core

@liquid-dom/core

Description

@liquid-dom/core provides the core DOM-backed liquid-glass renderer. It includes an imperative scene graph, a WebGPU renderer that owns a canvas, a reusable WebGPU core for adapters, and a layout API under @liquid-dom/core/layout.

Install

pnpm add @liquid-dom/core

Quick Start

import { Container, Glass, Html, Renderer, Scene } from '@liquid-dom/core'

const scene = new Scene()

const backgroundElement = document.createElement('div')
backgroundElement.className = 'background'

scene.add(new Html({
  width: 800,
  height: 600,
  zIndex: -1,
  element: backgroundElement,
}))

const container = new Container({
  x: 120,
  y: 120,
  blur: 12,
  spacing: 28,
  thickness: 90,
  tint: { r: 0.15, g: 0.15, b: 0.15, a: 0.7 },
})

const glass = new Glass({
  width: 280,
  height: 180,
  cornerRadius: 48,
  cornerSmoothing: 0.6,
  pointerEvents: true,
})

const content = document.createElement('button')
content.textContent = 'Native content'

glass.add(new Html({
  x: 24,
  y: 24,
  width: 180,
  height: 56,
  element: content,
}))

container.add(glass)
scene.add(container)

const renderer = new Renderer({ scene })
document.body.append(renderer.canvas)

function frame() {
  renderer.render()
  requestAnimationFrame(frame)
}
frame()

API Overview

Scene Graph

import {
  Container,
  Glass,
  Group,
  Html,
  Scene,
  StackingContext,
} from '@liquid-dom/core'

• Scene is the root and accepts Container, Html, and Group children.
• Container accepts Glass and Group children. Glass children in the same container are fused into one SDF field and share optical settings.
• Glass accepts Html and Group children. Each Html child is sampled through the owning glass.
• Html owns a host element and optionally mounts an HTMLElement into that host.
• Group composes transforms without changing stacking order.
• StackingContext groups children under a shared zIndex.

Scene children are rendered by zIndex, then by entry order. Scene-level Html below a container becomes backdrop content for that container; scene-level Html above a container covers it and becomes backdrop content for later containers.

All transformable scene nodes accept and expose x, y, scaleX, scaleY, rotation, and origin. x, y, and origin are CSS pixels; rotation is radians.

Scene graph classes:

Class	Constructor options	Public API
Scene	none	add(child)
Container	Transform props plus container options below	add(child), remove()
Glass	Transform props plus width, height, cornerRadius, cornerSmoothing, pointerEvents, zIndex	add(child), remove(), typed pointer event listeners
Html	Transform props plus width, height, opacity, blur, zIndex, element	host, element, setElement(element), remove()
Group	Transform props	add(child), remove()
StackingContext	Transform props plus zIndex	add(child), remove(), zIndex

Html Options

Html nodes wrap live DOM content and are copied into GPU textures before compositing. Common options are:

• element: DOM element mounted into the Html.host element.
• opacity: final opacity used when compositing the copied HTML texture.
• blur: GPU blur radius in CSS pixels. blur <= 0 uses the unfiltered fast path.
• zIndex: scene draw order among sibling scene or glass HTML nodes.

Html.blur is renderer-backed. It does not apply a CSS filter to the DOM element; the renderer keeps the raw DOM-copied texture, applies the adaptive blur pipeline when needed, then composites either the raw or blurred texture. This works for scene-level Html and for Html rendered inside glass.

const panelContent = new Html({
  width: 240,
  height: 160,
  element: contentElement,
  opacity: 0.9,
  blur: 8,
})

glass.add(panelContent)

Glass Shape Options

Glass uses a uniform cornerRadius and an analytic cornerSmoothing approximation for continuous, iOS-like corners:

const glass = new Glass({
  width: 280,
  height: 180,
  cornerRadius: 32,
  cornerSmoothing: 0.6,
})

cornerSmoothing: 0 produces circular rounded-rectangle corners. Higher values use a fuller p-norm corner curve; the default 0.6 is tuned for an iOS-like squircle. Very constrained corners automatically reduce smoothing back toward a circular shape.

Node Relationship Rules

Scene graph children must match the nearest non-group parent:

• Scene accepts Container, Html, and Group children.
• Container accepts Glass and Group children.
• Glass accepts Html and Group children.
• Group and StackingContext can be inserted anywhere, but every nested descendant still has to be valid for the nearest non-group parent.

That means a Glass must ultimately be nested under a Container; it cannot be nested under another Glass. Wrapping nodes in Group, StackingContext, or layout nodes does not make an invalid scene relationship valid. For example, a Glass nested under a layout node that is itself nested under a Glass is still invalid, because the nearest non-layout glass scene parent only accepts Html descendants.

Container Options

Container controls the optical behavior for its glass children. Options can be passed to the constructor or mutated as properties:

Group	Properties
Shape and fusion	spacing, normalDivergenceBlendPower, normalDivergenceBlendEnabled
Blur and displacement	blur, bezelWidth, displacementFactor, displacementBlur, debugDisplacement
Refraction	thickness, ior, contentIor, contentDepth, dispersion, surfaceProfile
Specular and reflection	lightDirection, specularStrength, specularWidth, specularFalloff, oppositeSpecularStrength, specularSharpness, specularOpacity, reflectionOffset
Color and shadow	tint, shadowColor, shadowOffsetX, shadowOffsetY, shadowBlur, shadowSpread
Compositing	opacity, zIndex

Default values:

Property	Default
opacity	1
spacing	12
blur	8
bezelWidth	14
thickness	90
displacementFactor	1
displacementBlur	6
normalDivergenceBlendPower	0.5
normalDivergenceBlendEnabled	true
ior	1.5
contentIor	1
contentDepth	0
dispersion	0
surfaceProfile	'convex'
lightDirection	-Math.PI / 4
specularStrength	1
specularWidth	1
specularFalloff	1
oppositeSpecularStrength	Matches specularStrength when omitted.
specularSharpness	2
specularOpacity	0.45
reflectionOffset	18
tint	{ r: 1, g: 1, b: 1, a: 0.15 }
shadowColor	{ r: 0, g: 0, b: 0, a: 0.12 }
shadowOffsetX	0
shadowOffsetY	10
shadowBlur	24
shadowSpread	0
debugDisplacement	false
zIndex	0

specularWidth accepts a CSS pixel number or 'hairline'. Numeric values scale with DPR; 'hairline' resolves to one device pixel at the active DPR.

SurfaceProfile is 'convex', 'concave', or 'lip'. RgbaColor channels use normalized 0..1 values.

Glass Pointer Events

Enable renderer-side SDF hit testing per glass with pointerEvents: true.

glass.addEventListener('click', (event) => {
  console.log(event.localX, event.localY)
})

Supported event names are click, pointerenter, pointerleave, pointermove, pointerdown, pointerup, and pointercancel. GlassPointerEvent exposes the source glass, renderer, native pointer event, canvas coordinates, glass-local coordinates, and whether the pointer is inside the shape.

Glass pointer hits are based on the individual glass shape, not fused bridge regions between neighboring glass nodes. Hosted DOM elements can still receive normal browser pointer events.

Renderer

const renderer = new Renderer({
  scene,
  maxDpr: 2,
})

renderer.render()
renderer.destroy()

Renderer creates a <canvas layoutsubtree="true">. Append renderer.canvas to the page, size it with CSS, and call render() from your own frame loop. Use destroy() to release GPU and DOM resources. Constructor options are scene?: Scene and maxDpr?: number; maxDpr defaults to 2 and is also mutable.

Backdrop metrics can be enabled per container:

renderer.setBackdropMetricsTracking(container, true)
const metrics = renderer.getBackdropMetrics(container)

BackdropMetrics contains averageLinearColor, averageLuminance, luminanceP10, luminanceP50, and luminanceP90.

Layout Subpath

@liquid-dom/core/layout wraps the imperative scene graph in layout nodes powered by @liquid-dom/layout.

import {
  Frame,
  Glass,
  GlassContainer,
  HStack,
  Html,
  LayoutScene,
} from '@liquid-dom/core/layout'

Use this subpath when building a non-React layout UI. LayoutScene.layout(proposal) measures and places layout nodes, then synchronizes their scene graph nodes. The React package builds on the same classes.

Layout subpath public API:

Class or type	Options/properties
LayoutScene	root, scene, engine, add(child), layout(proposal), getDebugStats(), addInvalidationListener(listener), dispose()
HStack, VStack	spacing, alignment
ZStack	alignment
Frame	width, height, minWidth, minHeight, idealWidth, idealHeight, maxWidth, maxHeight, alignment
Padding	insets
Background, Overlay	alignment, setContent(child), setDecoration(child)
Transform	x, y, scaleX, scaleY, rotation, origin
GlassContainer	Same optical properties as Container, except transform props are layout-owned.
Glass	cornerRadius, cornerSmoothing, pointerEvents, zIndex
Html	sizing, opacity, blur, zIndex, element, setElement(element)
Spacer	minLength

Every layout UI class exposes layoutNode, sceneNode, children, add(child), and remove(), except Html and Spacer are leaves and reject children.

The Html layout node exposes the same compositing options as scene Html, including opacity, blur, and zIndex.

Some layout nodes accept exactly one direct child: Frame, Padding, Transform, GlassContainer, and Glass. If you need multiple children inside one of these nodes, put those children inside a multi-child layout node such as HStack, VStack, or ZStack, then use that layout node as the single child.

Transform.origin is a unit point in the measured layout bounds, where { x: 0, y: 0 } is top-left and { x: 0.5, y: 0.5 } is center. The layout node resolves that unit point to the CSS-pixel scene graph origin after measurement.

The synchronized scene graph still follows the scene node relationship rules above. All nested children have to conform to the parent rules, even when they pass through layout-only nodes.

Exported layout types include LayoutUiNode, LayoutSceneOptions, LayoutSceneInvalidationKind, LayoutSceneInvalidation, LayoutSceneInvalidationListener, GlassContainerOptions, GlassOptions, HtmlOptions, TransformOptions, and UnitPoint.

WebGPU Core For Adapters

import {
  WebGpuDomContentSource,
  WebGpuGlassCore,
  type WebGpuGlassContentSource,
} from '@liquid-dom/core'

WebGpuGlassCore renders a Scene into a supplied output GPUTexture using an already-created GPUDevice and format. It is intended for renderer adapters that already own a WebGPU context.

WebGpuGlassCore accepts { device, format }, then exposes render(options), setBackdropMetricsTracking(container, enabled), getBackdropMetrics(container), and destroy(). render(options) accepts scene or pre-flattened layers, width, height, dpr, outputTexture, optional backdropTexture, and optional contentSource.

WebGpuDomContentSource copies DOM-backed Html content into textures for the core renderer. It accepts targetCanvas, getCurrentDpr, and optional scene, then exposes setDevice(device, format), sync(scene?), getSceneHtmlEntry(html), getGlassContentRange(glass), atlasTexture, contentEntriesBindingResource, and destroy().

Adapters can provide their own WebGpuGlassContentSource with optional atlasTexture, contentEntriesBindingResource, getSceneHtmlEntry(html), and getGlassContentRange(glass). resolveSpecularWidthPx(specularWidth, dpr) resolves public specular width semantics into device pixels.

Exported Types

The root package exports GlassPointerEvent, GlassPointerEventType, GlassPointerEventInit, Point, Transform, RgbaColor, SpecularWidth, SurfaceProfile, BackdropMetrics, WebGpuGlassCoreInit, WebGpuGlassCoreRenderOptions, WebGpuDomContentSourceInit, and WebGpuGlassContentSource.

Integration Notes

• Rendering requires WebGPU.
• DOM-backed Html content requires the experimental HTML-in-Canvas API, currently available only behind Chrome's Canvas Draw Element flag: chrome://flags/#canvas-draw-element.
• The renderer uses <canvas layoutsubtree> and canvas paint events from HTML-in-Canvas to copy live DOM content into GPU textures. Without that flag, glass rendering can initialize, but DOM-backed content will not be captured correctly.
• Renderer owns its canvas; adapter packages should use WebGpuGlassCore instead.
• DOM content is copied into GPU textures before glass rendering, so call the content source sync path before rendering when writing an adapter.
• A container's glass nodes share one fused SDF field. Use separate containers for independently composited glass layers.
• Reference: WICG HTML-in-Canvas.

Local Development

pnpm --filter @liquid-dom/core build
pnpm --filter @liquid-dom/core test
pnpm --filter @liquid-dom/core watch