_key and system_key (keys into the result's types and systems, which a library result carries beside its hits), owning_world, and preview_description when the server sends one.

A semantic request names its types through discovery.kindParam: every registered type by the guid of its .assetType, builtin types included, which is the identity ZeroMind files a type under. A name no registered type answers to travels as written, so ZeroMind can say which name it does not know. discovery.semanticKinds(names) spells the ones of names that resolve. A search that names no kind where its surface documents some — none of them resolving — answers with ALL_KINDS_NOTE, so a caller reads the ranking's reach off the answer rather than off the rows.

discovery.shape(answer, "guides", query) lists a guide or assetType hit with its assetType, the path guides { path } reads and its summary; a hit of any other type with its assetType, name, a one-line purpose and vfs_path, the README read_file opens. discovery.shape(answer, "tools") lists each hit with its assetType (tool, toolbox or workflow), its identity (discovery.identityOf), its toolbox, a one-line purpose and registered; a tool row also carries tool, the use_tool identity while the registry holds it and empty while it does not. Every row of both forms carries guid, installed (whether this world holds it), use (discovery.nextCall: the one call that acts on it, use_tool { toolbox, tool }, search_tools { toolbox }, the workflow toolbox's start, guides { path }, agent_skill { name } or read_file { path } for a hit this world holds, zeromind_install { guid } for one it does not), p when the search core judged it, and from = "world" on a match from this world's own content.

Ranking

Hits fall by matched.weight, what the query's words the asset carried as words of their own weigh together: hand in "hand it over" and spawn in "spawns" or "spawning" count, off inside "offline" does not (matched.words is how many of them there were). A word weighs ln((read + 1) / (carriers + 0.5)), where read is how many assets the walk read and carriers how many of them carry the word, so a word few assets carry outweighs several that nearly every asset carries: in "roster who is here" the tool saying "roster" ranks above the hundreds saying "who is here". Then by matched.together, the most of the query's words the asset carried side by side in the query's order (separated by spaces or hyphens), so "hand off" ranks above "hand" and "off" apart. Then by matched.terms, how many of the words the asset carried anywhere in its text, inside longer words included. Each word counts once however many of the asset's files carry it. Then by the order the type declares the role that matched in its indexing.data, then by name. match: "all" keeps only assets whose identity files and whose capability files each carried at least one of the words.

A keyword answer's results[i].total is how many assets matched that query, of which hits are the best limit.

The frames a search takes

A keyword walk reads the files of up to KEYWORD_SCAN_MAX assets, which on a cold cache is thousands of reads. Called from code that can yield (a task, an execute, the engine shell, search_tools), it gives the frame back every SLICE_MS (8 ms) of reading, so the engine keeps stepping and drawing while it searches. discovery.newSlice() is that rule as a function, for any other walk to call between its pieces. Called from code that cannot yield, the walk reads everything within the one call.

What it reads, what it holds, and what it reads twice

A keyword query reads the files the recipe names for every asset of every type it covers. One copy of each file is kept — lowercased, which is what the match reads, plus the one line a README answers for — against the checksum the asset index reports for its asset (asset.meta(ref).checksum, the tree hash over the asset's own files). So a second identical query reads nothing, and an asset whose bytes changed is read again on the next query that reaches it.

What is held is bounded by TEXT_BUDGET_BYTES, 16 MiB; past it the least recently read asset's text is dropped, and a query that reaches it again reads it again. discovery.stats() reports reads, the number of vfs.read calls the module has made, and bytes, what it is holding right now. discovery.forget() drops all of it.

Past the budget, the least recently read text is dropped until TEXT_KEEP_FRACTION (three quarters) of it is held, so the ordering that picks what goes is paid once per pass rather than once per read.

How much one query reads

A keyword query reads at most KEYWORD_SCAN_MAX assets, 500. The walk takes this world's own assets first and the library's after them, since no other search answers for what the world holds; within each, it takes the types' assets in turn — the first of each type, then the second of each — so a bound walk samples every type instead of reading the first few types whole. A tools.search drilled into a toolbox ({ toolbox = ... }) walks the tools under that toolbox's folder and no others (within). The answer states scanned, how many it read, and cut, whether the types held more. The bound holds whatever the query names: assetType narrows which assets the 500 are, so a type holding more than 500 is cut too. search_tools asks for tool,toolbox (440 builtin assets), which fits inside the bound on the builtin library. A guides query that names no assetType covers guideTypes() — guide and assettype, 125 builtin assets — so its walk reads both types whole. A name no registered type answers to is refused, naming it and the types that surface reads, and so is a name whose type declares no indexing recipe, since no search reads its assets; discovery.types() is the whole list a discovery.search can read.

Measured on a native headless offline engine, dev profile (optimized + debuginfo), Windows, --dev over the checkout, 2026-09-14. "Cold" follows discovery.forget(); "warm" repeats the same query. Every row but the fresh-engine one ran on an engine whose earlier walks had already read the same files once, so its cold figure is the module's cost without the first read of each file from disk. The builtin library holds 2,172 assets across the 42 types that declare a recipe and more than 46 MB of lowercased text; module (15.6 MB) and testSuite (past the 16 MiB budget on its own) are the largest.

QueryAssets readColdWarm
builtin, no assetType, no bound2,17228,558 ms, 6,051 reads19,309 ms, 6,002 reads (the text passes the budget, so it is read again)
builtin, no assetType, bound 500, first query of a fresh engine500, cut8,328 ms, 1,283 reads159 ms, 0 reads
builtin, tool,toolbox440383 ms, 1,224 reads38 ms, 0 reads
builtin, guide,assettype125541 ms, 348 reads11 ms, 0 reads
builtin, searchGuides naming guide, after forget()76436 ms, 152 reads34 ms, 0 reads
builtin + 1,500 world guides, no assetType500, cut8,320 ms, 1,192 reads136 ms, 0 reads
builtin + 1,500 world guides, guide500 of 1,576, cut607 ms, 1,000 reads27 ms, 0 reads

The world guides were authored into the session's /source with asset.create("guide", name), each carrying a two-line README.md and guide.md. What a read costs depends on the file: a guide's two small files read in 0.6 to 1.6 ms each, while an animation, font or texture asset's recipe files cost 17 to 42 ms each, which is why the bounded unfiltered walk — which reaches every type — costs more per asset than a family walk.

Interface

What this asset declares: the schema it conforms to, what it exposes, and the rendered structured payload.

conforms to

zero/source-extract/v2

module discovery Content search in this engine: keyword mode over the files each asset type's type.yaml names, semantic mode through ZeroMind over the scope this world can reach. One question, one answer shape, two modes. require @builtin::modules.discovery about `search { q, assetType, match, mode, limit }` is the question; `match` applies to keyword mode only. `q` is a phrase or a list of them and the answer carries one `results` entry per query, in the order they were asked. `searchGuides` asks it the way a `guides` query does: over the documentation types `DOC_TYPES` names when it names no `assetType`, and an answer that found nothing names the surface that searches every other kind. Keyword mode reads the files each asset type declares under `indexing.data` in its `type.yaml`, for the slot `match` selects: `identity` is the `identity` role, `capability` is the `capability`, `interface` and `implementation` roles together, `any` is either and `all` is both. The query's words are matched against that text, each word counting once for the asset that carries it, and an asset ranks by what the words it carries as words of their own weigh, a word weighing more the fewer of the assets read carry it, then by how many it carries side by side in the query's order, then by how many it carries anywhere in its text. It runs on the files this engine holds, so unpushed content and a private world's own content are in it, and from code that can yield it reads them across frames, giving the frame back every `SLICE_MS`. Semantic mode is ZeroMind's ranking over what ZeroMind may embed. Say what you need in `q`, in plain words. The search decides which asset types the words are about and orders what it keeps by how relevant a judge read each hit to be. `match` does not apply to it, and naming an `assetType` replaces that decision: only the named types are searched, so a type guessed wrong answers nothing. Name one only when the task fixes the type. The answer names the worlds it covered. Every answer states the scope it ran from — `from`, the bound `world`, and the `searched` worlds — and every hit carries the local form of the asset this engine holds: its path, the identity a call names a tool by, the identity `guides` reads a guide or an assetType's README by.

excerptOf(raw: any) → Excerpt

The passage a hit matched on, from the chunks ZeroMind ranked it by. The chunks arrive best first, so the first is the one that answered. Its text is collapsed to single spaces and cut back to a whole word, because a chunk is a block of a README and a hit list carrying several of them whole stops being readable.

argtypedescription
rawany

lower(s: string) → string

argtypedescription
sstring

newSlice( ) →

A function to call between the pieces of a long walk: it yields one frame once `SLICE_MS` has run since the slice began, and does nothing for a caller that cannot yield. Each walk makes its own.

examples

local between = discovery.newSlice(); for _, ref in ipairs(asset.list("tool")) do between() end

stats( ) →

What this module has read and what it is holding. `reads` is the number of `vfs.read` calls it has made — a query that reads content it already holds against an unchanged checksum leaves it where it stood. `bytes` is the asset text held right now, which stays under `TEXT_BUDGET_BYTES`. `visibilityReads` is the number of times it has asked ZeroMind for a world's visibility.

examples

local before = discovery.stats().reads

forget( ) → void

Drop every held text. The next query reads its files again.

examples

discovery.forget()

leadLine(text: string) → string

The line a README answers for: the first that is neither blank nor a heading.

argtypedescription
textstring

evictTo(budget: number, keep: string) → void

Once what is held passes `budget`, drop the least recently read assets until `TEXT_KEEP_FRACTION` of it is held. `keep` is the asset being read right now, which is never the one dropped.

argtypedescription
budgetnumber
keepstring

readText(assetPath: string, checksum: string, file: string) → TextRecord

One file of one asset, read once per checksum the asset carries. Returns nil when the asset holds no such file, or holds it empty.

argtypedescription
assetPathstring
checksumstring
filestring

readRaw(path: string) → string

One file read as written, counted like every other read and held by nothing. For the files whose CASE carries meaning — a recipe naming `README.md` — where the lowercased copy the match reads would not do.

argtypedescription
pathstring

checksumOf(ref: any) → string

The checksum the asset index reports for one asset — what says whether the files under its path still hold the bytes a previous read saw.

argtypedescription
refany

summaryOf(assetPath: string, checksum: string) → string

What the asset is, in one line, from its README. Nil when the asset carries no README, or none whose lines are all headings.

argtypedescription
assetPathstring
checksumstring

loadTypes(force: boolean) → void

Read the registered asset types once, and again whenever a name misses or names a type no search reads. Each read replaces the last one whole, so a type authored since answers from it and a type removed since is gone.

argtypedescription
forceboolean

typePathOf(typeName: string) → string

The path of the `.assetType` declaring `typeName`, re-reading the registry once when the name misses.

argtypedescription
typeNamestring

typeAsset(typeName: string) → any

The `.assetType` asset declaring `typeName`, or nil when no type answers to that name.

argtypedescription
typeNamestring

indexing(typeName: string) →

The indexing recipe a type declares in its `type.yaml`, as `{ { role, extractor, files, order } }` in declared order, or nil when the type declares none, is deprecated, or does not exist. A deprecated type is not indexed, so none of its instances is read. `order` is the entry's place in `indexing.data`, which is what ranks two hits that matched the same number of words.

argtypedescription
typeNamestringThe asset type's name, in any casing (`"guide"`).

examples

local recipe = discovery.indexing("guide")

types( ) →

Every asset type whose `type.yaml` declares an indexing recipe — the types a search can read, in name order.

examples

for _, name in ipairs(discovery.types()) do print(name) end

guideTypes( ) →

The types a `guides` query searches: the ones `types()` lists that `DOC_TYPES` names — the documentation this engine holds. In name order.

examples

local names = discovery.guideTypes()

toolTypes( ) →

The types a `search_tools` query searches: the ones `types()` lists that `TOOL_TYPES` names, the things an agent runs. In name order.

examples

local names = discovery.toolTypes()

typeGuid(name: string) → string

The guid of the `.assetType` a registered type name answers to, or nil for a name no registered type answers to.

argtypedescription
namestring

kindParam(assetType: string?) → string

The `kind` a semantic request names for a comma list of type names: each registered type travels as the guid of its `.assetType`, the identity ZeroMind files it under wherever it was declared, builtin types included. A name no registered type answers to travels as written in lowercase, so ZeroMind names the one it does not know.

argtypedescription
assetTypestring?A comma list of type names, or nil.

examples

local kind = discovery.kindParam("guide,module")

guideIdentity(identity: string, path: string) → string

The identity `guides { path }` reads a guide by. A builtin guide's asset identity is dot-form under its library (`@builtin::docs.topics.physics`); the guide path is that with the library and the `docs` shell dropped and the dots opened into slashes.

argtypedescription
identitystring
pathstring

toolboxKey(path: string) → string

The name the tool registry carries a toolbox under, for a `.tool` at `path`. A toolbox under a library root other than the builtin one is registered scope-qualified (`@lib::ns`); every other toolbox is registered under its bare name.

argtypedescription
pathstringThe tool's VFS path.

examples

discovery.toolboxKey("/zero/source/libs/@builtin/tools/zm.toolbox/status.tool")

toolboxReachedBy(toolboxDir: string?) → void

The name a call reaches the toolbox in the folder `toolboxDir` by, and whether that name reaches this folder. A folder holding a tool is reached by the name `tools.toolboxesNamed` spells it with (its canonical identity when another toolbox shares its folder's name); a folder holding no tool is named by its folder (`discovery.toolboxKey`), a name that reaches whichever toolbox holding a tool answers to it.

argtypedescription
toolboxDirstring?

localFormOf(ref: any) → LocalForm

The local form of an asset this engine holds: its path, and the identity the surface that acts on it names it by.

argtypedescription
refany

resolve(guid: string) → LocalForm

The local form of an asset this world holds, by guid: its path, the identity a call names a tool by, the name a drill-in lists a toolbox by (for a tool, its own toolbox's), whether the registry holds what a tool or toolbox hit names, the identity `guides` reads a guide or an assetType's README by, and the VFS path of the asset's README when it holds one. Nil when this world holds no asset under that guid.

argtypedescription
guidstringThe published guid.

examples

local here = discovery.resolve(hit.guid)

queryWords(q: string) → void

Every word of the query in the order it was written: lowercase runs of characters, keeping the dots and underscores an API name is written with.

argtypedescription
qstring

terms(q: string) → void

The query's words a match counts: those of two or more characters.

argtypedescription
qstring

keywordQuery(q: string) → KeywordQuery

The query `q` as keyword mode reads it.

argtypedescription
qstring

wordEndFrom(text: string, term: string, s: number) → number

Where the word `term` ends in `text`, given that `text` holds `term` at `s`: `term` begins a word there and ends one, give or take an ending `INFLECTIONS` names. Nil when `term` sits inside a longer word, as `off` does in `offline`.

argtypedescription
textstring
termstring
snumber

wordEndAt(text: string, term: string, s: number) → number

Where the word `term` ends in `text` when it starts at `s`, or nil when `text` does not hold `term` there as a word of its own.

argtypedescription
textstring
termstring
snumber

carriesWord(text: string, term: string) → boolean

Whether `text` carries `term` as a word of its own.

argtypedescription
textstring
termstring

longestRun(text: string, query: KeywordQuery) → number

The most of the query's counted words `text` carries side by side, in the query's order, separated by nothing but spaces and hyphens: 2 for `hand off` in "hand off the work" or "a hand-off", 0 when no two of them stand together. A one-character word of the query ("spawn a camera") takes its place in the run and is not counted, so a run is read from a counted word.

argtypedescription
textstring
queryKeywordQuery

matchParts(parts: { Part }, query: KeywordQuery) → void

How well this asset carries the query, the file that carried it best (side by side, then as words of their own, then anywhere; the earliest-declared role and file among equals), which roles carried anything, and the query's words it carried as words of their own.

argtypedescription
parts{ Part }
queryKeywordQuery

slotHit(rolesHit: { [string]: boolean }, slot: string) → boolean

Whether any role a slot reads carried a word.

argtypedescription
rolesHit{ [string]: boolean }
slotstring

typesFor(assetType: string?) → void

The asset types a request searches; the names it gave that no type answers to; and the types it named that declare no indexing recipe, whose assets no search reads.

argtypedescription
assetTypestring?

inBuiltin(path: string) → boolean

Which corpus an asset at `path` belongs to, as a keyword answer names it.

argtypedescription
pathstring

installedPaths( ) →

The paths of everything this world carries from ZeroMind, as `world.installedAssets()` lists them: every library, imported asset and dependency a pull wrote. Empty on an engine bound to no world.

examples

local pulled = discovery.installedPaths()

worldOwn(path: string, installed: { [string]: boolean }) → boolean

Whether an asset at `path` is this world's own content: not the builtin library, not an installed library root (`libs/@<name>/`), not a dependency a pull brought (`/source/deps/`), and not at or inside a path `installed` holds. Those are the content a library ranking already covers; what is left is what this world's authors made here.

argtypedescription
pathstringThe asset's VFS path.
installed{ [string]: boolean }What `installedPaths()` answered.

examples

local own = discovery.worldOwn("/source/tools/mine.toolbox/go.tool", discovery.installedPaths())

awaitJob(poll: (, budgetMs: ?) →

Poll `poll` until it reports a terminal status, giving up after `budgetMs` of wall clock. The budget is measured against the clock, so it means the same span whatever the frame rate is. milliseconds spent.

argtypedescription
poll(Reads the job's current state.
budgetMs?How long to wait, in milliseconds.

examples

local settled, ms = discovery.awaitJob(poll, 15000)

boundGuid( ) → string

The guid of the world this engine is bound to, or nil on an engine bound to none. Every read of the binding in this module goes through it.

examples

local guid = discovery.boundGuid()

visibility(guid: string) → string

A world's visibility as ZeroMind reports it, read through the trusted world read and waiting up to `VISIBILITY_BUDGET_MS`. An answer is held for the guid, so each world is asked once; nil when the engine cannot read it.

argtypedescription
guidstringThe world's guid.

examples

local visibility = discovery.visibility(world.guid())

worldHere( ) → BoundWorld

The world this engine is bound to, as the engine itself knows it: its guid and title, and `private` when a semantic search has already read the world's visibility. Nothing here waits on ZeroMind, which is what lets a keyword answer and a refusal name the world at once. Nil when no world is bound.

examples

local here = discovery.worldHere()

boundWorld( ) → BoundWorld

The world this engine is bound to, with whether it is private — which is what decides whether its own content is anything ZeroMind may embed. Reads the visibility through `visibility`, and holds a world whose visibility cannot be read as private. Nil when no world is bound.

examples

local here = discovery.boundWorld()

installedOrigin(row: any) → SearchedWorld

One `searched` entry for an installed row's origin world, or nil when the row names none. `why` is `library` for a package, `import` otherwise. `title` is read from the row's own record of its origin world's title; a row whose install carried none leaves it nil, so that origin is named by guid alone.

argtypedescription
rowanyOne `world.installedAssets()` row.

examples

local entry = discovery.installedOrigin({ origin_world_guid = "...", kind = "material" })

scope( ) → Scope

The worlds a semantic search covers from this engine, and the bound world it runs from. The builtin library is always in reach; this world is in when it is public; the origin world of every installed library and imported asset is in through the public world that published it.

examples

local scope = discovery.scope()

keywordScope(corpus: Corpus) → Scope

The scope a keyword answer names: the bound world, and the worlds whose content the query actually read. It asks ZeroMind nothing.

argtypedescription
corpusCorpusWhere the assets a query read came from.

examples

local scope = discovery.keywordScope({ builtin = true, world = false })

libraryScope( ) → Scope

The scope a library search names: no world at all. Naming no world is what widens the ranking from the content this engine can see to everything published, because the request carries a world filter only when it has worlds to name. The bound world still travels, so an answer can say where the search was made from.

examples

local scope = discovery.libraryScope()

resting( ) →

How long the semantic leg is still resting, in seconds, and the failure it is resting after. Nil when it is not resting; the window closes as soon as it has run out.

examples

local seconds, why = discovery.resting()

semanticKinds(names: { string }) → string

The `kind` a semantic request names to cover `names`: the guid of each one's `.assetType`, as `kindParam` spells it. A name no registered type answers to is left out. Nil when none of them resolves, which is the request that names no kind and ranks over all of them.

argtypedescription
names{ string }Type names, as `types()` spells them.

examples

local kind = discovery.semanticKinds(discovery.guideTypes())

stated(value: any, want: string) → any

A field a hit states, as it stated it, or nil when it is absent or of another type, so an older server reads as saying nothing about it.

argtypedescription
valueany
wantstring

refuse(message: string) → void

argtypedescription
messagestring

withWorldMatches(results: { QueryResult }, own: { { Hit } }) →

A library ranking with this world's own matches listed after it, query by query: `own[i]` are the hits keyword mode found for `results[i]` in this world's own content. A hit the library already returned stays where the library put it; every other one is appended in the order keyword mode ranked it, marked `from = "world"`. The library's hits keep the order the search core gave them, and no score is changed or combined.

argtypedescription
results{ QueryResult }The library ranking, by query position.
own{ { Hit } }This world's own matches, by the same positions.

examples

local merged = discovery.withWorldMatches(results, { ownHits })

keyOf(hit: Hit) → string

A hit is the same asset as another by its guid; an asset that has none yet is only ever one of this world's, and is told apart by its path.

argtypedescription
hitHit

defaultMode( ) → string

The mode a call runs when it names none: semantic on a live engine, keyword on an offline boot.

examples

local mode = discovery.defaultMode()

ownMatches( ) → void

search(req: { [string]: any }) →

Search this engine's content. `req` is `{ q, assetType?, match?, mode?, limit?, budgetMs?, within? }`: `q` is a phrase or a list of them, `assetType` a comma list of type names as `types()` lists them (a name `types()` does not list is refused, and the refusal names every type it lists; in semantic mode leave it out unless the task fixes the type, since naming one replaces the search's own choice of types), `match` (keyword mode only) one of `identity` / `capability` / `any` / `all`, `mode` one of `keyword` / `semantic`, `within` a folder path or a list of them that the walk of this engine's own files is held to (the library ranking is not). Every answer carries `mode`, `from`, `status`, the bound `world`, the `searched` worlds, and one `results` entry per query; a keyword answer also carries `match`. was ranked on, which costs the fuller hit payload; documentation searches ask for them already. `library` ranks over the whole published library instead of the content this engine can see, for a caller looking for something to install rather than something already here, and lists this world's own matches by their words after the library's hits, each marked `from = "world"`; when ZeroMind cannot be asked, those own matches still answer and the note says why the library was not searched. It is off by default, and `mode: keyword` refuses it, since keyword mode reads this engine's own files.

argtypedescription
req{ [string]: any }The request table. `excerpts` asks each hit to carry the passage it

examples

local out = discovery.search({ q = "outline", assetType = "guide", mode = "keyword" })
local out = discovery.search({ q = "outline", excerpts = true })

searchGuides(req: { [string]: any }) →

Search as a `guides` query asks: `search` over the documentation types `DOC_TYPES` names, or over exactly the ones of them `req.assetType` names. Naming no type, keyword mode walks the types `guideTypes()` lists, and semantic mode asks ZeroMind over them (`semanticKinds`) and keeps only those kinds of its hits. An answered search that found nothing carries `NO_DOCS_NOTE`, naming the surface that searches every other kind. An `assetType` naming a type `TOOL_TYPES` holds is refused with a sentence that points to `search_tools`, and one naming any other type `types()` lists with a sentence that points to `discovery.search`. The answer is `search`'s, in rank order. `search` takes it. A semantic search here carries `excerpt` on each hit unless `excerpts = false` says not to: a reader asking the documentation a question is answered by the passage that answered it, not only by what the guide is.

argtypedescription
req{ [string]: any }`{ q, assetType?, match?, mode?, limit?, budgetMs?, excerpts? }`, as

examples

local out = discovery.searchGuides({ q = "outline", mode = "keyword" })

searchTools(req: { [string]: any }) →

Search as a `search_tools` query asks: `search` over the types `TOOL_TYPES` names (tools, toolboxes and workflows), or over exactly the ones of them `req.assetType` names. Naming no type, keyword mode walks the types `toolTypes()` lists, and semantic mode asks ZeroMind over them (`semanticKinds`) and keeps only those kinds of its hits. An `assetType` naming any other type is refused with a sentence that points to the surface that searches it. The answer is `search`'s, in rank order. as `search` takes it.

argtypedescription
req{ [string]: any }`{ q, assetType?, match?, mode?, limit?, budgetMs?, library?, within? }`,

examples

local out = discovery.searchTools({ q = "orbit the camera", mode = "keyword" })

oneLine(text: string, cap: number) → string

One line of at most `cap` characters: the first sentence when it fits, else the text cut back to the last whole word, marked with an ellipsis.

argtypedescription
textstring
capnumber

identityOf(hit: Hit) → string

The name the surface acting on a tool-family hit takes: a tool's `<toolbox>.<tool>` identity, which `use_tool` calls, and a toolbox's name, which a `search_tools { toolbox }` drill-in lists. A tool the registry does not hold is named by the toolbox its folder sits in and the name of its own `.tool` folder; a hit this engine does not hold, by its name.

argtypedescription
hitHitOne hit of a `search` answer.

examples

local identity = discovery.identityOf(hits[1])

quoted(text: string) → string

`text` as a quoted string a call is written with.

argtypedescription
textstring

nextCall(hit: Hit) → string

The call that acts on a hit, written the way an MCP caller writes it. A hit this world holds is acted on where it is: an installed tool is run with `use_tool { toolbox, tool }`, a toolbox is listed with `search_tools { toolbox }`, a workflow is started with the `workflow` toolbox's `start`, a guide or an asset type's README is read with `guides { path }`, an agent skill is opened with `agent_skill { name }`, and any other asset's README is read with `read_file { path }`. A hit this world does not hold is brought in with `zeromind_install { guid }`. Nil when the hit names nothing a call could act on.

argtypedescription
hitHitOne hit of a `search` answer.

examples

local call = discovery.nextCall(hits[1])

rowsOf(answer: { [string]: any }, form: string) → void

One row per hit, in the order the module ranked them, shaped for the surface that asked. An answer covering several queries carries `query` on every row, naming the phrasing it answered.

argtypedescription
answer{ [string]: any }
formstring

shape(answer: { [string]: any }, form: string, query: string?) →

A `search` answer in the shape a surface hands it on, built where the search ran so every way of collecting it reads the same value. `"answer"` is the answer itself with each hit's local form named `local`. `"guides"` is `{ kind = "search", query, match_count, matches }`, a row per hit: a guide's (`assetType` guide) or an asset type's (`assetType` assettype) names the `guides { path }` identity as `path` and carries `summary`, and the `excerpt` it was ranked on where the search asked for one; any other type's names its `assetType`, a one-line `purpose` and the VFS path of its README as `vfs_path`. Every row of either list form carries `guid`, `installed` (whether this world holds it), `use` (the call that acts on it, `nextCall`), `p` when the search core judged it, and `from = "world"` on a match found in this world's own content after a library ranking. `"tools"` is `{ type = "functions", count, functions }`, a row per hit naming its `assetType` (tool, toolbox or workflow), its `identity` (`discovery.identityOf`: the `use_tool` identity of a tool, the drill-in name of a toolbox), its `toolbox`, a one-line purpose and whether the registry holds what the identity names; a tool row carries `tool`, the `use_tool` identity while the registry holds it and empty while it does not. Both list forms carry the answer's `mode`, `match`, `from`, `status`, `world`, `searched`, `note`, `error`, `retry_in_s`, `scanned` and `cut` beside the rows, and `total`, how many the search matched of which the rows are the best, when it answered one query and counted them.

argtypedescription
answer{ [string]: any }What `search` answered.
formstring`"answer"`, `"guides"` or `"tools"`.
querystring?The query a `"guides"` answer echoes.

examples

return discovery.shape(discovery.searchGuides({ q = "outline" }), "guides", "outline")
⌬ Types
IndexingEntry = {Matched = { role: string, file: string, terms: number, words: number, weight: number, together: number }Excerpt = { role: string?, file: string?, similarity: number?, text: string }LocalForm = {Hit = {SearchedWorld = { guid: string, title: string?, why: string }BoundWorld = { guid: string, title: string?, private: boolean? }Scope = { searched: { SearchedWorld }, world: BoundWorld? }Corpus = { builtin: boolean, world: boolean }QueryResult = { q: string, hits: { Hit }, total: number?, types: { any }?, systems: { any }? }

Sub-parts

Everything contained inside this part. Assets are composite children (clickable cards). Files are leaf payloads. Expand any row to view its source.

Showing up to 3 levels deep. Open a part to see what it holds further down.

39+items
Assets9Files30
·
module.assetType
assettype · born here
❒asset
# Module (asset type) A module is a reusable, stateless (or globally-stateful) Luau library that other code pulls in with `require()`. Modules are the unit of factored-out logic in a world: helpers, math libraries, format parsers, registries, shared algorithms. ## When to use one - You have logic you want to share across multiple components, services, scenes, or tools. - You have a registry, lookup table, or shared cache that callers all read from / write to. - You want a stable API surface (`M.fn`) other code can depend on. If the logic is bound to one entity, use a `.component`. If you want a named UI of fields rather than functions, use a `.preset`. ## Where it lives - Source: `/zero/source/.../<name>.module/` - Identity: the source path with `/` written as `.` and each segment's type suffix dropped — `/zero/source/demo/beats.module` is `demo.beats`, and `/zero/source/kit.package/beats.module` is `kit.beats`, the container's name kept and its `.package` suffix gone. `asset.create` returns this string, `asset.resolve(...).identity` reads it back, and the `require` forms below write it as `<identity>`. - Folder shape: - `init.luau` (or `init.lua`) — module body. **Required.** Returns a table (conventionally named `M`). - `README.md` — instance-level documentation. **Required.** - `.metadata` — agent-editable tags + free-form fields. **Required.** ## How to create one ```luau asset.create("module", "<name>") -- Creates: /zero/source/<name>.module/ -- init.luau (canonical `local M = {} … return M`) -- README.md (instance README template) -- `folder` places it in a subfolder of /source, and that subfolder -- leads the identity: `{ folder = "lib" }` produces `lib.<name>`. -- `into` authors it inside a resolved container (a package, a toolbox), -- whose own identity leads the same way: asset.create("module", "<name>", { folder = "lib" }) asset.create("module", "<name>", { into = asset.resolve("myPkg.package") }) ``` ## How it operates 1. **Registration.** Writing `init.luau` into a `.module/` folder indexes the asset and registers the module path with the resolver. 2. **Loading.** The first `require("<identity>")` runs the file's body and caches the returned table. Subsequent requires from anywhere return the **same table** — this is the shared-state lever for "module-local" registries. 3. **Hot reload.** Editing the file re-runs the module body and folds what it returns into the table already loaded, so that table keeps its identity: a caller that captured it with `require` reads the new source's functions and values through the reference it already holds, and a later `require` returns that same table. A key the new source drops goes away; a key something set at runtime stays. The body's own `local`s start again from their initial values, so state that must outlive an edit lives in `modules.state()` (`guides { path: "core/scripting-and-tasks" }`). 4. **Identity resolution.** A module is reached by its `<identity>`, and where the caller lives decides which spelling of it resolves. For a module in a **world**, from a caller in that same world — another module, a component, a scene entrypoint, or an `execute` chunk: - `require("<identity>")` — the identity on its own, resolved against the caller's own root. It carries every folder segment, so a module created with `{ folder = "demo" }` is `require("demo.beats")`. - `require("@root::<identity>")` — the same root-relative resolution, written out. - `require(".sibling")` — a module in the same folder, by its bare name; `..name` steps up one folder, `...name` two. Logs, stack traces and hot-reload notices name that same module `@local.source.<identity>` — its key under the world source root. The `<identity>` tail of that key is the form above, so a trace reading `@local.source.demo.beats` is `require("demo.beats")`. For a module in a **library** — content under `/zero/source/libs/@<lib>/` — `@<lib>::` addresses that library's root from anywhere: `require("@builtin::modules.transform")`. Mounting a world as a library moves its files under such a root and flips the caller root to `@<lib>::`, which is what keeps the root-relative forms above resolving across the move. ## Discovery - `asset.list("module")` — every registered module. - `asset.inspect("<name>")` — public functions, source path, this type README. - `ls /zero/source/<name>.module` lists the files the folder holds. ## Authoring conventions - Return a single `M` table from `init.luau`. Top-level statements with side effects run on first require — useful for one-time initialization, dangerous if they touch the engine before it's ready. - Write exported functions as `typed function`, not `function`: the argument types are enforced at the call and the checker knows the signature, so a caller's mistake is reported where they made it. - Annotate exported functions with `--!desc` / `--!arg` / `--!return` / `--!example` so the LSP, `tools.list`, and `asset.inspect` surface them. A function with no `--!desc` is reachable only by someone already reading this file. - Declare a VALUE with `Field.<kind>(default, mode, description)`, and a table whose members are reached through a metatable with `--!members <TypeName>` — the latter gives the surface its accepted member set, its type, and its documentation from one table. See `guides { path: "core/authoring" }` for all four rules and `modules/api/engine/entity.module/members.module` for a worked member table. - Keep module state in module-local upvalues or in `modules.state()`. Globals leak across reloads. Module-locals start again from their initial values with each hot reload; the table `modules.state()` returns is the same table on both sides of every reload. - Prefer focused modules over kitchen-sink modules. If two halves of a module have no shared state, split them. ## Common pitfalls - **Cyclic requires.** A `require` chain that loops will return the partial table (the half built before the cycle was detected). Design for one-way dependencies. - **Engine-time side effects.** Don't `entity.spawn` at module top-level — the engine may not be ready. Expose an `M.init` and call it from a scene entrypoint. - **Hot-reload + module-local cache.** A module that caches expensive computation in upvalues loses that cache on reload — fine for dev, but be aware in performance work. - **`init.lua` vs `init.luau`.** Either works, `.luau` is canonical. - **Writing one while play runs.** A `/source` write made while play is running lands on the play shadow, and a guarded play-exit discards it unless it is kept. One `.module` write shadows `init.luau`, the `README.md` and the `.metadata` together. `vfs.write(path, bytes, { durable = true })` skips the shadow, and `vfs.promotePlayShadow` keeps what is already on it — the `core/vfs` guide has the model and what each route costs. ## Related types - `.component` — for entity-bound state + lifecycle hooks. - `.service` — generates content you don't have yet (a mesh, sound, texture, …) via a metered provider. - `.tool` — for a single agent-callable function with a YAML schema. - `.package` — to group several modules + components + scenes into one shippable folder. ## In the Inspector Exports: what the module exports (name, kind, signature), parsed from its source without running it, with **Check** (the LSP's diagnostics for its entry file) and **Open**.
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yaml
module · born here
❒asset
# yaml.module YAML decode + encode for authored engine content. Pure Luau, no engine dependencies — a general parsing library, not data-system plumbing. ```luau local Yaml = require("@builtin::modules.yaml") local doc = Yaml.decode(vfs.read(path)) vfs.write(path, Yaml.encode(doc)) ``` ## Supported subset - Block mappings (`key: value`) and block sequences (`- item`), nested to any depth. - Compact sequence-of-mapping entries (`- path: x` / ` kind: y`). - Flow collections — `{ a: 1, b: 2 }` and `[1, 2, 3]` — single line. - Plain scalars with type inference: `~` / `null` → nil, `true` / `false` → boolean, numeric literals → number, everything else → string. - Single- and double-quoted strings (`''` escapes a literal quote inside a single-quoted string; `\n` `\t` `\r` `\\` `\"` inside a double-quoted one). A quote opens a quoted scalar where a scalar begins — after `key:`, after a `- ` entry marker, or inside a flow collection — so a plain scalar carries an apostrophe as data (`note: the world's rules`). Quoted keys are read in flow mappings. - `#` comments — honored outside quotes, so a `#` inside a quoted string is kept as data. - Literal (`|`) and folded (`>`) block scalars — the bare indicators only. A block scalar's content is literal text: quotes (balanced or not), `#`, `key: value` and `---` inside it are data. - An optional leading `---` document marker. ## Loud-error contract Constructs outside the subset above raise instead of misparsing: anchors/aliases (`&`, `*`), tags (`!`), directives (`%`), multi-document streams (a second `---`), block-scalar chomping/indentation indicators (`|-`, `|+`, `>-`, `|2`, ...), tab indentation, and inconsistent indentation (both block structure and block-scalar bodies). Every error carries the offending line number (`yaml: line N: ...`), so a bad config points straight at the line to fix. Tab indentation is rejected everywhere — including block-scalar body lines whose leading whitespace contains a tab. A tab after the first non-space character of a line is content and passes through. ## API - `Yaml.decode(text: string): any` — decode a YAML document into a Luau value (table, scalar, or nil for an empty document). Raises on malformed input or an unsupported construct. - `Yaml.decodeWithComments(text: string): (any, boolean)` — decode as `decode` does, and report whether the text carries a comment by the decoder's own rule: a `#` at a line's start or after whitespace, outside a quoted scalar and outside a block scalar. Re-encoding the value drops such comments, so an editor that writes a document back reads this first. - `Yaml.encode(value: table): string` — encode a Luau table as YAML (block style, two-space indent, alphabetically sorted keys). Raises on values YAML can't represent (functions, userdata, non-string mapping keys). A top-level empty table encodes to an empty document, which decodes back to `nil` (the YAML empty-document ambiguity).
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deprecation
module · born here
❒asset
# deprecation (module) Answers whether an asset is deprecated, why, and what replaces it. An asset states it in its own `.metadata`: ```json { "deprecated": { "reason": "one line why", "replacedBy": "@builtin::assetTypes.effect" } } ``` The marker works for any asset, builtin or published. It is passed down: - an asset is deprecated when a folder holding it at any depth (a package, a toolbox, any folder asset) carries the marker, so marking a package covers everything inside it; - an asset is deprecated when its asset type carries the marker, so marking a type covers every instance of it. Assets stay resolvable and loadable by identity and guid. Search surfaces do not index or offer them. ## Reading it ```luau local deprecation = require("modules.deprecation") local d = deprecation.of("@builtin::deprecated.deprecatedParticles.DeprecatedParticleEmitter") if d then print(d.via, d.reason, d.replacedBy) -- "container", "...", "@builtin::assetTypes.effect" end ``` `deprecation.of(ref, memo?)` is the one function that answers. `via` says where the marker is held: `"asset"`, `"container"` or `"type"`; `source` is the folder holding it. Pass one `memo` table across the calls of a pass so each folder's `.metadata` is read once. `deprecation.indexed(ref, memo?)` is true unless the asset is deprecated; every search surface asks it before it reads an asset. `deprecation.warnOnce(handle)` logs one warning per asset per session naming the asset, the reason and the replacement; `asset.resolve`, `asset.tryResolve` and `asset.ref` call it. `deprecation.describe(subject, found)` renders the sentence and `deprecation.forget()` resets what has warned. `asset.deprecation(ref)` answers the same as `of` from the `asset` namespace.
▲ 0↑ born
▣
trusted_client
module · born here
❒asset
# modules.trusted User-space client for the **trusted → user call bridge**. Lets scene / library / code-mode scripts *trigger* orchestration that lives in the engine's trusted VM — auth, connection, and service flows we author in trusted Luau — without exposing the trusted source or the privileged primitives those flows use (`auth.*`, egress credentials, …). Auto-injected by the prelude as the global `trusted`, so scripts just call: ```lua local who = trusted.call("session.whoami") -- { linked = true, issuer = "https://…" } ``` `trusted.call(name, ...)` marshals the args into the trusted VM, runs the named handler against its `__TRUSTED_EXPORTS` registry, and marshals the single return value back as plain data (nil / boolean / number / string / table). It raises a Luau error if the method is not registered, the trusted VM is not ready, or the trusted handler errors. The handler must not yield. On the engine VM it runs **synchronously** in the call's frame. On a worker VM the call is queued for the engine thread, which runs the handler in the trusted VM; the calling task waits until the answer arrives and the call then returns it, so the call site reads the same. Backed by the single generic `__trustedBridge.invoke` Rust transport (`__trustedBridge.invokeQueued` on a worker VM, `crates/zero_scripting/src/ffi/bindings/trusted_bridge.rs`). Trusted methods are registered on the other side via the trusted module `/zero/trusted/exports` (`expose(name, handler)`). See `docs/specs/trusted-user-bridge.md` for the full design and the steps to add a new method (no Rust required).
▲ 0↑ born
·
assetType.assetType
assettype · born here
❒asset
# assetType (asset type) The `assetType` is the **type of types** — the meta-type that every `<typename>.assetType/` folder is an instance of, including itself. A `<typename>.assetType/` folder declares a new asset type called `<typename>`: its on-disk shape, its identity rule, and the structural contract instances of the type must satisfy. This type is self-hosting. `assetType.assetType/` conforms to its own schema — a `type.yaml` plus a `README.md` — so the type system is defined in terms of itself rather than a hidden engine special-case (the same way a C compiler is written in C). Every asset in the engine, including each `.assetType` definition, now resolves to a registered assetType: a `.material` resolves to `material.assetType`, and `material.assetType` resolves to `assetType.assetType`, which resolves to itself. ## Why it exists Assets used to be mapped to their type *implicitly*, by matching the folder suffix against a name-keyed registry. That match carried no stored link: nothing on a `Foo.material` recorded *which* `material.assetType` it was written against, so two worlds shipping a same-named type could silently disagree. Making `assetType` a real, resolvable asset closes that gap — the link from an asset to its type is now an explicit reference pinned in the asset's `.refs` sidecar (`via: "asset_type"`), exactly like every other dependency. ## Where it lives - Source: `/zero/source/.../<typename>.assetType/` - Identity: `<typename>` (the `.assetType` suffix strips from the identity; the folder retains the suffix on disk). - Folder shape: - `type.yaml` — the structural spec the validator reads. **Required.** - `README.md` — type-level documentation. **Required.** - `about.yaml` — three short plain-language texts saying what the type is for (see "Say what your type is for" below). Every built-in type ships one. - `behavior.luau` — optional behavior/scaffolding module. - `template/` — optional canonical placeholder body the templater copies into a new asset of the type. - `<name>.module/` — optional shared code the type ships to **every instance** of it, conventionally `shared.module/` (see below). ## Shared code its instances reach (`asset.containing` + `.modules`) A type ships code every instance of it uses by declaring the modules in its own `behavior.luau`, as a map of tracked `require`s: ```luau -- inside <typename>.assetType/behavior.luau M.modules = { shared = require(".shared") } -- the sibling shared.module/ ``` An instance reaches it with one location-independent line: ```luau -- inside any foo.<typename>/init.luau local api = asset.containing(__FILE__).modules.shared ``` `__FILE__` is the chunk's own VFS path; `asset.containing` resolves the calling asset, and `.modules.<name>` follows the instance's pinned `typeRef` (the type's **guid**, recorded in the instance's `.refs` as `via = "asset_type"`) to the module its type declares. Because resolution follows that link rather than a category name, the same line in an instance of a different type resolves to that type's module, and identically-named modules in two types never collide. `asset.typeRef(target)` reads that guid for any target; `asset.resolve(asset.typeRef(target))` gives the full `AssetRef<assetType>`. See `assetTypes/README.md` § "Shared code: type-owned modules" for the full mechanism. ## How to create one Authoring a new asset type is just creating a `<typename>.assetType/` folder under `/zero/source/`. The engine registers `<typename>` as a category **the moment the folder is written** — no engine restart, no Rust change, and it works for built-in (`@builtin/assetTypes/`) and user-defined types identically. Once `<typename>` is registered, `<name>.<typename>/` folders are recognised as assets of that type and resolve their `asset_type` link back to this definition. Creating a `<name>.<typename>/` folder *before* its `<typename>.assetType/` exists fails fast: the suffix has no registered type, so the folder can't be a valid asset. Author the type first. ## Say what your type is for (`about.yaml`) Every type carries a small `about.yaml` beside its `type.yaml`, and the README you write for the type documents how to author an asset of it. Both are required, and both are meant to be written as you make the type, while you know what it is for. `about.yaml` answers three questions in plain words, one key each: ```yaml intent: "Sets the typeface of the text in your game: UI, labels, signs and 3D lettering." function: "A font, from a TTF, OTF or WOFF file, made available to all of Zero's text, including 3D text." usage: "You choose it by name for your UI or your text, and the text appears in that typeface." ``` - **`intent`** is what the type is for in someone's game. Name the whole range of things it covers, in the words a game maker would use for them. - **`function`** is how it works today: what an asset of the type is made of and what the engine does with it. - **`usage`** is what a person or an agent does with one: how they pick it, place it, call it, or hand it to something else. A few habits keep it useful. Write about the type as a whole, so the text holds for every asset of it, and leave out any one asset's name. Say what the type does right now. Stay with words a game maker would say, and mention a file name or a call only where a game maker would know it. The limits are in bytes: `intent` 800, `function` 1500, `usage` 1200. Each is generous, and a few sentences usually say it. Why bother: agents working in a world read these three texts to learn what your type is for, so they reach for it when it fits and use it the way you meant. People searching find the type by what they want to make, and the three texts let them tell at a glance whether it is the one they need. `asset.create("assetType", name)` scaffolds the file with all three keys, and a README whose first paragraph is a `[[describe]]` note. Each value starts with `[[describe]]` followed by a note on what to write; replace the whole value with your own words. A value or a README line that still starts with `[[describe]]` counts as not written yet, which the push's check of each asset it carries against its type reports, naming the file. A type you leave as it was is not asked, so older types stand. Many types at once, or one you would rather not write by hand: `services describe` lists the types that lack these texts and what filling them costs, and `{ mode = "all" }` writes them into the same files, where you edit them like anything else you wrote. Where the texts show up: `asset.inspect("<typename>", "assetType")` returns them as `detail.about`, `assetTypeRef:getAbout()` returns them as a table with the keys `intent`, `function` and `usage`, the type's `types/<typename>` guide page ends with an "About this type" section holding them, and the Inspector's Type section lists them at the top. The guide page is this README plus that section, so a README that explains the type well and an `about.yaml` that says what it is for read well together. ## Ask your assets to say what they are A type can ask each of its assets to carry a description: a file, written by the author or generated, that says what that asset is and what it is for. The people and agents who find an asset read it to decide whether it fits, and the author knows what it is for at the moment of making it. **1. Declare the file with a `described` check.** This is the whole requirement: ```yaml files: required: - path: "README.md" # any file name works kind: "file" content: - { check: "described", message: "Say what this widget is for and where it goes." } ``` With that in place: - An asset whose file is missing, empty, or still has a line starting with `[[describe]]` does not meet the type's requirements. `asset.validate` names it, `zm status` and `world.publishBlockers()` list it, and a push that carries it is refused with `message`. - `services describe` finds it (`mode = "find"` lists it and the price) and can write the description for it (`mode = "all"`). It writes only this file. For a YAML file that holds several texts, name the keys and their limits in bytes, the way this type does for `about.yaml`: ```yaml content: - check: "described" keys: - { key: "intent", max_bytes: 800 } - { key: "usage", max_bytes: 1200 } message: "Write intent and usage." ``` `headings` names sections a Markdown file must have. `assetTypes/README.md` has the full check. **2. Optionally, steer what gets generated with a `describe:` block:** ```yaml describe: guidance: "Say what the widget shows, what input it reacts to, and where it fits in a UI." examples: - "<identity of an asset of this type whose description reads well>" ``` `guidance` says what a description of your type covers, and `examples` names assets whose descriptions show the shape you want. Without the block, generation still works from the general describing guide and the check's `message`. An example is an asset of your type in the library whose description is a true, written one, never a scaffold's placeholder, and never the asset being described. When the library has none, leave `examples` empty rather than name one that is not. A type whose assets the model cannot perceive (a sound it cannot hear, a motion it cannot see) says so in `guidance`: the description comes only from what the asset's own files state, such as its name and the `.metadata` where a generation service records the prompt that made it, and when they state nothing the model answers `cannot` with that reason. `services describe` then fails that one asset with the reason and leaves its file as it was. **3. Start the file unwritten in your template.** Put a heading and one line that starts with `[[describe]]` and a short note on what to write, in `template/<file>`, so a new asset starts unwritten rather than with text that only looks written. Do not put example content in it: every new asset carries the template verbatim, and the same text on many assets makes them impossible to tell apart in search. Types whose assets say what they are through their own content (a mesh, a texture, a sound) leave this out: declare nothing and nothing is asked. ## The `behavior.luau` contract `behavior.luau` is the type's code. It returns ONE table, and the keys below are the ones the framework reads off it for EVERY type — the surface you get by declaring them. Anything else on the table is your own: reachable by name through `require("@builtin::assetTypes.assetType.shared.ref").loadTypeModule("<typename>")` for a system that knows your type (`computeShader` publishes `dispatchKey` that way), and never called by the framework. ```luau local M = {} M.ref = { ... } -- methods on every AssetRef of this type M.modules = { ... } -- shared code the instances reach M.global = {} -- reserved key; ship the empty table function M.onCreate(name, opts) ... end return M ``` ### The tables | Key | Shape | What the engine does with it | |-----|-------|------------------------------| | `M.ref` | `{ [name] = function(self, ...) }` | Every function becomes a method on every `AssetRef` of this type: `ref:name(...)`, with `self` the ref. This is how a type gives its instances an API. Two names in here are contracted — see below. | | `M.modules` | `{ [name] = require(".sibling") }` | Shared code the type's instances reach through `asset.containing(__FILE__).modules.<name>`, resolved by the instance's pinned `typeRef` guid. See the section above. | | `M.refShapes` | `{ [method] = "TypeName" }` | Declares the result type of a `M.ref` method so the LSP can check what a call site does with it. See the `M.refShapes` section below. | | `M.events` | an events schema | The events an ASSET of this type fires, declared the way a component declares its own. Readers subscribe through `ref.events.<name>:connect(...)`; firing authority stays with the type. Keyed by the asset's guid, so every resolver of the same asset shares the signals and a re-resolved ref re-attaches to subscriptions already there. | | `M.namePattern` | a Lua pattern string | The name shape `asset.create` enforces for instances of this type, replacing the default `^[A-Za-z][A-Za-z0-9_]*$`. | | `M.global` | `{}` | Reserved. Ship the empty table. | ### The lifecycle hooks Each is optional; a type that omits one costs nothing. The engine calls them: | Hook | Signature | When it fires | |------|-----------|---------------| | `M.onCreate` | `(name, opts) -> { [filename] = contents }` | On `asset.create("<type>", name, opts)`. Returns the files that scaffold the new instance, as a map of relative path to contents; the framework writes them. The `opts` type annotation is the schema `asset.create` validates the caller's arguments against, so annotate it. | | `M.onReplace` | `(dest, files) -> { [filename] = contents }` | On an `asset.create` that writes over an asset already at `dest`, after `onCreate`. Receives the files `onCreate` produced and returns the files to write, so a type that re-derives its content (a rig re-imported from its source file) can carry what an author added to the asset it replaces. Optional. | | `M.onRegister` | `(self)` | Once per instance, the first time it registers: on `engine.onWorldLoaded` for instances already in the world, immediately on a live `asset.create`, and when an instance arrives after that sweep (installed, pulled, or synced from a peer). Guarded by the instance's path, so a double trigger never double-registers. An instance that leaves the runtime releases the guard, so one arriving at the same path again registers. This is what makes "write an asset into the world and it takes effect live" work for content that registers into a runtime registry. The `@builtin` library is excluded from the sweep. | | `M.onChange` | `(ref, change)` | On every VFS write to a file INSIDE one of this type's instances. `change` is `{ path, asset, type, kind, origin }`: `kind` is `"edited"` or `"seeded"`, `origin` is `"local"` or `"remote"` (an importer runs on the originator only). **Filter on `change.path`**: the hook fires for any file under the folder, so act on the one you care about. It runs as its own task and may wait on what it reads: a `vfs.read` of bytes only the blob store holds (a binary file on the web build) fetches them. The writes to one asset reach the hook in the order they were made, each once the hook before it has finished. A re-entrancy guard suppresses writes back into the same asset routed inline from the hook, and a write the hook makes is routed on a later frame like any other, so the hook must be convergent on its own: diff the meaningful state and short-circuit while your own regeneration is in flight. | | `M.onDelete` | `(ref)` | When an instance of this type leaves the runtime: it is deleted, or the engine swaps away from the world binding that held it. Its files are gone from `/zero/source` by then. A removal routed while the instance's `onChange` is waiting reaches `onDelete` once that hook, and every write queued behind it, has finished. On a swap the instance still exists in the world it belongs to, and a VFS write the hook makes reaches the world now bound. | | `M.validate` | `(assetRef) -> { { code, message, severity? } }` | On `asset.validate`, after the structural `type.yaml` check, for the type's own SEMANTIC validation. `severity` defaults to `"error"`; error-severity problems flip `ok` to false, warnings do not. A hook that raises or returns a non-table is itself reported as a `validate.hook_failed` error. `world.push` runs this per user asset, so declaring it enforces your type's rules at publish time with no further wiring. | ### The two contracted `M.ref` names Most `M.ref` methods are your type's own surface: name them what you like, return what you like. Two are read by the engine and mean the same thing for every type, so their shape is fixed: - **`instantiate(self, target?, opts?) -> (root, idMap)`** — makes an instance part of the scene. Defining it is the whole opt-in: `ref:canInstantiate()` is true exactly when it exists. Its **return is a contract** — see the next section. - **`inspect(self) -> detail`** — the type-specific half of `asset.inspect`. See its section below. ### Names a type cannot shadow Some keys resolve on every `AssetRef` before per-type dispatch, so an `M.ref` entry of the same name is never reached: `canInstantiate`, `getSource` / `getBytes` / `getText`, `exists`, `deps`, `meta`, `runtime`, `events`, `modules`, `typeRef`, and the residency flags `has_backing_asset`, `has_runtime_changes`, `cpu_resident`, `gpu_resident`. These are the behaviours every asset must expose identically, which is why they win. ### Reloading A `behavior.luau` edit ripples to existing refs with no restart: dispatch reads `mod.ref` fresh each time and `require`'s cache is re-run in place. A type whose folder appears at runtime is picked up on the next dispatch — negative results are not cached either. ## The names your type's assets hold (`references:`) An asset that names another asset by a string depends on it: the named asset travels with it into a pack or a pull, and a name nothing answers to is an unresolved dependency `worldValidation` reports and the push gate refuses. The engine reads `require(...)` and the asset lookups on its own; a name your type's format or API carries anywhere else is one you declare, in `type.yaml`: ```yaml references: # A top-level key of this type's own files that holds a name (or a table of them). keys: - { key: "shader", type: "shader" } # A call's argument, counting from 1, wherever the call is written. args: - { call: "g:node", position: 2, type: "procNode" } # A field of the options table a call takes. fields: - { call: "fx.beam", field: "material", type: "material" } ``` `type` is the category the name resolves in, one of `asset.categories()`. An argument declared once per category, at the same `call` and `position`, takes the name from whichever category answers. A key or a field holds one category: declared again with another `type`, it takes the later one. The block is declared as the type registers, when the library or the world holding it is laid into the VFS, so every reference table reads it whatever script has or has not run. `asset.declareReferenceKey`, `asset.declareReferenceArg` and `asset.declareReferenceField` declare the same things from a script, for a surface that is no type's. ## What search does with your type (`indexing:`) A type declares what search embeds for its instances. **This is not optional and there is no useful default**: ZeroMind runs your declaration and adds nothing of its own, so anything you do not point at is absent from the index — silently, and for every instance of the type forever. Twenty types once shipped with no `indexing:` block and every instance of them was unfindable. A type whose instances are never searchable (a run record, a log) says so with `indexing: none`; every other type declares a recipe. A type without an `about.yaml` beside its `type.yaml` refuses every push that carries it, whether or not the push edited the type. Texts in it that are not written yet follow the rule every `described` file follows: they refuse the push that edits, stages or commits the type. Two words carry the whole thing, and they are the same two the search tool exposes: - **`identity`** — what an instance IS. For anything you can look at, that is the picture (`content:` + `modality: image`, matched directly by a text query). For everything else it is the authored text that says what it is. - **`capability`** — what it DOES and how it is made. Code, settings, the model-written summary of them. A type with no behaviour has no `capability` entry. A type with nothing to look at has no image. Leaving a slot empty is a statement; filling it with whatever happens to be lying around is not. The one you have to decide when authoring a type is: *for an instance of this, what is the thing a person would recognise it by, and what is the thing it does?* A texture answers "the image" and "its compression settings". A module answers "its README" and "its code". Write those two answers into `indexing:` and the rest follows. Three specifics worth knowing before you write one: - **`derive` is instructed by this type's own `README.md`.** A model reads an instance's source and writes a description; what it embeds is the description, not the source. It follows your README to know what it is looking at, so a type whose README says what its instances are gets good derivations for free. There is no prompt to name. - **`derive` loses detail.** It keeps the main technique and drops secondary ones. If the source is code you want searchable by its own vocabulary, declare the same files a second time as `capability` with `extractor: verbatim`. Two entries, same role, different failure modes. - **Never `source: { field: name }`.** A filename is one or two words with no usable embedding, and a corpus indexed that way answers "language runtime" with `say_runtime_2.soundClip`. `facets:` is the second stage: a `file:` embedded whole (`.metadata`, so keys nobody declared still get indexed) plus computed keys that state a value for every instance including `false` — the raw file can imply "not rigged" and can never say it. The full schema, every extractor and the facet sources are in [`assetTypes/README.md`](../README.md); the scaffolded block with inline guidance is in [`template/type.yaml`](template/type.yaml). ## A container whose contents work together (`system: true`) A type that is a container can say its contents are one working whole by declaring `system: true` at the top level of its `type.yaml`. `package` declares it: the components, modules, scenes and tools a package ships are parts of one system. The declaration is plain data, read from the decoded `type.yaml` (`require("@builtin::assetTypes.assetType.shared.declaration").of("package").system`), and a type that leaves it out is an ordinary type. ## What your type looks like (`preview:`) A type declares how its instances are pictured, and the engine makes the picture when something needs it: staging an instance whose `preview.png` is missing or pictures content it no longer holds queues a render, a view that shows the instance asks for one, and `ref:preview()` renders one on demand. An edit renders nothing on its own. Each `preview.png` records the content it pictured, which is how a stale one is told from a current one. The preview studio owns the light, the backdrop, the framing and the camera, and nothing in the world reaches it, so an instance pictures the same in every world. Declare one of four recipes: | `kind` | The picture is | Your type provides | |---|---|---| | `instantiate` | the asset stood in the studio through its own `instantiate` | `ref.instantiate` | | `image` | a file the instance holds, fitted to the frame, nothing rendered | `source.files`, the candidate files in order | | `surface` | the asset painted on a builtin mesh | `mesh`, and `ref.previewMaterial(self) -> { material }` | | `custom` | whatever `ref.preview(self, opts)` returns | `ref.preview` | ```yaml preview: kind: surface mesh: sphere ``` A scene-instantiable type that declares nothing still answers `ref:preview()` through its `instantiate`, but persists no picture: the declaration is what makes the engine keep one. List `preview.png` among the type's files so an instance may hold it. The picture is findable only when `indexing.content` names it. The two are separate statements, and neither is derived from the other: ```yaml indexing: content: - role: identity modality: image source: { file: "preview.png" } ``` `@builtin::assetTypes.assetType.shared.previewRecipe` reads the declaration; the scaffolded block with inline guidance is in [`template/type.yaml`](template/type.yaml). ## Typing a result from the instance (`M.refShapes`) Every method on `M.ref` is checked against the type its `--!return` names, and every asset of the type gets the same one. That is right for most methods and wrong for the ones whose result is shaped by the ASSET: a method answering one entry per child folder, per row of a config, per binding an input map declares. The widest true annotation for those is `{ [string]: Thing }`, and an indexer accepts every key — so a caller's typo reads as valid and nothing reports. `M.refShapes` lets the type state the result per instance. Each entry is `function(self) -> (typeExpression, source?)`: a Luau type expression for THIS asset, and the module whose type vocabulary the expression uses. Read the asset; never run it — stating a type must not take effect. ```lua -- inputMap.assetType/behavior.luau — the shipped example. -- `activate()` hands back one handle per control the map declares. M.refShapes = { activate = function(self): (string, string) local names = {} for _, control in ipairs(M.ref.controls(self)) do table.insert(names, control.name .. ": Handle") end if #names == 0 then return "", "" end return "{ " .. table.concat(names, ", ") .. " }", "@builtin::modules.zinput.scheme" end, } ``` With it, `map.jump:onPressed(fn)` resolves and `map.noexisting` is reported with the map's real controls. Without it, both pass silently. ### What the call site has to say A per-instance type is matched by the asset's IDENTITY, so it applies only where the reference the method is called on says WHICH asset. Two spellings do: ```lua -- a component field, whose declared default names the asset public = { map = Field.assetRef("inputMap", "@builtin::inputMaps.default", Sync) } local controls = public.map:activate() -- typed for THAT map -- an annotation, naming category and identity local m: AssetRef<"inputMap", "@builtin::inputMaps.default"> ``` `asset.resolve("<identity>", "<category>")` carries the CATEGORY, so the methods the category defines are checked on the result — but not which asset it found, so a per-instance result keeps the category's declared return. A reference that names no asset (`asset.resolve(someVariable)`, a value passed in as a parameter) carries neither, and calls on it are unchecked. That is the same rule everywhere: the checker states what the code states, and a name computed at runtime states nothing. ### The result is a value, not a binding The type belongs to the expression, so it travels the way any inferred type travels. Indexing the call's result is checked; stashing it in a module local and indexing it from another function is not, because the local's declared type is what carries across — and `any` (or no annotation) carries nothing: ```lua -- checked: `d.greting` is reported function awake() local d = public.dialogue:lines() d.greeting:say() end -- NOT checked: `lines` is a module local typed `any` local lines: any = nil function awake() lines = public.dialogue:lines() end function start() lines.greting:say() end ``` Bind what you need at the call site and the names stay checked in both places — the asset-derived type at the boundary, ordinary scoping after it: ```lua local lineGreeting = nil function awake() local d = public.dialogue:lines() lineGreeting = d.greeting -- `d.greting` is reported here end function start() lineGreeting:say() end ``` ### When nothing is reported and you expected something From a call site, a type that is correct and a type that was never published look the same: no diagnostic either way. `require("@builtin::assetTypes.assetType.shared.refShapes").published()` answers which it is. It returns two maps — the category surfaces, and the per-asset results keyed by identity and then by method: ```lua local shapes = require("@builtin::assetTypes.assetType.shared.refShapes").published() shapes.categories.dialogue --> "{ lines: () -> any, lineNames: () -> { string } }" shapes.returns.Shopkeeper.lines --> "{ browsing: Line, farewell: Line, greeting: Line, wares: Line }" ``` An identity absent from `returns` was never published for, which is a different thing from published-and-correct — and the reason to look here rather than at the call site. The answers are recomputed when an instance is written, so a control added to a map reaches the checker with no restart. Only types that declare `refShapes` are read per instance, and at most 64 assets of one type are — past that the type keeps its declared return and the engine log names what was dropped. ## The instantiate hook (`M.ref.instantiate`) — a contracted return A type opts into becoming part of the scene by defining `instantiate` on its `ref` table. That is the whole opt-in: `ref:canInstantiate()` is true exactly when the hook exists, so consumers offer a scene path — an `Asset.source` field, a viewport drop, a tool argument — by CAPABILITY rather than by a list of type names. Unlike `inspect`, this hook's **return is a contract**. A caller writes one piece of code against every instantiable type, so what comes back cannot vary by type: ```lua -- behavior.luau local Instantiable = require("@builtin::assetTypes.assetType.shared.instantiable") local M = {} M.ref = { instantiate = function(self, target, opts) local root = Instantiable.root(self, target, opts) -- IN: the base opts -- ... compose whatever this type is, under `root`, NOW ... return Instantiable.result(self, root, idMap) -- OUT: the contract end, } return M ``` **IN.** `target` is an owning entity ref: the instance lands under (or, for a hierarchy type, onto) that owner. With no target the type spawns a fresh root. `position`, `rotation`, `scale`, `name` and `temporary` mean the same for every type — `Instantiable.root` applies them to a root you mint, `Instantiable.place` to one you adopt, so you never re-read the spec. Honour more opts of your own if your type needs them, and document them in the hook's `--!arg` docs. **OUT.** Return `(root, idMap)` through `Instantiable.result`: - **`root`** — the composed root, as an `EntityRef`. Composition is **synchronous**: everything your type builds is live when you return, so the caller can parent to it and read its components in the same statement. Do not defer the work to a component's `awake` and return an empty shell — a root that is not live is refused. - **`idMap`** — the `originalId -> runtimeId` map naming what you spawned, or nil for a type with no addressable children (`result` normalises it to `{}`). **A caller never receives nil.** A component that re-composes your asset on every load keeps this map and passes it back in, which is how a cross-entity reference into the composition survives a reload. `AssetRef` runs every `instantiate` through `result` on the way out whether or not your type called it, so returning something else fails at your own call rather than handing a caller a nil root. Calling it yourself is still how you say what you return, and running it twice changes nothing. `@builtin::assetTypes.assetType.shared.instantiable`'s README is the full reference for both halves. ## The inspect hook (`M.ref.inspect`) `asset.inspect(ref)` resolves `ref`, builds a common envelope shared by every asset (`identity`, `name`, `guid`, `source`, `typeName`, `typeDefinitionPath`, `scope`, `origin`, `description`, `tags`), then calls the resolved type's own inspect hook — `M.ref.inspect(self)` on `behavior.luau` — for the type-specific `detail`. The hook returns *only* `detail`; the framework fills in everything else: ```lua -- behavior.luau local M = {} M.ref = { inspect = function(self) -- self.path is the asset's own folder. Parse the asset's OWN -- files — source text, a native payload header, its `.metadata` -- — never runtime state (a live component instance, a GPU -- upload, a compiled schema): inspect must work on an asset that -- hasn't been compiled, uploaded, or registered yet. return { -- type-specific fields, whatever this type wants to surface } end, } return M ``` A type that omits `M.ref.inspect` yields the generic record: the envelope alone, `detail = nil`. That's a valid, working state — not an error — but it means agents calling `asset.inspect` / `tools.use("assets","describe", ...)` on an instance of the type see only identity and scope, none of what makes an instance of it meaningful. Declaring the hook is what makes a type's instances inspectable for what they actually are. A hook that raises leaves `detail = nil` and sets `record.warning` to the error text — `asset.inspect` itself never raises for a resolved ref. ## Discovery - `asset.list("assetType")` — every registered asset type. - `asset.inspect("<typename>")` — the type's identity, source path, and this README, plus its `about.yaml` texts as `detail.about`. - `asset.resolve("<typename>", "assetType")` — the `<typename>.assetType` asset itself (used by the validator to find the type's `type.yaml`). ## Related - `assetTypes/README.md` — the full `type.yaml` schema and validator rules. - `@builtin::assetTypes.assetType.shared.instantiable` — the instantiation contract's shared implementation, both halves. - Every other `*.assetType/` here — the concrete types built on this meta-type. ## The Inspector a type ships Every type names the file its Inspector sections come from with `inspector: { type: "inspector.luau" }` in its type.yaml. `asset.create("assetType", name)` scaffolds the block and an `inspector.luau` whose Contents section lists an asset's files, built from `ctx.parts`. `asset.validate` on a type that names none reports `assetType.inspector_required` (an error for a `@builtin` type the engine's library authors; a warning for a world's own, and for one the library carries by reference, which the world that published it answers for), and one whose file does not load `assetType.inspector_invalid`. ## In the Inspector Type: what the type.yaml declares (suffix, container, primary files, the settings and inspector blocks), whether the type ships a behavior, how many instances it has, and **Open** for its files. Schema: the settings every instance carries, as read-only typed controls at their defaults (a type whose schema is per instance says where it is declared). Instances: a link to each of the first 20 assets of the type, and how many there are when there are more.
▲ 0↑ born
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luau_introspect
module · born here
❒asset
# luau_introspect (module) Parses Luau/asset source TEXT into structured declarations. Pure string/pattern parsing (`string.find` / `string.match` / `string.gmatch`) over the literal source — no compiling, no VM spawn, no runtime state, no engine FFI. Given source text, it extracts what is written in the file. This is the shared parser every per-assetType `M.ref.inspect` hook uses to turn a component/module/tool's own source into the structured record `asset.inspect` returns. ## Exports - `docstrings(src) -> DocMap` — scans `--!desc` / `--!arg` / `--!return` / `--!example` comment runs and binds each run to the name of the declaration on the next non-comment line (the identifier after `function`, `public:`, `local function`, or `M.`). - `publicFields(src) -> { FieldEntry }` — parses `public = { name = Field.<kind>(default, mode), ... }` table-literal entries and module-scope `public.<name> = Field.<kind>(...)` assignments. - `events(src) -> { EventEntry }` — parses `events = { name = Event(payloadSchema?, syncMode?), ... }` table-literal entries. - `methods(src) -> { MethodEntry }` — parses `function public:<name>(...)` / `typed function public:<name>(...)` declarations (params + optional return type). - `lifecycleHooks(src, catalog) -> { string }` — top-level `function <name>(` declarations whose name is in the caller-supplied `catalog` array. - `moduleExports(src) -> { ExportEntry }` — parses `M.<name> = function` assignments, `function M.<name>(...)` declarations, and a trailing `return { foo = foo, ... }` export table. - `forSource(src, computeFn) -> any` — memoises `computeFn(src)` keyed on `src` itself in a module-local table. The same source text returns the cached result without re-running `computeFn`; different source text recomputes. Keyed on the source content (not an asset checksum) because composite/container assets (component folders, scene folders, etc.) all hash to the empty-string checksum — a checksum-keyed cache collapses every such asset's detail onto whichever one was inspected first. ## Usage ```luau local Introspect = require("modules.luau_introspect") local src = self:getInitScript() local detail = Introspect.forSource(src, function(s) return { fields = Introspect.publicFields(s), events = Introspect.events(s), methods = Introspect.methods(s), hooks = Introspect.lifecycleHooks(s, lifecycleCatalog), } end) ``` ## Notes - Every function is a pure string→table transform: same source text in, same structured table out, every time. No reads of live component state, no entity/world queries. - Structural scanning runs over a comment- and string-aware **mask** of the source (a same-length copy where comment bodies and string-literal contents are blanked to spaces, delimiters and newlines preserved). Pattern matches and brace/paren balancing run on the mask — so a brace, `Field.`, `Event(`, or a whole entry that appears inside a comment or a string literal never registers — while captured values are sliced from the original source at the same (aligned) indices. This makes the parser robust to apostrophes in comments, commented-out entries, string defaults containing `}` / `Field.` / `Event(`, and `[[ ]]` long strings. - `default` / `category` are raw trimmed source-text slices (with any trailing comment stripped), not evaluated values. - For a **ref constructor** (`Field.assetRef` / `dataRef` / `resource` / `componentRef`) the FIRST positional argument is the category / contract / componentType selector, captured under `category`; the SECOND argument is captured under `default`. - For every **other** Field kind the first argument is the `default` and `category` is nil. - A trailing `Sync` / `NoSync` identifier is captured as `sync`, tolerating a trailing comma or a trailing comment after the last argument. - Field/Event entries whose key is a computed or indirect expression (`[expr] = Field.number(...)`) are omitted — only literal identifier keys are recognised. - `methods` captures a `...` variadic parameter (as `name = "..."`), with its `: <type>` annotation when present. - A `--!desc` written above a field/event declaration (`<name> = Field.<kind>(...)` / `<name> = Event(...)`) or a `public.<name> =` assignment binds to that name in `docstrings`, and is folded into the corresponding `publicFields` / `events` entry's `desc`. - `lifecycleHooks` never hardcodes the lifecycle-callback catalog; the caller passes the list of names to match against. - `forSource`'s memo is bounded (oldest-key eviction) so a long session touching many distinct asset versions can't grow it without limit.
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ref
module · born here
❒asset
# assetType.shared.ref Builds the metatable every `AssetRef` (the `{ __ref, type, name, guid, identity, path }` envelope returned by `asset.resolve` / `asset.ref`) carries. Replaces the per-call C metatable that used to live in `crates/zero_scripting/src/ffi/bindings/asset.rs::attach_asset_ref_metatable`. ## Public API ```lua local assetRef = require("@builtin::assetTypes.assetType.shared.ref") -- Called by the Rust factory (push_asset_ref_handle) via -- _G.__build_asset_ref_proxy after the envelope fields are set. assetRef.build(envelope) -- attaches AssetRefMT, returns the table ``` The module exposes no invalidation surface — discovery is registry-driven and hot-reload is transparent (see "Discovery and hot-reload" below). ## Method dispatch order `ref.foo` is resolved in this order: 1. **Default methods** — `getSource` / `getBytes` / `getText` / `exists` / `inspect` and the lazy `meta` property. Per-type definitions cannot override these (engine contract from gh#1889). 2. **Per-type `ref` table** — discovered through `asset.resolve(<typename>, "assetType")` + `require(<identity>.behavior)`. The lookup resolves to whichever `<typename>.assetType/` folder is currently registered for the typename (built-in, user, or library-vendored) and pulls its `ref` methods. 3. **Nil** — unknown key, same shape as the original C metatable. ## Adding methods for a new asset type Drop a `behavior.luau` into the type folder: ``` src/lua/lib/assetTypes/<typename>.assetType/ ├── type.yaml -- structural spec (existing) ├── behavior.luau -- ref + global behaviour (new) └── template/ -- placeholder body (existing) ``` `behavior.luau` returns: ```lua return { ref = { --!desc Per-instance method on every `<typename>` AssetRef. myMethod = function(self, ...) ... end, }, global = { -- Reserved for the asset.<typename>.* surface — not consumed -- yet; included so the contract from gh#1889 lands cleanly. }, } ``` Within `ref` methods, `self` is the AssetRef envelope: `self.path`, `self.identity`, `self.guid`, `self.type`, `self.name` are available. Engine-required fields (`guid`, `path`, `identity`, `type`) must not be redefined. ## Discovery and hot-reload Type discovery uses the asset registry, so it doesn't matter where a `<typename>.assetType/` folder lives — engine built-ins under `@builtin::assetTypes.<X>`, user types dropped under `/zero/source/<X>.assetType/`, or types vendored inside an imported library all resolve identically. The dispatcher walks `asset.resolve(<typename>, "assetType")` → canonical identity → `require <identity>.behavior` on every miss; the asset registry is the cache for the resolve half and Luau's `_LOADED` is the cache for the require half. Hot-reload is transparent. When a `<typename>.assetType/behavior.luau` is rewritten through VFS, the engine's `invalidate_require_cache_for_state` re-runs the module and mutates the cached `_LOADED[<identity>.behavior]` table in place. Dispatch reads `mod.ref` on every access (rather than caching a sub-pointer), so existing AssetRefs see the new methods on the very next access — no Rust-side hook into this module is needed, and no invalidation API is exposed for callers to call. The same registry-driven path also handles type **registration** correctness: dropping a new `<typename>.assetType/behavior.luau` updates the asset registry, the next `asset.resolve(<typename>, "assetType")` returns the new ref, and AssetRefs of that type immediately gain the new methods. ## Why Luau, not Rust The asset surface needed per-category behaviour (`material:getProperties()`, `bundle:instantiate(entityId)`, `tool:run(args)`) and the old shape couldn't grow without an FFI change per method. Owning the proxy in Luau means: - Type-specific methods ship as content (the `<typename>.assetType/` folder), not engine code. - Adding a new asset type drops in a new folder; no Rust rebuild. - Methods can call any other Luau global (`vfs`, `asset`, `Material`, `entity`, etc.) directly, instead of going through narrow FFI primitives. ## Consumers - `crates/zero_scripting/src/ffi/bindings/asset.rs::attach_asset_ref_metatable` — the Rust factory that pushes envelopes invokes `_G.__build_asset_ref_proxy` once per push. - Every Luau call site of `asset.resolve` / `asset.ref` / `entity(id).component.X.material` / any binding declared `AssetRef<...>` — they all receive envelopes built through this module.
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json
module · born here
❒asset
# json JSON encode/decode library for Luau. Encodes Lua values to JSON strings and decodes JSON strings back to Lua values. Used for communication with the Rust side of the engine, the VFS read/write bridge, and any wire-format that needs JSON. Pure Luau, no engine dependencies. Compact and pretty-printed encoders, plus a hand-rolled decoder that streams the input by position so it works under WASM as well as native. ## Exports - `Json.encode(value: any, indent?: string, currentIndent?: string) -> string` — compact encode. Functions / unknown types and NaN/Inf encode as `null`. - `Json.encodePretty(value: any, indentStr?: string) -> string` — pretty-printed encode with sorted object keys (diff-friendly). - `Json.encodeArgs(...: any) -> string` — encode varargs as a JSON array. - `Json.decode(str: string) -> any` — decode a JSON string. Returns the decoded value, or `nil` + error message on failure. ## Usage ```luau local Json = require("@builtin::modules.json") local widget = { type = "button", text = "Click Me" } local compact = Json.encode(widget) -- '{"text":"Click Me","type":"button"}' local pretty = Json.encodePretty(widget, " ") local decoded = Json.decode(compact) local v, err = Json.decode("oops") -- v = nil, err = error message ``` ## Notes - Object keys are sorted alphabetically in both encoders for consistent output across runs. - Numeric keys on objects are stringified at encode time (JSON has no numeric keys). Pure-integer key sets get detected as arrays via `isArray` and encoded with brackets. - NaN, +Inf, -Inf encode as `null` — JSON has no representation. Round trips through `decode` recover `null` (Lua `nil`), so they don't preserve. - Unicode `\uXXXX` escapes decode to UTF-8 by hand to stay WASM-safe. Only the BMP is covered; supplementary planes via surrogate pairs are not. - Functions encode as `null`. - Decode is character-streamed — no regex, no `string.match` patterns on the whole input — so the line-and-column information needs to be reconstructed from the position offset.
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shared
module · born here
❒asset
# assetType runtime The machinery that reads a `<typename>.assetType/behavior.luau` and turns its declarations into live behaviour. A `behavior.luau` is a table of declarations — `ref` methods, `modules` shared code, an `events` schema, a `namePattern`, `refShapes`, and the `onCreate` / `onRegister` / `onChange` / `onDelete` / `validate` / `settingsDefaults` / `settingsCorrections` hooks. None of it runs itself. This is the code that runs it, and it lives here because reading a type's declarations is the **assetType type's own behaviour** — the same way `material.assetType` owns what a `.material` does. ## Sub-modules | Module | Reads | Responsibility | |---|---|---| | `ref.module` | `ref`, `modules` | Builds every `AssetRef` envelope, attaches the shared metatable, and dispatches per-type methods and shared modules onto it. Also owns edit-mode write-behind persistence. | | `create.module` | `onCreate`, `namePattern`, `validate` | Backs `asset.create`: resolves the type, checks the name against its pattern, runs `onCreate` (or clones `template/`), and writes the instance. `validate.module` beside it checks a creation `opts` table against the type's `createSchema`. Before running `onCreate`, resolves the type's settings chain (below) and hands the result to the hook as `opts.settings`. | | `settings.module` | `settings`, `settingsDefaults`, `settingsCorrections` | A type's declared settings schema and where its values live (`type.yaml`'s `settings:` block). `Settings.resolveForCreate` layers the schema's own defaults, the type's own `settingsDefaults(name, opts, asked)` hook (a DEFAULT the schema can't express — a name-derived convention, a fact read off a payload the caller handed it, a value following a field `asked` shows a higher layer naming; any later layer overrides it), the Preset Manager, an importer's settings, the caller's `settings` table, then the type's own `settingsCorrections(values, name, opts)` hook (a CROSS-FIELD CONSTRAINT the schema can't express, applied last over the fully merged values). A correction over a default/preset/importer value lands silently; a correction that would override what the caller's own `settings` table explicitly asked for refuses the creation instead, naming the field and why. Neither hook is ever handed a table to mutate; each returns what it wants changed (`settingsCorrections` may also return a `{ [field]: reason }` table for that refusal message). `Settings.cloneValues` deep-copies a values table — `create.module` hands `onCreate` a copy, never the table it stamps. `Settings.valuesOf` / `writeValues` read and write an asset's own values file. | | `typeYaml.module` | `type.yaml` | The folder a type lives in and its parsed `type.yaml`, decoded once per content version of the file. `settings.module` and `inspector.module` read their blocks through it. `about` / `aboutAt` read a type's `about.yaml` (`intent`, `function`, `usage`), leaving out any key that is empty or still starts with `[[describe]]`; `aboutRows` and `aboutMarkdown` lay the texts out for the Inspector and the `types/<name>` guide. | | `inspector.module` | `type.yaml`'s `inspector:` block | Which inspector a type declares for its assets (`inspector: { type: ... }` or `{ instance: ... }`), and the declaration that file returns — the sections it adds, the generic ones it replaces, and their order — or the problem that kept it from loading. | | `onRegister.module` | `onRegister` | Fires an instance's once-only registration hook — on arrival, on world load, and for `@builtin` library instances. | | `changeDispatch.module` | `onChange`, `onDelete`, `refShapes` | Routes a VFS source write or a folder delete to the enclosing typed asset's type hooks. | | `refShapes.module` | `refShapes`, `ref` | Publishes what every `AssetRef<category>` answers to, so a member read on an asset-typed value is checked against that category's real surface. | | `events.module` | `events` | The per-asset event runtime behind `ref.events`. | | `instantiable.module` | `ref.instantiate` | The instantiation contract an asset type opts into: `root` stands the root entity, `place` applies the base placement opts to one the type adopted, and `result` shapes the `(root, idMap)` every `instantiate` returns. Also registers the `sceneInstantiable` field-constraint validator. | | `declaration.module` | `type.yaml` | The type's decoded declaration, read once and held until a write inside an `.assetType` folder; what every question about a type as a whole reads. | | `previewRecipe.module` | `type.yaml` `preview:` | How an instance's `preview.png` is produced: which of the four recipes (`instantiate`, `image`, `surface`, `custom`) the type declares, and what that recipe needs. | ## Reaching it ```luau local rt = require("@builtin::assetTypes.assetType.shared") rt.ref.loadTypeBehavior("material") ``` Fields resolve lazily. The prelude requires the sub-modules directly, in dependency order (`ref`, then `changeDispatch`, `onRegister.install()`, `refShapes.install()`) — a table that required all six on load would take that ordering away from it.
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backing path · modules/discovery.module

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dep.unresolved · L732
could not resolve `@builtin`
⌬ZeroMind agent review · awaiting first pass
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