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	9396
title	E2E: Implement Synthetic Thumb Drag Profiles for Optical Pinning Validation
state	Closed
labels	aitestinggrid
assignees	tobiu
createdAt	Mar 8, 2026, 6:48 PM
updatedAt	Mar 8, 2026, 6:55 PM
githubUrl	https://github.com/neomjs/neo/issues/9396
author	tobiu
commentsCount	1
parentIssue	9380
subIssues	[]
subIssuesCompleted	0
subIssuesTotal	0
blockedBy	[]
blocking	[]
closedAt	Mar 8, 2026, 6:49 PM

E2E: Implement Synthetic Thumb Drag Profiles for Optical Pinning Validation

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

Closed v12.1.0 aitestinggrid

tobiu commented on Mar 8, 2026, 6:48 PM

This ticket documents the enhancement of both GridRowPinning.spec.mjs (BigData) and GridThumbDragDevIndex.spec.mjs (DevIndex) to include synthetic scrollbar thumb drag simulations.

The Enhancements: Since Playwright cannot natively grab and drag an OS-level overflow: auto scrollbar thumb, we implemented synthetic drag profiles (Steady Slow Drag, Ping-Pong Drag, Massive Snap Drag) by:

Dispatching a native mousedown event on the custom .neo-grid-vertical-scrollbar node to trigger the addon's isThumbDragging state.
Artificially mutating wrapper.scrollTop in rapid loops to bypass native momentum physics and instantly test the addon's synchronous CSS variable injection.
Dispatching a global mouseup to release the state.

Empirical Findings from Playwright Telemetry:

Jitter is Cured: The synchronous CSS Variable injection provides perfectly smooth optical panning during the active drag phase.
The White Flash persists on massive jumps: Despite the math being absolutely correct (the CSS variable perfectly offsets the rows into the new viewport), the massive snap drag (50,000px) reliably produces "White Flash" blank frames (105 in BigData, 141 in DevIndex).

Architectural Reality Check: The testing proves that optical CSS transforms cannot "rescue" pixels during a massive native scroll jump. When the browser's native scroll engine processes a massive scrollTop jump, it destroys the old GPU compositor tile and allocates a new empty tile. Even if we synchronously translate the DOM nodes into the new viewport in the exact same 16ms frame, the browser has already flushed the pixels and paints a white rectangle until the layout engine finishes a full repaint.

This confirms that with native overflow: auto scrollbars, preventing a white flash on a massive jump is physically impossible in an async worker environment without predictive rendering heuristics or abandoning the native scrollbar entirely.

tobiu added the ai label on Mar 8, 2026, 6:48 PM

tobiu added the testing label on Mar 8, 2026, 6:48 PM

tobiu added the grid label on Mar 8, 2026, 6:48 PM

tobiu added parent issue #9380 on Mar 8, 2026, 6:48 PM

tobiu referenced in commit e757474 - "Test: Implement Synthetic Thumb Drag Profiles for Optical Pinning Validation (#9396) on Mar 8, 2026, 6:49 PM

tobiu Mar 8, 2026, 6:49 PM

The GridRowPinning.spec.mjs and GridThumbDragDevIndex.spec.mjs test files have been successfully updated, committed, and pushed.

Test Results (BigData / 100k rows):

Total Frames Measured: 17851
Total Blank Frames (White Flash): 105
Total Jitter Bounces Detected: 10

Test Results (DevIndex / OffscreenCanvas):

Total Frames Measured: 13253
Total Blank Frames (White Flash): 141
Total Jitter Bounces Detected: 10

Conclusion: The data has fundamentally shifted our understanding of browser rendering. The CSS variables mathematically worked, but the browser GPU compositor destroys off-screen textures during massive native scroll jumps faster than we can rescue them with CSS transforms. We must abandon optical pinning as a cure for the white flash.

tobiu assigned to @tobiu on Mar 8, 2026, 6:49 PM

tobiu closed this issue on Mar 8, 2026, 6:49 PM