Chroma
Glossary
Chroma terms and the names of its packages, repositories, and plugins in one place.
Terms
| Term | Meaning |
|---|---|
| Engine | The Rust/WebAssembly runtime (chroma_bg.wasm plus the pkg/chroma.js loader). Not the dev server. |
| Dev server | The static HTTP server behind chroma dev (Chroma-Server, binary engine). |
| Signal | A mutable value slot. Created by hookState, useReducer, and useMemo. |
| Getter / setter | The pair you hold for a signal. A getter read inside a reactive function subscribes to it. |
| Binding | A function plus a target (attribute, child, effect, memo) that re-runs when its signals change. |
| Reactive | A child or attribute passed as a function. See Reactivity. |
.chr | Chroma source file: ES module JavaScript with a different extension. See .chr format. |
| Manifest | chroma.json, the project configuration. |
| Plugin | A browser JavaScript module declared in chroma.json and loaded at startup. See Plugins. |
| Portable (Web) | Deployment state where chroma build output runs in a normal browser tab or static host. See Runtime modes. |
| Executable (Chroma Desktop) | Deployment state where the same bundle runs inside the native chroma-desktop shell (develop or imported zip). See Runtime modes. |
| Live reload | Full page reload when watched sources change during chroma dev in a browser. Not hot module replacement. |
| Screen router | The WebAssembly createRouter for navigating between screens. |
| API router | The @chroma/router plugin's createRouter for file-based simulated endpoints. |
| Simulated endpoints | Handlers under api/ that run in the browser and answer fetch-style requests locally. |
| Portable (Web) | Runtime mode: the app runs as a normal web app (browser or static host). See Runtime modes. |
| Executable (Chroma Desktop) | Runtime mode: the same bundle runs in the Chroma Desktop native shell (loopback iframe + bridges). |
| Variant | A named option of a component's style, resolved by cva. |
Name equivalence
One product often has a repository name, a plugin name in chroma.json, and an npm-style package name.
| Repository | Plugin name (chroma.json) | Package name | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| Chroma | n/a | pkg/chroma.js | The engine |
| Chroma-CLI | n/a | chroma command | Installed by chroma install |
| Chroma-Server | n/a | engine binary | The dev server |
| Chroma-Desktop | n/a | chroma-desktop binary | Tauri shell |
| Chroma-Fs | chroma-fs | @chroma/fs | Storage |
| Chroma-Style | chroma-style | @chroma/style | Tokens and cva presets |
| Chroma-Router | chroma-router | @chroma/router | API router |
| Chroma-t2t | chroma-t2t | @chroma/t2t | Test utilities |
| Chroma-Linter | n/a | @chroma/linter | Linter CLI |
| Chroma-VSCode | n/a | targapps.chroma | Editor extension (publisher targapps) |
What is Chroma-t2t
Chroma-t2t ("test-to-test") is an optional dev plugin (@chroma/t2t) with snapshot smoke checks, a persist export/import round-trip driven by your adapters, and a Node test bridge. See Chroma-t2t for setup, runtime-mode behavior, and a wiring example.