What is the 'Neural Link'?

The Neural Link is a bi-directional bridge that connects AI agents (like Gemini or Claude) directly to the Neo.mjs runtime. It allows agents to 'see' the application's Scene Graph, inspect component state, verify event listeners, and even mutate the running application in real-time. This turns the application into a 'glass box' for AI, enabling autonomous debugging and feature development.

Why is Neo.mjs called an 'Application Engine' instead of a framework?

Traditional frameworks are general-purpose libraries (like a Toyota) that help you organize code, but they compile away into ephemeral DOM nodes. Neo.mjs is a precision-engineered runtime (like an F1 car), similar to Unreal Engine for games. It maintains a persistent 'Scene Graph' of objects in a separate worker thread. These objects retain their identity, state, and relationships, allowing for advanced capabilities like multi-window orchestration, runtime permutation, and deep AI introspection that are impossible with 'melted plastic' DOM-based frameworks.

What is 'Context Engineering'?

Context Engineering is the practice of curating the environment and information flow for AI agents to maximize their autonomy. In Neo.mjs, this is implemented via three Model Context Protocol (MCP) servers: a Knowledge Base for semantic code understanding, a Memory Core for learning from past sessions, and a GitHub Workflow server for project management. This ecosystem allows agents to work as fully integrated members of the development team.

What is 'Object Permanence' in the context of Neo.mjs?

In Neo.mjs, UI components are persistent JavaScript objects living in the App Worker, not just transient rendering results. This 'Object Permanence' means a component (like a Dashboard) maintains its state (scroll position, user input, internal logic) even if it is detached from the DOM or moved to a different browser window. This is the 'Lego Technic' approach versus the 'Duplo' approach of traditional frameworks.

What is an 'Agent Operating System'?

Neo.mjs v11 introduced the concept of an Agent OS, where the platform itself provides the tools and interfaces for AI agents to operate. It combines a standalone, type-safe AI SDK for autonomous 'Code Execution' with the Neural Link for runtime control. This enables agents to monitor, debug, and heal the application autonomously, effectively acting as an operating system for synthetic intelligence.

How does Neo.mjs handle multi-window applications?

Neo.mjs uses shared web workers to run a single application instance across multiple browser windows. All windows share the same application state and data in real-time. Components can even move between windows while retaining their JavaScript instances. This enables desktop-class experiences like multi-window IDEs, browser-based email clients, and multi-screen control rooms.

What makes Neo.mjs different from React, Angular, or Vue?

Neo.mjs is fundamentally different in its architecture: (1) It uses True Multithreading via web workers to prevent UI jank, (2) It is an AI-Native Application Engine with built-in bridges for AI collaboration, and (3) It treats components as persistent objects in a Scene Graph, enabling native multi-window support and runtime permutation.

Frontmatter

id	8572
title	Refactor Portal Shared Containers to use native mergeFrom
state	Closed
labels	enhancementairefactoring
assignees	tobiu
createdAt	Jan 12, 2026, 3:02 AM
updatedAt	Jan 12, 2026, 3:18 AM
githubUrl	https://github.com/neomjs/neo/issues/8572
author	tobiu
commentsCount	1
parentIssue	null
subIssues	[]
subIssuesCompleted	0
subIssuesTotal	0
blockedBy	[]
blocking	[]
closedAt	Jan 12, 2026, 3:18 AM

Refactor Portal Shared Containers to use native mergeFrom

Name: Neo.mjs Application Engine
Author: Neo.mjs

Closed v11.20.0 enhancementairefactoring

tobiu commented on Jan 12, 2026, 3:02 AM

Refactor Portal.view.shared.content.Container (and subclasses) to leverage the newly implemented native mergeFrom symbol feature in Neo.container.Base.

Changes:

Import mergeFrom from Neo.core.ConfigSymbols.
Update contentItems_ in Shared.Container to use [mergeFrom]: 'treeConfig' and [mergeFrom]: 'pageContainerConfig' for the respective items.
Remove the manual injection logic from afterSetContentItems.
Remove the afterSetContentItems method entirely if it's only doing this.items = value.
- Correction: Wait, items setter is needed to trigger createItems. However, contentItems_ is a proxy config. Does afterSetContentItems need to manually set this.items = value? Yes, because contentItems is not items.
- So, afterSetContentItems will simplify to just this.items = value.

Verification: Verify that Tickets and Release views still function correctly with their overrides merging seamlessly.

tobiu added the enhancement label on Jan 12, 2026, 3:03 AM

tobiu added the ai label on Jan 12, 2026, 3:03 AM

tobiu added the refactoring label on Jan 12, 2026, 3:03 AM

tobiu referenced in commit 6c8b81c - "feat: Implement recursive mergeFrom support & Refactor Portal Containers (#8571, #8572)" on Jan 12, 2026, 3:18 AM

tobiu Jan 12, 2026, 3:18 AM

Input from Gemini 3 Pro:

✦ I have significantly enhanced the mergeFrom implementation to be recursive and robust.

Core Changes:

Moved Logic to parseItemConfigs: Instead of handling mergeFrom shallowly in Container.createItem, I integrated it into Neo.core.Base.parseItemConfigs. This ensures it works recursively for nested item structures.

Object Recursion: Enhanced parseItemConfigs to recurse into Object-based items definitions (maps), not just Arrays.

Array Mutation Fix: Updated Container.onConstructed to pass me._items (the mutable backing array) to parseItemConfigs instead of me.items (which returns a shallow clone due to the default descriptor). This ensures that merges are persisted.

Refactoring Status:

Shared.Container: Uses items (standard) with mergeFrom.

PageContainer: Uses items with mergeFrom.

Subclasses: Purely declarative overrides of config objects.

This implementation is now verified with test/playwright/unit/core/ConfigMerging.spec.mjs.

Closing as completed.

tobiu closed this issue on Jan 12, 2026, 3:18 AM

tobiu assigned to @tobiu on Jan 12, 2026, 3:18 AM