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piper-editor

The Piper V2 GUI editor. Built on top of piper_canvas (rendering and interaction) and piper_core (graph data model, V2 serializer, command stack). No engine -- the editor produces V2 JSON that an external engine consumes.

Running

./build/app/piper-editor                                 # blank document
./build/app/piper-editor path/to/file.piper              # open a file at startup

The editor finds data/theme.json automatically when launched from the project root or from build/.

Layout

| File | View | Help |
| stage [combo] [<] [play/stop] [>]    profile [combo]   |
+--------------------------+-------------------------------+
| canvas                   | Inspector / Stages / Modes /  |
|                          | Problems                      |
+--------------------------+-------------------------------+
| <path or (unsaved)>                          N problem(s) |
  • Menu bar. File / View / Help.
  • Toolbar row. Current display stage with prev / play / next controls; current mode profile.
  • Canvas (left). The graph. Pan with middle-drag, zoom with the wheel, right-click for context menus.
  • Right panel (tabs):
    • Inspector. Edit selected node's name, stage, mode label, and member-attribute values. Edits push through the host's command stack so they undo with everything else.
    • Stages. Add / remove / reorder stages. Reorder via up/down arrows or drag-drop. Set the displayed stage.
    • Modes. CRUD on mode profiles. Set the active profile. Matrix view at the bottom: rows = nodes, columns = profiles, each cell is a node-mode label combo.
    • Problems. Lints (live) + load diagnostics. Click a row to jump to the affected node. Tab title goes orange when non-empty.
  • Status bar. Current path (or (unsaved)) and live problem count.

The right panel is resizable (drag the splitter) and foldable (View > Toggle right panel or Ctrl+B).

Mouse

Action Effect
middle-drag pan the canvas
wheel zoom around the cursor
left-click on node select (replace), shift-click extends
left-click + drag on empty box-select
left-drag on selected node move selection (multi-node group)
left-drag on a pin drag-to-connect; ghost colored by
the host's Connect rules
right-click on node per-node menu (Set stage, Set mode)
right-click on empty canvas Add node + Display stage menus

Keyboard

Chord Action
Delete / Backspace delete selected node(s)
Ctrl+C / Ctrl+V copy / paste selection (preserves cluster
shape relative to the cursor)
Ctrl+Z / Ctrl+Shift+Z undo / redo
Ctrl+S save (Save As if no path)
Ctrl+Q quit
Ctrl+B toggle right panel
Ctrl+G toggle snap-to-grid
Alt+Left / Alt+Right previous / next stage

All app shortcuts use ImGui::Shortcut with RouteAlways so ImGui's default keyboard navigation never claims them first.

Theme

data/theme.json is loaded at startup and watched for changes once a second. Edit the file (e.g. tweak types.float or add a mode_colors.passthrough entry), save, and the canvas restyles within a frame. See docs/v2_format.md for the full schema.

Examples

  • examples/filter_demo/ -- low-pass filter pipeline.
  • examples/am_radio/ -- AM modulator + receiver chain.
  • examples/motor_control_dual_jacobian/ -- two-channel motor control with cross-stage feedback (docs/motor_control_walkthrough.md).

Each demo ships its own runner binary + plot script under examples/<name>/. See the per-demo READMEs for run commands.

Architecture

        canvas events                edit commands
piper-editor (app/) ----------> CommandStack ----> piper::Graph
       ^                                                |
       |                                                |
       +-- PiperCanvasGraph adapter (mirror) <----------+
                  ^
                  |
           piper::canvas::Editor (rendering, selection, drag)
  • The canvas framework is type-agnostic: it knows about pins, nodes, links, and type_tag equality. Every domain rule (Connect verdicts, mode/stage dimming, type colors) is host policy injected through PiperCanvasGraph.
  • The host (this binary) bridges canvas events into core commands so the canvas, inspector, and any future scripted edit share one undo stack.
  • Mode profile edits (mode-label-per-node) currently bypass the command stack -- a SetModeProfileCommand would close that gap.