reship-fontpack-bundle

---

name: reship-fontpack-bundle description: Regenerate PolyKybd font-pack bundles from the committed firmware headers and reship the changed ones to the host (PolyKybdHost) — WITHOUT needing the pinned fontconvert / FreeType-HarfBuzz build. Use when a bundle's shipped .plyf must be refreshed: after a fonts.yaml render/size tweak, after the shadowed-glyph dedupe, when host and firmware bundle bytes have drifted, or when asked to "reship the symbol/emoji/fantasy/… bundle", "resync the font packs to the host", or "regenerate bundles.json". Handles the finicky parts the manual procedure gets wrong: dedupe parity, the --bundle-version=0 reset trap, minimal version bumps, the per-field bundles.json rebuild (size/sha256), and the firmware committed manifest. NOT for adding a NEW bundle or changing fonts.yaml itself (that needs fontconvert), and NOT for making a font resident (use make-font-resident).

Reship a font-pack bundle to the host

The external-flash font pack ships as N per-family bundles (symbol, mideast, syllabic, asia, flags, emoji, fantasy). Each is a .plyf shipped to both the firmware (as the committed fontpack_bundles.manifest.json ABI contract) and the host (PolyKybdHost/polyhost/res/fontpack/<id>.plyf + bundles.json, which the host flashes on connect). There is no ship script — this skill is the recipe, and reship_bundles.py (beside this file) is the actuator.

Key fact that makes this cheap: bundles derive deterministically from the committed category headers (base/fonts/generated/*.h). fontconvert only regenerates those headers from the TTFs. So for any reship where the headers are already committed — a dedupe bump, a version-only resync, copying a firmware-side render change to the host — you do not need the pinned FreeType/HarfBuzz fontconvert build at all. The helper rebuilds the .plyf straight from the headers (mirroring the build's default-on prune_shadowed_glyphs dedupe), so it works in any container.

Repos (auto-discovered; override with --qmk / --host):

• qmk: <this-skill>/../../../.. (the qmk_firmware root)
• host: sibling PolyKybdHost/

When to use / not use

Situation	This skill?
A fonts.yaml render tweak changed a bundle's glyphs; headers already regenerated + committed	✅ yes
The dedupe (or any fontpack.py change) altered shipped bytes	✅ yes
Host .plyf drifted stale vs firmware (see the "silent lag" note in qmk CLAUDE.md)	✅ yes
Adding a brand-new bundle, or changing which TTF/size a font uses	❌ needs fontconvert + generate_fonts.py --emit-bundles
Making a font render with no pack	❌ use make-font-resident

Procedure

1. Report what changed (read-only). From the qmk root:

   python3 .claude/skills/reship-fontpack-bundle/reship_bundles.py --check
   

   It regenerates every bundle from the committed headers + dedupe and compares to the shipped host .plyf, printing one of: identical, DIFFERS (glyph bytes) (real change → reship + bump), or version-byte only. For a glyph-byte change it also prints a few per-glyph WxH diffs — that's how you tell a render-size drift (metadata first/last/yAdvance match, only bitmap dims differ) from a structural change.

2. Pick the version bumps. Bump only the bundles that changed, minimally (+1 over the shipped value — check bundles.json; no bundle has ever been deployed so any increment >shipped works, keep it monotonic and small). Leave all others alone — the helper preserves their current shipped version automatically (this is the fix for the --bundle-version defaults-to-0 reset trap).

3. Apply the reship (write mode). Name every changed bundle with its new version:

   python3 .claude/skills/reship-fontpack-bundle/reship_bundles.py --apply symbol=6 emoji=2
   

   This: rebuilds the firmware fontpack_bundles.manifest.json + fontpack_layout.h (reflecting the dedupe), copies each changed <id>.plyf to the host, and rebuilds bundles.json (content_version / size / sha256=sha256(data)[:16]) for the named bundles only.

4. Verify:

   # host resource integrity + decode round-trip
   cd ../PolyKybdHost && .venv/bin/python -m unittest discover -s tests/services -p "fontpack*_test.py"
   # cross-repo shared manifests must stay byte-identical
   cd ../qmk_firmware/keyboards/polykybd
   cmp fonts/noto-fonts.yaml ../../../PolyKybdHost/polyhost/res/fonts/noto-fonts.yaml
   cmp base/fonts/generated/fontpack_render_settings.json ../../../PolyKybdHost/polyhost/res/fontpack/fontpack_render_settings.json
   cmp base/fonts/generated/lang_flags.json ../../../PolyKybdHost/polyhost/res/fontpack/lang_flags.json
   
    ../.. && python3 .claude/skills/reship-fontpack-bundle/reship_bundles.py --check
   

Output format

Report per bundle: its new size, new content_version, and whether its glyph bytes changed. State clearly which bundles you reshipped (id + old→new version + reclaimed or added bytes) and which you left untouched, then the verification result (tests pass, cross-repo cmp clean, --check now all-identical).

Pitfalls

• Always pass EVERY changed bundle to --apply; never bump one you didn't actually change. The helper keeps unnamed bundles at their current version, but if you --apply a bundle whose bytes didn't change you ship a pointless re-flash-on-connect. Trust the --check DIFFERS (glyph bytes) list.
• Mirror the build's dedupe. The shipped bytes reflect prune_shadowed_glyphs (default-on in generate_fonts.py). The helper runs it; if you ever hand-roll a regen, run it too or the bundle re-inflates and diverges from what's shipped.
• content_version lives in the .plyf header AND bundles.json — they must match. The helper writes both from one number; never hand-edit only the JSON.
• This reships from the COMMITTED headers. If you changed fonts.yaml or a TTF, regenerate the headers first (generate_fonts.py, pinned fontconvert) and commit them — otherwise you reship the old glyphs.
• Host .venv is required for the verify step (system python lacks numpy/PIL); create it per PolyKybdHost/CLAUDE.md if absent.
• flags uses a pinned high gidx band (PACK_EXTRA_GIDX_BASE), so appending a tail font no longer perturbs it — expect flags to stay identical unless you actually regenerated it.