quill-code

name	quill-code
description	Edit the @posthog/quill design system locally and consume the change in products/desktop before it is published to npm. Use when changing quill components/primitives/tokens, when a quill change must be tested inside the Code app, or when the user mentions quill, the design system, the .local-quill tarball, or the @posthog/quill pnpm override.

quill-code

@posthog/quill's source lives in this monorepo at packages/quill (repo root, two levels up from products/desktop). Desktop still consumes the published npm package via its nested workspace catalog — products/desktop is excluded from the root pnpm workspace, so workspace: linking cannot reach it. To test an unpublished quill change here, you build quill in-repo, pack it to a tarball, and point a pnpm overrides entry at that tarball. This is a temporary local-dev state — revert before merging (see below).

All commands below run from products/desktop/. Building quill uses the root workspace's install, so run pnpm install at the monorepo root once first.

Quill layout (where to edit)

packages/quill (from the monorepo root) is the workspace (@posthog/quill-workspace). It contains sub-packages, each a layer of the design system:

• packages/primitives/src — base components (Card, Badge, Button, Progress, …)
• packages/components/src — composed components (DataTable, DateTimePicker, Metric)
• packages/blocks/src — product-level blocks (e.g. ExperimentCard). Add the file here and export it from packages/blocks/src/index.ts.
• packages/quill/src — the aggregate that re-exports all layers as @posthog/quill.

A new export in any sub-package flows to @posthog/quill automatically on build.

The loop (every quill change)

1. Edit/add the component in the right sub-package (above) and export it from that package's src/index.ts.

2. Re-sync into products/desktop manually — build → pack → point the override → reinstall:

   # From products/desktop/
   DESKTOP_ROOT="$PWD"
   QUILL_DIR="${QUILL_DIR:-../../packages/quill/packages/quill}"
   
   # a. Build the WHOLE quill workspace (two levels up from the aggregate), so the
   #    sub-packages rebuild BEFORE the aggregate bundles them.
   ( cd "$QUILL_DIR/../.." && pnpm build )
   
   # b. Pack into .local-quill/ under a UNIQUE filename. pnpm pins a tarball by
   #    integrity, so a stable name caches stale across re-syncs — drop old local
   #    tarballs first, then rename the packed file to a unique local name.
   #    (Anchor on $DESKTOP_ROOT, not `git rev-parse --show-toplevel`: the git
   #    toplevel is the monorepo root, not this workspace.)
   rm -f .local-quill/posthog-quill-local-*.tgz
   ( cd "$QUILL_DIR" && npm pack --pack-destination "$DESKTOP_ROOT/.local-quill" )
   mv .local-quill/posthog-quill-[0-9]*.tgz ".local-quill/posthog-quill-local-$(git rev-parse --short HEAD)-$$.tgz"
   
   # c. Point the override at the new tarball, then reinstall.
   #    Edit pnpm-workspace.yaml so overrides['@posthog/quill'] = file:./.local-quill/<new file>
   pnpm install
   

   Building only the aggregate (packages/quill/packages/quill) re-bundles the sub-packages' stale dist/, so edits to primitives/components/blocks are silently dropped. Always build at the workspace root.

3. Verify in the Code app (pnpm dev, or the test-electron-app skill). Repeat from 1.

After every quill edit you must re-run the sync — the app consumes the tarball, not the quill source, so unsynced edits are invisible here.

For an out-of-tree quill checkout, set QUILL_DIR=/abs/path/to/posthog/packages/quill/packages/quill.

Why a tarball, not link: or workspace:

workspace: cannot resolve across the nested-workspace boundary (products/desktop is excluded from the root pnpm workspace). link: symlinks into the root workspace's node_modules and drags in its React 18 types, colliding with this workspace's React 19 (dual-React → broken typecheck + invalid-hook-call at runtime). The tarball is copied into this workspace's store and deduped against React 19. The filename is content-hashed because pnpm pins a tarball by integrity, so a stable filename gets cached stale across re-syncs.

The override (what the script rewrites)

In pnpm-workspace.yaml, under overrides::

'@posthog/quill': file:./.local-quill/posthog-quill-local-<hash>.tgz

There is also a permanent pin you should leave alone:

'@posthog/quill>@base-ui/react': ^1.3.0   # quill ships a broken catalog: dep; do not remove

Reverting (before merge)

The override is local-dev only. Once the quill change is published to npm (quill publishes from this monorepo via the manual publish-quill-npm workflow dispatch):

1. Bump the catalog version in pnpm-workspace.yaml ('@posthog/quill': 0.3.0-beta.x) to the published version.
2. Restore the override line to point back at the catalog, or remove the file: override.
3. pnpm install.

Do not commit a file:./.local-quill/... override or the .local-quill/ tarballs.