Host API (HostV1)

The capability bridge is the versioned contract between a tool and whatever shell it runs in (web PWA, Tauri desktop/mobile, CLI, and the interactive TUI). Tools call host.*; each shell implements the same surface its own way. This is what lets one tool run unchanged everywhere. (The TUI reuses the CLI's bridge implementation, so anything true of the CLI here applies to it too.)

Tools receive host inside their hooks (hooks.js). They never touch the DOM outside their template, never fetch directly, never read storage directly - they go through host. See Authoring Tools for the tool anatomy and Overview for the bigger picture. The canonical definition lives in engine/src/bridge/host-v1.ts.

function onInit({ model, host }) {
  host.log('info', 'tool booting', { shell: host.shell });
  // ... call host.profile / assets / state / clipboard / export / net / text
}

Rules of the contract

• Additive only. Methods may be added in a minor version; never removed or signature-changed without a major bump. When v2 ships, v1 keeps working.
• No platform-specific methods. If only one shell can do something, it sits behind a capabilities flag in tool.json and shells that can't fulfil it expose a stub/error.
• Capabilities gate access. net (network), capture and compose require a matching flag in the manifest's capabilities. tokens, text, pdf and media are optional and present only when the shell provides them (feature-detect, don't flag). Declare what you need.
• host.version is '1'; host.shell is one of web · tauri-desktop · tauri-mobile · cli.

host.profile

User details. Tools read; the user manages them via the host UI.

Profile: firstname, lastname, email, phone, city, country, headshot (AssetRef), custom, featureFlags (featureFlags is the user's local UI flag map, default ON - not a tool concern). Most tools don't call this directly - declare bindToProfile: "firstname" on an input and the host pre-fills it for you.

host.assets

The bridge to the catalog and the user's local images.

AssetQuery / AssetPickerOpts: type (vector·raster·video·audio·lottie·palette·tokens·font), namespace (e.g. suse/logo), tags (AND), includeDeprecated; picker adds title, allowUpload, current. For an asset-typed input the host generates the picker from your manifest declaration - you usually don't call pick() yourself.

AssetRef: { source: 'library'|'user'|'remote', id, type, format, url, width?, height?, version?, checksum?, meta? }. Use url in your template via the asset helper ({{asset logo}}).

host.state

Per-tool persistent state (IndexedDB on web, filesystem on Tauri, memory on CLI). Never use localStorage.

StateEntry: { slot, toolId, toolVersion, updatedAt, label? }. The host already saves/loads user sessions; reach for this only for tool-managed state.

host.clipboard

host.export

The host owns the renderer - tools don't bundle their own.

format is an ExportFormat - the render formats are png · jpg/jpeg · webp · avif · svg · svg-anim · emf · eps · eps-cmyk · dxf · pdf · pdf-cmyk · cmyk-tiff · tiff · pptx · html · ico · zip · webm · mp4 · gif · apng · webp-anim (availability is per-tool via the manifest, and per-browser for the recorded video formats webm/mp4 - Safari records mp4, Firefox webm; gif/apng/webp-anim are encoded in-engine, svg-anim is a self-contained vector flipbook, dxf is an AutoCAD cut file, pptx decomposes each page into native PowerPoint shapes, tiff is a plain RGB raster and cmyk-tiff its print sibling, and ico/zip are icon/bundle outputs). Separately, tools produce the text/data formats md · txt · json · csv · ics · vcf from the input model (not a DOM render - see Exporting & Formats). This is the same 30-value enum the catalog validator enforces in schemas/tool.schema.json. (The ExportFormat union in engine/src/bridge/host-v1.ts is itself stale - it carries a defunct token and omits the raster/bundle formats - and is being reconciled with the schema; track the schema, not the type.)

ExportOpts:

See Exporting & Formats for the user-facing view, and engine/src/units.ts for the unit math.

host - file inputs

A file-typed input (the user's own file, picked into memory) arrives as an InputFile: { __file: true, name, mime, size, bytes (Uint8Array), url }. The hook reads bytes directly - there's no host. call, because the bytes ride in the input value (by design: the portable host. surface deliberately has no file-read API, so the same hook runs on every shell). A file value never serialises to a URL and is never persisted. The exportFile hook transforms those bytes and returns { bytes, mime, filename }, which the shell delivers via host.export.file. See Authoring Tools for the full pattern; strip-data is the reference.

host.net (capability: network)

fetch(url, init?) → Promise<Response> - allowlisted fetch. Absent unless the tool declared "network". Tools without it cannot reach the network at all.

host.text (text-to-path)

Shape and outline a text run into an SVG path via HarfBuzz (correct kerning, ligatures, GPOS/GSUB). Optional - not all shells implement it (CLI has no DOM).

TextPathResult: { d, advanceWidth, bbox, notdef? } - baseline at y=0, Y-down; bbox is null for whitespace-only runs. The brand-lockup tool uses this to outline display type for crisp vector export.

features are OpenType tags (e.g. ['liga=0', 'salt=1']) handed straight to HarfBuzz, so ligature and stylistic-alternate toggles bake into the outlined path (engine v1.12). letterSpacing (px, v1.12) adds uniform tracking to the pen advance, so letter-spaced type stays vector in SVG/PDF/EMF instead of falling back to a live <text> element.

Variable fonts and fallback (v1.29–1.30).

• variations - OpenType axis settings as HarfBuzz strings (['wght=700']). Without them a variable face shapes at its default instance, so a bold run would outline as regular. Unlisted axes take their default.
• fallbackFonts - an ordered [{ fontUrl, variations? }] chain for characters fontUrl has no glyph for, the job the browser's own fallback does. It's needed because webfont families arrive as disjoint subsets (Google Fonts' latin file has no Ł; its latin-ext file has no ASCII), so one face can't outline "Łódź".
• notdef - how many glyphs fell back to .notdef (no glyph anywhere in the chain). Outlining draws blanks/tofu, so if this is non-zero keep a live <text> fallback. Absent on older hosts - treat as 0.
• axisDefaults(fontUrl) - the font's default axis values ({ wght: 400 }, {} for a static font). A caller that embeds the raw file into a renderer with no axis control (jsPDF) gets exactly this instance, so it needs the defaults to know the weight it will actually get. Feature-detect it.

host.tokens (optional)

Design tokens (DTCG) for the active theme. The host UI sources colour-picker swatches from these, and the runtime resolves token-referenced input values against them.

Optional and additive - a shell without it just doesn't offer token-driven UI.

host.pdf (optional)

On-device PDF inspection, metadata removal and compression (pure pdf-lib for the metadata + structural work, so it runs even in the lean CLI; image recompression uses a browser canvas). Used by strip-data and compress-pdf.

Feature-detect each method (e.g. host.pdf?.compress) - an older shell may provide analyze/strip but not compress, or no host.pdf at all.

host.pptx (optional)

On-device PowerPoint inspection and surgical rebranding (engine 1.58; the shell unzips with fflate and injects its DOMParser - the engine's OOXML reader/patcher stays zip- and DOM-free). Used by rebrand-deck.

Feature-detect (host.pptx?.rebrand) - an older shell may lack it entirely.

host.capture (capability: capture)

Rasterise a live URL to an image using a real browser engine. Only shells with an authoritative engine fulfil it (Tauri's webview, a headless-Chromium CLI, or the browser extension) - the plain web PWA cannot read cross-origin pixels, so it exposes a stub that throws.

CaptureSpec: { url, width, height?, scrollDepth?, rangeTo?, waitMs?, dpr?, css?, crop? }. page() returns a raster AssetRef (source: 'remote') that flows through the normal export path. url-shot uses it. Slow and side-effectful - call from an explicit action, not on every keystroke.

Windowing and vector capture (v1.45):

• scrollDepth frames a region (0..1 fraction of scroll height, or a px offset when > 1); rangeTo extends the shot down the page to that scroll position, producing a tall strip - the frame a scroll animation pans over. crop trims insets (each a 0..0.9 fraction). The returned ref's width/height are the actual captured box after crop/extension, so size your composite from the result, never the request. Hosts may also report meta.pageWidth/pageHeight/scrollYPx (treat as optional).
• vector(spec) prints the URL to a true vector SVG AssetRef (type: 'vector') - geometry, not pixels: crisp at any zoom and re-editable, at the cost of pixel-perfection (webfonts resolve by family name). Same windowing as page(). Feature-detect host.capture.vector and fall back to page() where absent.

host.compose (capability: compose)

Render another tool's output to an embeddable asset - tool composition ("nested exports"). The runtime resolves a manifest's composes entries through this and exposes each as {{asset <id>}}, so you rarely call it directly.

ComposeSpec: { toolId, inputs, format?, width?, height?, unit?, dpi? } (width/height are in unit - px default, or mm/cm/in/pt). Returns an AssetRef whose url is a blob:/data: URL, so the embedded render behaves like any other asset: an SVG child stays a true vector through the parent's SVG and PDF exports (and rasterises crisply for PNG), while raster children (png/jpg/webp) embed as images. SVG is the only format used declaratively today - event-name-badge composes qr-code as svg. The child render is depth- and cycle-guarded and is never watermarked or provenance-stamped (it's an intermediate). Optional: a shell that can't render a child to bytes (e.g. the no-raster CLI for a raster child) just doesn't provide it, and composition degrades gracefully. See Authoring Tools for the composes manifest shape.

renderUrl(url, opts?) is the end-user counterpart to render - added in engine v1.3, so feature-detect host.compose?.renderUrl. When a user pastes a Lolly tool link (embed URL, hash share route, or pretty path) into an asset picker, the host parses it manifest-aware - typed inputs coerce exactly as URL mode would - renders that tool, and returns an AssetRef whose id is the canonical embed URL (https://lolly.tools/tool/<id>.<ext>?…). That id is the asset's persistent identity: it round-trips through URL mode and saved sessions, and the runtime feeds it back here to re-render on load - so a tool-sourced image survives reload and travels inside a shared link, like a library asset id. ComposeUrlOpts (format · width · height · unit · dpi) overrides take precedence over anything parsed from the URL and are folded into the returned id. Like render, the child is never watermarked or provenance-stamped. Returns null when the URL isn't a recognised tool URL or the tool can't render (the caller leaves the slot empty) - a pasted link can only render a tool that already ships in this build.

host.media (live camera - optional, v1.4)

A live camera frame source for motion-reactive tools - a tool can react to a webcam stream frame by frame (e.g. a filter that responds to movement). Optional and additive (engine v1.4); feature-detect host.media?.isAvailable(). Not a gated capability - it's pure progressive enhancement: a tool offers a "live" affordance only where a camera exists and runs as an ordinary still-image tool everywhere else, so do not list camera in the manifest's capabilities.

A MediaFrame is { width, height, data: Uint8ClampedArray (RGBA), t } - plain pixels, no DOM types, so the engine stays platform-agnostic (the shell owns the MediaStream / <video> / grab loop, mirroring capture). data is valid only for the synchronous duration of the callback, so read it synchronously; frames are downscaled + throttled and pause while the document is hidden.

You rarely call subscribe yourself. A tool declares an onFrame hook and the runtime drives it once per camera frame - it owns the start → subscribe → onFrame → re-render loop and drops overlapping frames so a slow per-frame render self-throttles. The shell shows a "Go live" toggle that calls runtime.startLive() / runtime.stopLive() (released on unmount, so no camera outlives the tool). See Authoring Tools for the onFrame pattern; the four filter-* tools are the reference. Web + Tauri (its webview) provide it via getUserMedia; the headless CLI does not.

host.recorder (device capture - optional, v1.17; capability: microphone / camera)

Record the microphone (and optionally the camera) to a finished media Blob, plus a DOM-free level meter for a pre-record sound check. The dual of host.media: where media is a live frame source, recorder is a sink - the shell owns getUserMedia + MediaRecorder and the engine only ever sees plain numbers (AudioLevel) and finished Blobs, never a MediaStream or <video>. Because recording prompts for a permission a shell may be unable to grant, it is gated - declare "microphone" (and "camera" for video) in capabilities; the headless CLI provides none. Feature-detect host.recorder.

MeterAPI: start() (begin the mic + level loop, prompting once; reference-counted + idempotent like media), stop() (release one start(); the mic stops at the last release), subscribe(cb) → () => void (receive AudioLevel frames; throttled, paused while the document is hidden). The web shell opens the meter raw - noise-suppression / AGC / echo-cancellation off - so the level and the noise cues reflect the true room; record() keeps suppression on for a clean file, so the two use separate streams (the grant is per-origin, so a sound-check then a record still prompts only once).

RecordOpts: audio (default true), video (default false - an audio+video clip when true), format ('webm' | 'mp4' - a hint; the shell falls back across containers, so read the returned Blob's type), maxEdge (video downscale, longest edge in px), maxMs (hard length ceiling; the session auto-stops), meta (provenance stamped into the Blob).

RecordSession: subscribe(cb) (live AudioLevel during the take, same shape as the meter, so coaching UI updates while recording), stop() → Promise<Blob> (finalise and resolve the media Blob), cancel() (discard and release the devices - no Blob).

An AudioLevel is the audio counterpart to MediaFrame (all amplitudes 0..1 linear except dbfs): { rms, peak, dbfs, clipping, t }, plus the optional v1.19 background-noise cues noiseFloor / snr / hum / hiss. A tool rarely subscribes itself - it declares an onLevel hook and the runtime drives it from the meter (and the take). See Authoring Tools for the onLevel pattern and the full field list; voice-recorder (mic-only) and top-tail-recorder (camera+mic) are the reference tools.

host.color (perceptual colour tools - optional, v1.40)

Extrapolate from brand primitives without shipping colour science in every tool: perceptual distance, contrast (WCAG + advisory APCA), smooth OKLab ramps, data class-breaks, and distinct categorical palettes. Every method is pure and synchronous - the same engine math on every shell (web, CLI, Tauri), so results never drift between them. Not a gated capability; feature-detect host.color and keep a small fallback for older shells. Colour arguments accept hex (#rgb…#rrggbbaa) or oklch()/lch() strings - the forms token values take (resolve other forms first); metrics return NaN on unparseable input, ramp throws; every emitted colour is a gamut-mapped #rrggbb.

The idiomatic chart pattern - series colours that follow the active brand (see chart-creator / d3, the reference implementations): prefer the brand's own color.spectrum.* tokens from host.tokens.colors() (they carry measured print inks), top up with distinct() anchored on {color.semantic.primary}, and keep your shipped palette as the fallback for shells without host.color.

host.log

log(level, msg, ctx?) - level is debug·info·warn·error. Goes to the console in dev and a diagnostics buffer for support. Hook errors are caught and logged, not thrown.

Hook execution - scope & time budgets

Hooks are loaded via new Function('host', …) with the capability bridge injected as closure scope. That is a portability contract, not a security boundary: hooks still run in the page realm, so in a browser shell they can reach window, document, and fetch - host.* is simply the only surface guaranteed to exist on every shell (browser, Tauri, CLI). Module imports don't work (hooks ship as a single source string), and third-party/untrusted tool code is not safe to run until Worker isolation ships - today the catalog origin is the trust boundary.

Async hook results are time-boxed: onInit 5s, onInput 2s, beforeExport/afterExport 5s, exportFile 10s. On overrun the runtime stops waiting and discards the late result - it never patches inputs or extras after the race is lost - but the hook itself keeps executing (there is no in-realm preemption; a synchronous runaway hook can't be interrupted at all, so its overrun is just measured and logged as a warning). onInit/onInput overruns and errors are logged, never fatal. Export-path hooks differ: a beforeExport or exportFile error (including a timeout) fails that export visibly, while afterExport - the cleanup guarantee - is always awaited and its errors only logged. onFrame (live camera) and onLevel (audio meter) run once per frame / level sample and are not time-boxed - keep them cheap; the runtime simply drops a sample if the previous one is still rendering.