tricu/AGENTS.md

AGENTS.md - tricu Project Guide

For AI agents and contributors working in this repository.

1. Build & Test

# Tests
nix flake check
# Full build
nix build .#

⚠️ Never call cabal directly

Rule of thumb: if it builds, links, or tests, it goes through nix.

2. Project Overview

tricu (pronounced "tree-shoe") is a programming-language experiment written in Haskell. It implements Triage Calculus, an extension of Barry Jay's Tree Calculus, with lambda-abstraction sugar that gets eliminated back to pure tree calculus terms.

Core types (in src/Research.hs)

Type	Description
T = Leaf | Stem T | Fork T T	Tree Calculus term (the runtime value)
TricuAST	Parsed AST with SDef, SApp, SLambda, etc.
LToken	Lexer tokens
Node / MerkleHash	Content-addressed Merkle DAG nodes

Source modules

Module	Purpose
Main.hs	CLI entry point (cmdargs), three modes: repl, eval, decode
Eval.hs	Interpreter: evalTricu, result, evalSingle
Parser.hs	Megaparsec parser → TricuAST
Lexer.hs	Megaparsec lexer → LToken
FileEval.hs	File loading, module imports, !import
REPL.hs	Interactive Read-Eval-Print Loop (haskeline)
Research.hs	Core types, apply reduction, booleans, marshalling (ofString, ofNumber), output formatters (toAscii, toTernaryString, decodeResult)
ContentStore.hs	SQLite-backed term persistence
Wire.hs	Arboricx portable wire format — encode/decode/import/export of Merkle-DAG bundle blobs

File extensions

• .hs - Haskell source
• .tri - tricu language source (used in lib/, test/, demos/)

3. Test Suite

Tests live in test/Spec.hs and use Tasty + HUnit.

nix flake check

Test groups

Group	What it covers
lexer	Megaparsec lexer - identifiers, keywords, strings, escapes, invalid tokens
parser	Parser - defs, lambda, applications, lists, comments, parentheses
simpleEvaluation	Core apply reduction rules, variable substitution, immutability
lambdas	Lambda elimination, SKI calculus, higher-order functions, currying, shadowing, free vars
providedLibraries	lib/list.tri - triage, booleans, list ops (head, tail, map, emptyList?, append, equal?)
fileEval	Loading .tri files, multi-file context, decode
modules	!import, cyclic deps, namespacing, multi-level imports, unresolved vars, local namespaces
demos	demos/*.tri - structural equality, toSource, size, level-order traversal
decoding	decodeResult - Leaf, numbers, strings, lists, mixed
elimLambdaSingle	Lambda elimination: eta reduction, SDef binding, semantics preservation
stressElimLambda	Lambda elimination stress test: 200 vars, 800-body curried lambda

Suggesting tests

You do not write or modify tests. The user writes tests to constrain your outputs. You must adhere your code to tests or suggest modifications to tests.

If the user gives you explicit permission to implement a test you may proceed.

4. tricu Language Quick Reference

t                      → Leaf (the base term)
t t                    → Stem Leaf
t t t                  → Fork Leaf Leaf

x = t                  → Define term x = Leaf
id = (a : a)           → Lambda identity (eliminates to tree calculus)
head (map f xs)        → From lib/list.tri

!import "./path.tri" NS  → Import file under namespace

-- line comment

CRITICAL:

When working with recursion in tricu files:

1. Put consumed data first in recursive workers.
2. Let data shape drive recursion.
3. Do not let counters unroll over abstract input.

5. Output Formats

The eval command accepts --form (shorthand -t):

Format	Value	Description
tree	TreeCalculus	Simple t form (default)
fsl	FSL	Full show representation
ast	AST	Parsed AST representation
ternary	Ternary	Ternary string encoding
ascii	Ascii	ASCII-art tree diagram
decode	Decode	Human-readable (strings, numbers, lists)

6. Content Addressing

Each T term is content-addressed via a Merkle DAG:

NLeaf       → 0x00
NStem(h)    → 0x01 || h (32 bytes)
NFork(l,r)  → 0x02 || l (32 bytes) || r (32 bytes)

hash = SHA256("arboricx.merkle.node.v1" <> 0x00 <> serialized_node)

This is stored in SQLite via ContentStore.hs. Hash suffixes on identifiers (e.g., foo_abc123...) are validated: 16–64 hex characters (SHA256).

7. Arboricx Portable Bundles (.arboricx)

Portable executable bundles are generated via Wire.hs. See docs/arboricx-bundle-format.md for the full binary format spec.

# Export a bundle from the content store
./result/bin/tricu export -o myterm.arboricx myterm

# Run a bundle (requires TRICU_DB_PATH)
./result/bin/tricu import -f lib/list.tri
TRICU_DB_PATH=/tmp/tricu.db ./result/bin/tricu export -o list_ops.arboricx append

8. Directory Layout

tricu/
├── flake.nix           # Nix flake: packages, tests, devShell
├── tricu.cabal         # Cabal package (used via callCabal2nix)
├── src/                # Haskell modules
│   ├── Main.hs
│   ├── Eval.hs
│   ├── Parser.hs
│   ├── Lexer.hs
│   ├── FileEval.hs
│   ├── REPL.hs
│   ├── Research.hs
│   ├── ContentStore.hs
│   └── Wire.hs          # Arboricx portable wire format
├── test/
│   ├── Spec.hs         # Tasty + HUnit tests
│   ├── *.tri           # tricu test programs
│   └── local-ns/       # Module namespace test files
├── lib/
│   ├── base.tri
│   ├── list.tri
│   └── patterns.tri
├── demos/
│   ├── equality.tri
│   ├── size.tri
│   ├── toSource.tri
│   ├── levelOrderTraversal.tri
│   └── patternMatching.tri
└── AGENTS.md           # This file

9. JS Arboricx Runtime

A JavaScript implementation of the Arboricx portable bundle runtime lives in ext/js/. It is a reference implementation — not a tricu source parser. It reads .arboricx files produced by the Haskell toolchain, verifies Merkle node hashes, reconstructs tree values, and reduces them.

From project root:

node ext/js/src/cli.js inspect test/fixtures/id.arboricx
node ext/js/src/cli.js run test/fixtures/true.arboricx

The JS runtime implements:

• Bundle binary format parsing (header, section directory, manifest, nodes)
• SHA-256 Merkle node hash verification against canonical payloads
• Closure verification (all child references present)
• Tree reconstruction from node DAG
• Core apply reduction rules
• Basic codecs (decodeResult)
• CLI: inspect and run commands

10. Content Store Workflow (Custom DB)

The content store location is controlled by the TRICU_DB_PATH environment variable. When set, eval mode automatically loads all stored terms into the initial environment, so you can call any previously imported/evaluated term by name.

# Use a local DB
export TRICU_DB_PATH=/tmp/tricu-local.db

# Import terms from the standard library
./result/bin/tricu import -f lib/list.tri

# Now use them in eval mode
echo "not? (t t)" | ./result/bin/tricu eval -t decode
# Output: t

echo "not? (t t t)" | ./result/bin/tricu eval -t decode
# Output: Stem Leaf

echo "equal? (t t) (t t t)" | ./result/bin/tricu eval -t decode
# Output: t

# Check what's in the store
./result/bin/tricu
t> !definitions

Without TRICU_DB_PATH set, eval uses only the terms defined in the input file(s).

11. Development Tips

• REPL: nix run .# starts the interactive tricu REPL.
• Evaluate files: nix run .# -- eval -f demos/equality.tri
• GHC options: -threaded -rtsopts -with-rtsopts=-N for parallel runtime. Use -N RTS flag for multi-core.
• Upx is in the devShell for binary compression if needed.

12. Viewing Haskell Dependency Docs from Nix

When you need Haddock documentation for a Haskell dependency available in Nixpkgs, build the package's doc output directly with ^doc.

Example:

Replace megaparsec with the dependency name you need:

nix build "nixpkgs#haskellPackages.${pkg}^doc"

View the available documentation files:

find ./result-doc -type f \( -name '*.html' -o -name '*.haddock' \) | sort