Pneuma Gridboard

Pneuma GridBoard Mode — Dashboard Building Skill

GridBoard is a live dashboard editor: you create and manage tiles on a draggable grid canvas, and the user views every file edit in real-time through the preview panel.

Board canvas: {{boardWidth}}×{{boardHeight}}px, grid: {{columns}} columns × {{rows}} rows.

Working with the viewer

The GridBoard viewer is a live tile-grid canvas the user watches while you edit. Pneuma exposes a small set of channels that flow between the viewer, you (the agent), and the user. Treat them as your primary I/O — the user is rarely in the chat alone, they're dragging, resizing, and clicking inside the board.

Reading what the user sees

The runtime injects a <viewer-context> block into your turn whenever the user has something focused. For GridBoard it carries the active board snapshot, current layout state, and the selected tile (if any). When the user drags or resizes a tile, opens the gallery, or shifts the layout, those movements arrive as <user-actions> — operations the user just performed in the viewer that you should treat as ground truth, even if they contradict your last edit.

Always reconcile <viewer-context> and <user-actions> before continuing. If the user resized revenue-chart from 2×2 to 4×3, that new size is the source of truth — do not "fix" it back to your earlier choice. Update board.json and the tile's internal breakpoints to match.

ViewerAddress — naming an object on the board

A ViewerAddress is the one JSON shape that names "which object on the board": it is what a <viewer-locator> card points at and what a <viewer-context> selection reports back to you. GridBoard's vocabulary:

A tile selection in <viewer-context> hands you a ready-made ViewerAddress on its Address: line — copy that JSON straight back into a <viewer-locator> card. Tile ids are stable across edits, so a { tileId } address stays valid.

Locator cards

After creating or editing tiles, embed <viewer-locator> cards in chat so the user can jump straight to the result with one click. The card's address attribute is a ViewerAddress the viewer interprets:

• {"tileId":"<id>"} — focuses and highlights the tile on the board (uses the navigate-to action under the hood)
• {"action":"open-gallery"} — opens the tile-type gallery for browsing available templates

Real examples:

<!-- Jump to a specific tile you just edited -->
<viewer-locator label="Open revenue chart tile" address='{"tileId":"revenue-chart"}' />

<!-- Open the gallery so the user can browse what else is available -->
<viewer-locator label="Open the gallery" address='{"action":"open-gallery"}' />

Emit a locator card whenever you change something the user benefits from looking at — a new tile, a redesigned tier, a fresh gallery entry. One card per concrete destination; do not spam.

Viewer actions (agent → viewer)

You can drive the viewer programmatically by POST $PNEUMA_API/api/viewer/action with a JSON body {"id":"<action-id>","params":{...}}. The action set for GridBoard (declared in the manifest) is:

lock-tile / unlock-tile should bracket multi-edit tile work so the user sees the in-progress state without grabbing a half-edited component. capture-tile and capture-board return an image you can inspect — use them when a visual check would beat reading code.

Example — focus a tile after a render rewrite:

curl -s -X POST "$PNEUMA_API/api/viewer/action" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{"id":"navigate-to","params":{"tileId":"revenue-chart"}}'

Example — screenshot the whole board to review layout:

curl -s -X POST "$PNEUMA_API/api/viewer/action" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{"id":"capture-board","params":{}}'

Scaffold (commands)

GridBoard exposes one user-invocable command, create-tile, which scaffolds a new tile directory + Tile.tsx and registers it in board.json. The user triggers this from the viewer's command palette; you'll then see the new files appear and can iterate. You don't call commands directly — that channel is for the user. When they run it, treat the resulting empty Tile.tsx as your starting point.

Core Principles

1. Live preview: The user sees changes as you make each file edit — keep files in a valid state at all times
2. Sync board.json: After every structural change (add, move, resize, remove tiles), update board.json immediately
3. Theme consistency: Use CSS custom properties from theme.css for all colors, fonts, and spacing — no hardcoded values
4. Size with intention: Choose tile sizes that fit the content — charts need room for axes, stat cards can be compact
5. Adapt on resize: When a tile's dimensions change, restructure content meaningfully — never just CSS scale
6. Design, don't just lay out: Tiles should feel crafted, not templated. Visual richness (inline SVG icons, CSS animations, gradient accents, data visualization) is the difference between a dashboard and a spreadsheet

File Architecture

workspace/
  board.json           # Board layout config: tile positions, sizes, and metadata (source of truth)
  theme.css            # Shared CSS theme (custom properties + base styles)
  tiles/
    <tile-id>/
      Tile.tsx         # Tile component — export default defineTile({...})
      ...              # Supporting files (helpers, sub-components, local CSS)

One Directory Per Tile

Each tile lives in its own directory under tiles/. The entry point must be Tile.tsx with a default export of defineTile({...}). Supporting files (utility functions, sub-components, local styles) can be co-located in the same directory.

defineTile() API

Use import { defineTile } from "gridboard" in every tile file. React is available as a global — do not import it.

interface TileRenderProps {
  data: unknown;          // Latest fetch result (null before first fetch)
  width: number;          // Current pixel width of the tile
  height: number;         // Current pixel height of the tile
  loading: boolean;       // True while a fetch is in progress
  error: Error | null;    // Last fetch error, or null if no error
}

interface TileFetchContext {
  signal: AbortSignal;                    // Cancelled on unmount or manual refresh
  params: Record<string, unknown>;        // User-configurable params (see TileDefinition.params)
}

interface TileDefinition {
  label: string;
  description: string;
  minSize: { cols: number; rows: number };
  maxSize: { cols: number; rows: number };
  dataSource?: {
    refreshInterval: number;              // Seconds between auto-refreshes (minimum 30)
    fetch: (ctx: TileFetchContext) => Promise<unknown>;
  };
  params?: Record<string, {
    type: "string" | "number" | "boolean";
    default: unknown;
    label: string;
  }>;
  render: (props: TileRenderProps) => React.ReactNode;
}

Complete Tile Example

import { defineTile } from "gridboard";

export default defineTile({
  label: "Metric Card",
  description: "Shows a single KPI with trend indicator",
  minSize: { cols: 2, rows: 2 },
  maxSize: { cols: 4, rows: 3 },

  params: {
    label: { type: "string", default: "Revenue", label: "Metric label" },
    unit:  { type: "string", default: "$",       label: "Unit prefix" },
  },

  dataSource: {
    refreshInterval: 60,
    fetch: async ({ signal, params }) => {
      // Use /proxy/<name>/ to avoid CORS — proxied by pneuma runtime
      const res = await fetch("/proxy/myapi/metrics/revenue", { signal });
      if (!res.ok) throw new Error(`HTTP ${res.status}`);
      return res.json();
    },
  },

  render({ data, width, height, loading, error, params }) {
    if (loading && !data) {
      return (
        <div style={{ display: "flex", alignItems: "center", justifyContent: "center", height: "100%" }}>
          <span style={{ color: "var(--text-muted)", fontSize: 13 }}>Loading…</span>
        </div>
      );
    }

    if (error) {
      return (
        <div style={{ padding: "var(--tile-padding)", color: "var(--error)", fontSize: 12 }}>
          {error.message}
        </div>
      );
    }

    const value = (data as any)?.value ?? 0;
    const trend = (data as any)?.trend ?? 0;
    // Adapt layout to available space
    const compact = width < 200 || height < 120;

    return (
      <div style={{
        padding: "var(--tile-padding)",
        display: "flex",
        flexDirection: "column",
        justifyContent: "center",
        height: "100%",
        fontFamily: "var(--font-family)",
      }}>
        <div style={{ color: "var(--text-secondary)", fontSize: compact ? 11 : 13 }}>
          {params.label as string}
        </div>
        <div style={{
          color: "var(--text-primary)",
          fontSize: compact ? 24 : 36,
          fontWeight: 700,
          lineHeight: 1.1,
        }}>
          {params.unit}{value.toLocaleString()}
        </div>
        {!compact && (
          <div style={{ color: trend >= 0 ? "var(--success)" : "var(--error)", fontSize: 12, marginTop: 4 }}>
            {trend >= 0 ? "▲" : "▼"} {Math.abs(trend)}%
          </div>
        )}
      </div>
    );
  },
});

Theme CSS Variables

Always use these variables. Modify theme.css for global visual changes — never hardcode colors or fonts in tile files.

board.json Schema

{
  "board": {
    "width": 800,
    "height": 800,
    "columns": 8,
    "rows": 8
  },
  "tiles": {
    "<tile-id>": {
      "label": "Human-readable tile name",
      "component": "tiles/<tile-id>/Tile.tsx",
      "status": "active",
      "position": { "col": 1, "row": 1 },
      "size": { "cols": 2, "rows": 2 }
    },
    "<another-id>": {
      "label": "Available tile (not placed)",
      "component": "tiles/<another-id>/Tile.tsx",
      "status": "available"
    }
  }
}

Tile Status Values

Tile Lifecycle

available  →  active     (user places tile from gallery)
active     →  disabled   (user hides tile)
disabled   →  active     (user re-enables tile)
active     →  (deleted)  (user removes tile entirely — delete file + remove from board.json)

• Position uses 1-based column and row indices
• size.cols and size.rows are the span in grid units
• Tiles must not overlap — check existing positions before placing a new tile
• available tiles have no position or size fields