ViewCompose Documentation

This directory is the canonical documentation entrance for ViewCompose. It is organized for both human readers and AI-assisted maintenance, and it is also the content boundary for the published GitHub-hosted documentation site.

The repository state and active documents below are authoritative. Files under archive/ are historical evidence only.

Choose a reading path

Goal	Start here
Build the first application	Build your first application
Learn one capability	Capability tutorials → choose any topic; chapters have no ordering requirement
Understand the framework	Architecture overview → Multi-design-system standard → Modifier model → NodeSpec model
Migrate from Jetpack Compose	Compose migration overview → choose the state, layout, host, or navigation path
Choose or maintain a published artifact	Published module catalog → the owning module manual
Look up an application-facing entry	Capability Reference → versioned API/KDoc → the owning module manual
Build with a feature	Select the relevant document under Guides
Connect an AI agent	AI Integration
Work with previews, diagnostics, or performance	Preview → Diagnostics → Performance
Contribute a change	Development workflow → Documentation governance
Prepare a release	Publishing → Capability verification
Restore project context	Roadmap and the active document for the affected area; do not start from archived plans

Architecture

Long-lived contracts, boundaries, and runtime semantics:

• Architecture overview
• Navigation runtime architecture
• Theme runtime architecture
• Text input runtime architecture
• Lazy collection runtime architecture
• Multi-design-system architecture and integration standard
• Architecture decisions
• Modifier model
• NodeSpec model
• State snapshots
• Transactional effects and structured work
• Lifecycle and SavedState
• Render failures
• Session containers

Tutorials

Independently runnable learning pages backed by one compiled source file per capability:

• Build your first application — create the smallest native-View counter and optional static preview.
• Capability tutorial catalog — choose state, layout, text input, lazy lists, theming, navigation, overlays, Android View interop, animation, gestures, performance, or diagnostics without completing another chapter first.

Guides

Feature behavior and platform integration:

• Switch application theme mode
• Enable Material 3 dynamic color
• Override theme tokens for one subtree
• Edit, validate, and submit text
• Use rich and received text content
• Choose and control lazy collections
• Focus and input
• Nested scrolling
• Configure a production navigation host
• Overlays
• Shadows
• Image loading

Migration from Jetpack Compose

Semantic comparisons and migration paths with explicit source and target versions:

• Compose migration overview and consolidated capability matrix
• State, recomposition, and restoration
• Layout, Modifier, and environment
• Hosts, lifecycle, and Android interop
• Navigation 2 and Navigation 3
• Image loading

Published modules

The published module catalog is kept in lockstep with Maven publication metadata. Every published artifact has a dedicated manual under docs/modules/<artifact-id>/ and can evolve independently.

Capability and API Reference

The source-derived Capability Reference groups application-facing DSL, Modifier, component, integration, host, and tooling entries by user capability. Its counts, versions, and routes are freshness-gated. Use the versioned API Reference for exhaustive signatures and KDoc/Javadoc, then follow the entry's module-manual link for artifact contracts.

AI Integration

Machine-readable reference, local MCP tools, standard Agent Skills, and executable evidence:

• AI Integration overview
• AI Knowledge Bundle

Tooling

Development-time tooling, inspection, and performance:

• Preview
• Diagnostics
• Performance

Project maintenance

Current process, release, and planning information:

• Development workflow
• Documentation governance
• Localization workflow
• Source documentation and API comments
• Documentation site operations
• Publishing
• Roadmap
• Capability verification
• Active execution plans

Documentation rules

1. Keep the repository root limited to landing pages and community governance files.
2. Separate cross-module concepts from artifact-specific installation, compatibility, and API contracts.
3. Update KDoc/Javadoc and the owning module manual with public API changes.
4. Apply the documentation change impact matrix in every code pull request; No documentation impact requires a rationale.
5. Put cross-session execution plans under docs/project/plans/; move completed plans to docs/archive/.
6. Use repository-relative links. Never commit a local absolute path.
7. Make every active document reachable from this index through a section index.
8. Do not use archived documents as current requirements.
9. Run ./gradlew verifyDocumentationStructure before committing documentation changes. The same check is included in qaQuick.
10. Keep titles, headings, and narrative English in docs/, and Simplified Chinese in the matching zh-CN mirror; mark foreign-language UI literals as inline code.
11. Follow the canonical-first localization workflow for every public content change; never refresh a translation fingerprint without reviewing meaning.

The complete contract, naming rules, lifecycle, and review checklist are defined in Documentation governance.