CodeDrobe Adapter Development

SkillDev tools

Add, inspect, repair, or validate CodeDrobe Core adapters for Chromium/Electron AI desktop applications. Use when supporting a new app, updating Codex or WorkBuddy compatibility after an app release, discovering installation paths or CDP targets, selecting stable DOM landmarks, adding renderer profiles or transactional host settings, recording lastVerified versions, or writing adapter and real-renderer tests.

Available today. Use it from your connected AI after setup.

Connect ahel once, and every AI you use reads what you have installed.

Then ask your AI: use the CodeDrobe Adapter Development skill

What this skill tells your AI

The instructions your AI receives, as published by codedrobe/skills in skills/codedrobe-adapter-dev/SKILL.md and read by ahel’s review.

Work in the @codedrobe/core repository. Keep the adapter lightweight and prove selectors against a real installed application; never infer renderer compatibility from an app name, executable path, or screenshot alone.

Read the relevant references

Add or repair an adapter

  1. Inspect the current Core tree, adapter registry, tests, CLI help, and working-tree changes.
  2. Locate the actual installed app and record its app version/build. Do not overwrite unrelated local changes.
  3. Launch the real app with loopback CDP on a configurable, unoccupied port. Do not restart or terminate it without authorization.
  4. Inspect /json/list, select the actual renderer, and run codedrobe dom snapshot on every relevant route to collect privacy-preserving semantic DOM evidence.
  5. Choose only cross-route landmarks for the adapter: root, sidebar/navigation, workspace/content, and composer/input. Only rootAny should block (it doubles as the boot detector); declare panels the app can hide — sidebars in popped-out or collapsed windows — as recommended, since compatibility is judged per window.
  6. Put app- or theme-specific layout nodes in theme verification contexts, not the adapter.
  7. Implement the adapter, registry export, types, and focused tests. Add a renderer profile or host-settings module only when the application requires that behavior.
  8. Probe the real renderer, then apply and verify a minimal package. Validate the home and conversation contexts separately.
  9. Restore the renderer and any transactional host settings. Confirm cleanup before finishing.
  10. Update lastVerified only after real-app verification succeeds, including the observed version/build and date.

Compatibility failure workflow

  1. Reproduce with codedrobe probe --app <id> --theme <package>.
  2. Separate adapter landmark failures from theme-specific missing nodes.
  3. Inspect the live DOM and computed layout; do not repair from stale documentation alone.
  4. Prefer a stable alternative selector before broadening any lists.
  5. Keep failure output concrete: requirement name plus every attempted selector.
  6. Add a regression test before updating lastVerified.

Guardrails

  • Never patch application bundles, app.asar, code signatures, WindowsApps ownership, or user authentication data.
  • Bind CDP to 127.0.0.1 and reject occupied custom ports instead of killing unknown processes.
  • Avoid generated CSS-module hashes, localized text, deep child chains, and broad selectors such as body * in adapters.
  • Keep optional decoration out of adapter requirements.
  • Preserve custom installation paths and user-selected CDP ports throughout detect, launch, probe, apply, verify, watch, and restore.
  • Do not add a public theme-publishing path until registry authentication and authorization are complete.

Signals

GitHub stars
247
Forks
21
Last commit
Aug 2026
Advanced
Catalog kind
skill
Gateway key
codedrobe-adapter-dev
Source
github.com/codedrobe/skills