Read this before your first change in packages/studio. It is the handful of
things that are not visible from the source, and that cost real time to
rediscover.
Studio renders the user's composition in an iframe, and draws its own chrome — selection box, handles, dashed outlines, toolbars — in Studio's own document, positioned over the iframe. Nothing Studio draws lives inside the composition, because a render would capture it and the composition's styling would inherit into it.
Two consequences you will meet immediately:
- Reaching a preview element from a driver or a test means going through the
iframe:
iframe.contentDocument.getElementById(...). Studio's own panels may be inside shadow roots, so a plaindocument.querySelectorfinds neither. - Every overlay box is a measurement of an element, not the element. When
chrome disagrees with the pixels underneath it, the bug is almost always in
the measurement, in
components/editor/domEditOverlayGeometry.ts.
Paths are under src/; bare file names are in src/components/editor/. Each
line names the owner; read it there.
- Gesture.
DomEditSelectionChrome.tsxstarts it,domEditOverlayStartGesture.tsarms it,useDomEditOverlayGestures.ts(onPointerUp) hands it off. Nudge, crop and inline text enter throughuseDomEditNudge.ts,DomEditCropHandles.tsxanduseInlineTextEditing.tsx.hooks/useDomEditSession.tswires the handlers. - GSAP or plain. The predicates
gsapWritesPosition,gsapWritesRotationandgsapWritesBoxlive inhooks/gsapRuntimeKeyframes.ts. The router ishooks/useGsapAwareEditing.ts. Move and a plain rotation keep the route chosen at press. A GSAP rotation checks ownership again at commit, and resize decides at commit throughhooks/gsapResizeIntercept.ts. - Writers. Plain edits go through
hooks/elementOffsetStager.ts,hooks/useDomGeometryCommits.tsandhooks/plainRotation.ts, thenhooks/useDomEditPositionPatchCommit.ts. GSAP edits:hooks/gsapRuntimeBridge.ts(the drag and rotate intercepts),hooks/gsapDragCommit.ts,hooks/gsapDragPositionCommit.ts(keyframe at the playhead) andhooks/gsapWholePropertyOffsetCommit.ts. Styles, text, attributes and groups:hooks/domStyleCommit.ts,hooks/useDomEditTextCommits.ts,hooks/useDomEditAttributeCommits.ts,hooks/useGroupCommits.ts. - Save. There are three paths. A single DOM edit goes through
hooks/useDomEditPersist.ts. It first offers the edit to the SDK path (utils/sdkCutover.ts, wired inuseDomEditSession.ts), which writes the file itself. Otherwise it posts studio-server'sfile-mutations/patch-element. Atomic DOM batches go throughhooks/useDomEditCommits.tstopatch-element-batches. Script edits go throughhooks/useGsapScriptCommits.ts, togsap-mutationsor to the SDK path. The routes are inpackages/studio-server/src/routes/files.ts. The own-write token is inutils/studioFileVersion.ts, andhooks/useExternalFileChangeCoordinator.tsdrops the echo. - Reload. Each save path decides its own reload. After a
patch-elementsave,useDomEditPersist.tsreloads unlessskipRefreshis set. For script edits,useGsapScriptCommits.ts(applyPreviewSync) picks one of three: an instant patch,utils/gsapSoftReload.ts, or a reload. A reload bumpsrefreshKey, andrefreshPlayerinplayer/hooks/useTimelinePlayer.tseither swaps the scene or runsplayer/hooks/useShadowPreviewReload.ts, which waits while a gesture or a save is in flight. - Undo.
hooks/usePersistentEditHistory.tsrecords the edit.hooks/useEditHistoryActions.tssteps through history.utils/gsapUndoRestore.tsrepaints the preview.
A pixel-precise click inside the preview is not something an automated driver
can reliably land, and some gestures cannot be synthesised at all: the canvas
overlay takes pointer capture and recognises a double press itself, so
page.mouse click pairs do not open a text edit no matter how they are timed.
Use the dev-only hook instead. In a dev build window.__studioTest exposes:
await window.__studioTest.selectByDomId("headline"); // selects, reveals the inspectorThat is the same selection a click produces. The general lesson: from a settled selection, keyboard paths are dependable where pointer paths are not. Prefer a key over a synthesised gesture whenever the feature offers one.
useStudioTestHooks also carries the timeline performance fixtures. The hook is
gated on STUDIO_TEST_HOOKS_ENABLED (dev or development mode only), so
window.__studioTest is absent in production builds — feature-detect it.
The interesting failures here are decisions, not crashes: a preview that reloads when it should not, a shift-click that selects the wrong element. Nothing throws, so a trace of the decision is the only way to avoid guessing.
Channels are off by default. Turn one on and reload:
localStorage.setItem("hf-drag-debug", "1"); // then grep the console for [hf-drag]Live channels: reload, select, drag, resize, commit. Add one with
makeStudioDebugLogger("<name>") in utils/studioDebug.ts.
Studio's tests are vitest, not bun test. Running bare bun test in this
package collects the files with the wrong runner and reports failures that are
not real:
bun run --cwd packages/studio test # all of them
bun run --cwd packages/studio test src/components/editor # one directoryhappy-dom is not a browser. It does not reflect the individual transform
properties (rotate, scale, translate) into computed style, and it has no
DOMMatrix — the geometry tests carry their own stand-in. When a behaviour
depends on real layout or real computed style, prove it in a browser and keep
the unit test on the pure function underneath.
tests/e2e/edit-accuracy/ performs real gestures in the built CLI's Studio and
checks the saved file, the reloaded preview, undo and a producer frame. It
needs the built CLI (packages/cli/dist/cli.js, from bun run build) and
chrome-headless-shell (npx hyperframes browser ensure):
bun run --cwd packages/studio test:edit-accuracy -- --grid pr --filter '^resize-' --jobs 1- Case ids come from
grid.mjs;--filteris a regex on them.--grid pris the smaller slice,fullis what CI runs. - Each run writes its results, a table and a candidate baseline to
tests/e2e/evidence/edit-accuracy/<run>/(git-ignored;--outmoves it); a failing case also gets its screens and saved files undercases/<id>/. - CI runs the full grid in shards and
ratchet.mjsgates the result against the base branch'sbaseline.json; its header states the rules. When cases newly pass, commit thebaseline.jsonfrom theedit-accuracy-gateartifact.
- 600 lines per file. CI checks only non-test files your PR changed. A file that grows past it has to be split in the same PR that grew it.
bunx fallow audit --base origin/main --fail-on-issues— complexity per function, duplication, unused exports. Adding branches to an already-complex function trips it; extract rather than nest.- oxlint and oxfmt, not eslint or prettier.
- Before and After captures. A PR that changes code under
packages/studioorpackages/playerneeds## Beforeand## Aftersections in its description, each with an image or video. The exemptions (a small change with no visible effect, Markdown, tests) are defined inscripts/check-pr-captures.mjs.
rotateis nottransform. Studio's rotate handle writes the CSSrotateproperty, which is an individual transform property and does not appear ingetComputedStyle(el).transform. Anything measuring an angle has to read both and compose them the way CSS does, individual properties first.- A seek re-renders the whole timeline, not the tween you patched. Patching several elements one at a time and seeking after each repaints the ones still queued from their un-patched tweens. Batch, then render once.
- Studio's own writes must not reload the preview. Writes carry a token so the file-watcher event can be recognised as ours; a new write path that forgets it makes the preview flash on every edit.
- Preserving a selection set that does not contain the id empties it. Check
preserveSetsemantics before reusing it.