ACRYL Development Canvas

acryl-development-canvas is a standalone Host and Client Cordis plugin for the ACRYL Development Canvas. It adds a workspace canvas to compatible Desktop profiles, with terminal-backed tiles, file tiles, browser tiles, and a Client contribution to the desktop.main slot.

Install

dsh plugin --profile desktop add acryl-development-canvas

The package declares both a DSH bundle patch and an acryl-package manifest, so it is discoverable through the ACRYL package catalog as well as normal DSH plugin installation.

What it owns

• The Host owns loopback PTY routes and every PTY process it starts.
• The Client owns its Desktop slot contribution, xterm clients, injected styles, and browser-side cleanup.
• Removing the Loader row unregisters routes, closes PTYs, removes the Canvas contribution, and restores the default conversation surface.

Engineering principles

• Dependency inversion and separated interfaces. The Host consumes the normal webServer capability; the Client consumes slots. Neither imports a concrete Desktop bootstrap or creates another plugin runtime.
• One owner for live resources. Routes, PTYs, subscriptions, styles, and slot registrations are acquired inside their owning Cordis effects and disposed with their Fibers.
• Reversible composition. The stable Loader row controls the capability. Disable, unload, or replacement removes only Canvas contributions.
• Orthogonality and information hiding. Host process control and Client presentation remain separate; PTY transport does not become canonical agent history or a global application service.
• Fail fast and contain failure. A non-loopback Host is rejected before routes mount, and partial route activation rolls back registrations.
• YAGNI. The package uses the existing DSH/Cordis Host, Client, slot, and Loader seams instead of creating another PTY registry, event bus, or lifecycle system.
• Refactor-safe behavior. Tests exercise activation, route rollback, PTY disposal, Client cleanup, slot replacement, and repeated lifecycle use.

Package compatibility

The Host requires a loopback DSH webServer. The Client is intended for a profile that declares the desktop.main slot. When that slot is absent, the Client leaves the profile untouched.

Provenance

This package is a copy-only extraction from the ACRYL workspace. The source package remains in the main repository. See provenance.json for the source boundary and docs/PLAN.md for the Cordis lifecycle design.