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# Migrating `crates/ui` to `gpui-base`
`crates/ui` is a fork of an early version of `gpui-component`: 71 files and roughly
21.9k lines that mix behavior, presentation, and application shell. This document is
the plan for moving its behavior half onto the upstream `gpui-base` crate while the
application keeps the design system it has today.
The facts below were checked against `gpui-base 0.6.1` (crates.io), the `gpui-kit`
repository at `main`, and this workspace's `Cargo.lock` (zed at `4b47ceb`,
2026-09-17). Line counts come from `wc -l` under `crates/ui/src`.
## Status
- **Phase 0: landed.** Manifest only; no Rust changed. The API drift across the
three days between the snapshot and the old pin turned out to be purely
additive, so nothing had to be fixed.
- **Phase 1: landed.** Base is wired in, `sync_base` is in place, and 1,945 lines
of dead weight are gone. `history.rs` moved to phase 2 once it turned out its
only consumer is `input/state.rs`. No dependency became unused, so the pruning
step is a no-op (four dependencies were already unused before this work).
- **Phases 2-5: not started.**
- One pre-existing, unrelated breakage was found; see
[A pre-existing wasm blocker](#a-pre-existing-wasm-blocker).
## The two facts that shape the work
**GPUI still comes from upstream — addressed as the `gpui-pre` package.** `gpui-base`
declares its GPUI dependency as `gpui = { package = "gpui-pre", version = "0.3.1" }`:
the crate in the graph is the published package `gpui-pre`, and `gpui` is only the name
used in code. That package is upstream zed's gpui (a snapshot of `zed@d89e9c2`,
published 2026-09-14) republished unchanged, so nothing is forked and there is no
source to align. Coop previously pinned zed's git repository at `4b47ceb`
(2026-09-17), a few days ahead of that snapshot.
The two cannot be mixed. Zed's git `gpui` and the `gpui-pre` package are different
crates, so `App`, `Window`, `Entity`, and elements from one are not the other's types,
and a dependency graph that contains both does not compile. Zed's crates.io `gpui`
(0.2.2, October 2025) is also far behind the APIs coop already uses. The workspace's
`gpui` entry therefore has to resolve to the `gpui-pre` package; with the `package =`
alias, every `use gpui::…` site stays as it is.
**The fork's external contract is small.** Outside `crates/ui`, the crate is consumed
as 38 imported items plus a single `ui::init(cx)` call, across 13 modules, and never
deeper than `ui::<module>::<Item>`:
| Module | Items | Consumer files |
| --- | --- | --- |
| crate root (`Icon`, `IconName`, `h_flex`, `v_flex`, `divider`, `Root`, `TitleBar`, `Sizable`, `Selectable`, `Disableable`, `StyledExt`, `WindowExtension`, `InteractiveElementExt`) | 13 | 17 |
| `input` (`InputState`, `Input`, `InputEvent`) | 3 | 10 |
| `button` (`Button`, `ButtonVariants`) | 2 | 14 |
| `dock` (`Panel`, `PanelView`, `DockArea`, `DockItem`, `DockPlacement`, `PanelEvent`, `ClosePanel`) | 7 | 10 |
| `notification`, `avatar`, `menu`, `scroll`, `group_box`, `indicator`, `switch`, `modal`, `tooltip` | 12 | 16 |
| `list`, `checkbox`, `popover`, `resizable`, `skeleton`, `tab`, `divider` (module), `history`, `animation`, `actions` | 0 references | 0 |
`ui::list` and `ui::checkbox` had no consumers at all — the message list in
`crates/chat_ui` uses GPUI's own `list::ListState` — so phase 1 deleted both. The other
modules with zero external references still serve as internal machinery for `dock`,
`menu`, `modal`, and `input`.
The consequence: this is not a rewrite of an app-facing library. Most of the work is
deleting internals and re-expressing a few thousand lines of presentation over base
primitives.
## What must not change
- `crates/theme` stays the source of truth: `ThemeColors`, `ThemeFamily`, the registry,
scrollbar mode, platform, font size and radii.
- Behavior comes from `gpui-base`; presentation comes from `theme` plus the `ui` styled
layer. Every migrated component keeps reading `cx.theme()` and keeps its current
spacing, radius, and shadow math, so the rendered result does not move.
- Application code keeps importing `theme::ActiveTheme` and `ui::*` under its current
names. Module paths are part of the contract; internals are not.
- `gpui-component` is not adopted. It is a complete, styled visual language, and taking
it would replace the design system rather than preserve it.
Two `Theme` types exist — `theme::Theme` and `gpui_base::Theme` — as separate GPUI
globals. Coop's stays the application-facing one. Base's is touched in exactly one
place: `theme::sync_base(cx)`, called from `ui::init` and from `Theme::change` so that
it re-runs on every theme change. It is a no-op before coop's theme global exists,
which is the case when `ui::init` runs ahead of `theme::init`; `Theme::change` is the
hook that actually keeps the projection current.
It projects the color roles base can act on — the focus ring, the wash under selected
text, scrollbars, and overlay backdrops — and nothing else:
| `gpui_base::ColorTokens` | coop `ThemeColors` |
| --- | --- |
| `background` / `foreground` | `background` / `text` |
| `surface` / `surface_foreground` | `surface_background` / `text` |
| `primary` / `primary_foreground` | `element_background` / `element_foreground` |
| `secondary` / `secondary_foreground` | `secondary_background` / `secondary_foreground` |
| `muted` / `muted_foreground` | `ghost_element_background_alt` / `text_muted` |
| `accent` / `accent_foreground` | `ghost_element_hover` / `text` |
| `destructive` / `destructive_foreground` | `danger_background` / `danger_foreground` |
| `border` / `input` | `border` |
| `ring` | `ring` |
| `selection` | `selection` |
It also sets `ThemeAppearance` from coop's mode, `ScrollbarTheme`'s mode from coop's
`scrollbar_mode`, and `TypographyTokens::sans` from coop's `font_family`. Radius,
spacing, typography sizes, shadows, and scrollbar geometry keep their base defaults:
coop has a single `radius`/`radius_lg`/`font_size` where base has six-point scales, so
any mapping would be invented rather than derived. `ResizableTheme` needs nothing —
base's documented `None` fallback already resolves to `border` at rest and `ring` while
dragging, both of which are projected.
## What each module becomes
| `ui` module | LOC | Plan | `gpui-base` counterpart |
| --- | --- | --- | --- |
| `input/` (state, element, display_map, rope_ext, mask_pattern, movement, selection, indent, mode, change, cursor, blink_cursor, clear_button) | 6,929 | Replace; keep `ui::input::{Input, InputEvent, InputState}` as the import path | `Input`/`InputState`, `Textarea`/`TextareaState`, `Editor` |
| `list/` | 1,477 | Delete | GPUI's own `list` (already in use) |
| `checkbox.rs` | 312 | Delete | `Checkbox` |
| `scroll/` (scrollbar, scrollable, scrollable_mask) | 1,332 | Replace; keep the `ScrollableElement` and `Scrollbar` names | `Scrollbar`, `ScrollableMask` |
| `resizable/` | 927 | Replace; base exports the same names (`h_resizable`, `v_resizable`, `resizable_panel`, `PANEL_MIN_SIZE`, `resize_handle`) | `Resizable` + `ResizeHandleRenderer` for the coop hairline |
| `modal.rs` | 540 | Port onto base parts; keep `Modal`, `ModalButtonProps`, and `window.open_modal` | `Dialog`, `AlertDialog` |
| `notification.rs` | 584 | Port; keep `Notification`, `NotificationKind`, and `window.push_notification` | `Toast`, `ToastManager`, `ToastStack` |
| `popover.rs` | 432 | Replace with a coop-styled wrapper | `Popover`, `Popup`, `Positioner` |
| `tooltip.rs` | 36 | Replace with a coop-styled wrapper | `Tooltip` |
| `button.rs` | 626 | Skin: base behavior plus coop's existing variant tables | `Button`, `StateStyle` |
| `switch.rs` | 287 | Skin | `Switch`, `SwitchTrack`, `SwitchThumb` |
| `avatar.rs` | 141 | Skin | `Avatar`, `AvatarImage`, `AvatarFallback` |
| `history.rs` | 184 | Defer to phase 2 | `UndoHistory`, not `History`: base's `History` is navigation (back/forward), while `UndoHistory` is the grouped undo/redo with `max_undos`, `group_interval`, `start_grouping`/`end_grouping`, and `set_ignoring` in place of the fork's `pub(crate) ignore` field. Its only consumer is `input/state.rs`, which phase 2 replaces |
| `index_path.rs`, `element_ext.rs`, `event.rs`, `focusable.rs` | 156 | Delete | `IndexPath`, `ElementExt`, `InteractiveElementExt`. `FocusableCycle` has no counterpart — base's `FocusableExt` is a different concept (whether a component draws a focus ring) — so it is dropped rather than re-based |
| `styled.rs`, `actions.rs`, `animation.rs` | 305 | Keep `ui::StyledExt`, `Size`, and `Sizable` as the app's import. `Selectable`, `Disableable`, and `Collapsible` now come from `gpui_base::component_traits`; the local three-line `h_flex`/`v_flex` wrappers stay rather than delegating to base's identical ones | `styled`, `StateStyle` |
| `icon.rs`, `kbd.rs`, `divider.rs`, `skeleton.rs`, `group_box.rs`, `indicator.rs` | 1,023 | Keep; no base equivalent, these are the design system | — |
| `menu/` | 2,208 | Keep; base has no menu. Optional later: re-base anchoring and dismissal on `Popup`/`Positioner` | `Popup` (optional) |
| `dock/` + `tab/` | 3,356 | Keep for now; see phase 5 | base dock (different contract) |
| `root.rs`, `window_ext.rs`, `title_bar.rs` | 965 | Keep; app shell. `Root` continues to host the dialog and toast layers and `focused_input` | — |
Roughly 10k lines are removed, 3k are re-expressed as thin skins, and 8k are kept.
## Dependency change
The workspace manifest's GPUI entries become:
```toml
[workspace.dependencies]
gpui = { package = "gpui-pre", version = "0.3.5" }
gpui_platform = { package = "gpui-pre-platform", version = "0.3.5", features = ["font-kit", "x11", "wayland"] }
gpui_linux = { package = "gpui-pre-linux", version = "0.3.5" }
gpui_windows = { package = "gpui-pre-windows", version = "0.3.5" }
gpui_macos = { package = "gpui-pre-macos", version = "0.3.5" }
gpui_web = { package = "gpui-pre-web", version = "0.3.5" }
gpui_util = { package = "gpui-pre-util", version = "0.3.5" }
reqwest_client = { package = "gpui-pre-reqwest-client", version = "0.3.5" }
sum_tree = { package = "gpui-pre-sum-tree", version = "0.3.5" }
gpui_tokio = { path = "crates/gpui_tokio" }
gpui-base = "0.6.1"
```
Because of the `package =` alias, `use gpui::…` and `use gpui_platform::…` keep
compiling unchanged. The aliases match the ones `gpui-pre` uses internally, and
`gpui_web` moved out of `web/Cargo.toml` into this table with the rest.
The only alternative — leaving the workspace on zed's git `gpui` and redirecting
`gpui-base`'s dependency to it — means vendoring `gpui-base` and owning its source.
That is a fork, and this plan deliberately avoids it.
`gpui_tokio` is the one crate in the family longbridge does not republish. `crates/state`
uses it to run `browser-signer-proxy` and `nostr-blossom` work, and the nostr client's
reqwest backend needs a Tokio reactor, so the runtime cannot be dropped for
`cx.background_spawn`. It is vendored verbatim from zed at `4b47ceb` into
`crates/gpui_tokio` (Apache-2.0, ~100 lines), which is the smallest change that keeps
the existing behaviour.
`gpui-base` and `gpui-pre` move together on minor versions (`0.6.x` requires `0.3.x`);
bump both in the same change.
## Phases
### Phase 0 — move `gpui` onto the `gpui-pre` package (manifest only) — landed
Point the workspace's GPUI entries at the published `gpui-pre` crates. There is no GPUI
source to align, patch, or vendor.
**No drift had to be fixed.** The gap between the snapshot (`zed@d89e9c2`) and the old
pin (`4b47ceb`) is 67 commits, but only 16 touch the GPUI crates, and the public surface
only gained names: `ShapedLineCursor`, `MissingGlyphSink`, `MissingGlyph`,
`FallbackFontClass`, `MEASUREMENT_VERSION`, dynamic font installation, and inspector
registration. Nothing coop used was removed or changed shape, so every `use gpui::…`
compiled unchanged. The three entry points coop calls —
`gpui_platform::application()`, `gpui_platform::web_init()`, and
`gpui_platform::single_threaded_web()` — all exist in 0.3.5.
Exit criteria: `cargo check` passes for `desktop`, and the wasm criterion is blocked by
a pre-existing bug unrelated to GPUI — see
[A pre-existing wasm blocker](#a-pre-existing-wasm-blocker). `cargo check -p theme -p ui
--target wasm32-unknown-unknown`, which covers everything this migration touches,
passes. The change rewrites the dependency graph, so it stays in a pull request of its
own.
### Phase 1 — Wire base, delete dead weight (no visual change) — landed
What changed:
- `crates/ui` and `crates/theme` take `gpui-base`.
- `ui::init` calls `gpui_base::init(cx)` then `theme::sync_base(cx)`; the `list::init(cx)`
call went with `list/`.
- `ui`'s crate root re-exports `ElementExt`, `IndexPath`, and `InteractiveElementExt`
from `gpui_base`, so existing `use ui::{…}` sites are unchanged. In particular
`chat_ui`'s `.on_double_click(…)` is served by base's `InteractiveElementExt`, which
is the same implementation as the fork's.
- `ui::styled` no longer defines `Selectable`, `Disableable`, or `Collapsible`; it
re-exports them from `gpui_base::component_traits`. All three are signature-identical
to the fork's, so the `impl` blocks in `avatar`, `button`, `input`, and the rest
compile untouched. The path is `component_traits` rather than the crate root because
`gpui_base::Collapsible` is base's *component* of that name, not the trait.
- Deleted: `checkbox.rs` (312), `list/` (1,477), `index_path.rs` (69),
`element_ext.rs` (27), `event.rs` (21), `focusable.rs` (39) — 1,945 lines, with no
external consumers and a base counterpart for everything except `FocusableCycle`.
Two corrections this phase produced:
- **`history.rs` moved to phase 2.** It maps to base's `UndoHistory`, not `History`:
base's `History` is navigation (back/forward), while `UndoHistory` is the grouped
undo/redo. Swapping it means editing `input/state.rs` — six `ignore` writes become
`set_ignoring`, and `Change` loses its `HistoryItem` impl — which is phase 2's file.
- **No dependency became unused.** `ropey`, `sum_tree`, `lsp-types`, `tree-sitter`,
`regex`, `unicode-segmentation`, `uuid`, and `instant` are all still used by `input/`
and `history.rs`, and the deleted files used none of the others, so pruning happens in
phase 2. Separately, four dependencies — `common`, `anyhow`, `itertools`, and `smol`
were already unreferenced anywhere in `crates/ui/src` *before* this change. They are
left alone here because removing them is unrelated to the migration.
Exit criteria: no diff outside `crates/ui` and `crates/theme` — met; the only files
touched are the two manifests, `ui/src/lib.rs`, `ui/src/styled.rs`, and
`theme/src/lib.rs`. `cargo check` and `cargo build` both pass with no warnings, and
`theme` and `ui` still compile for `wasm32-unknown-unknown`. The remaining part of the
acceptance — launching the app and walking the settings dialog and chat panel — has to
be done by hand and has not been run.
### Phase 2 — `input/` (the largest single win, ~6.9k lines)
The mapping is close to 1:1 with what the app actually uses:
| Coop today | `gpui-base` |
| --- | --- |
| `InputState::new(window, cx).placeholder(..)` | same |
| `.auto_grow(1, 20)` (chat composer) | `TextareaState::auto_grow(2, 8)` with `Textarea` |
| `.masked(true)` (nsec, password, key) | `InputState::masked(true)`, `unmask_value()` |
| `.set_value(value, window, cx)` | `set_value(value, window, cx)` |
| `InputEvent::{Change, PressEnter, Focus, Blur}` | identical variants |
| `Input::new(&state).appearance(false)` | coop's `Input` keeps these chrome options |
Known gaps to reconcile here, verified against the 0.6.1 source before starting:
`clean_on_escape()`, `set_loading()` (called from `crates/workspace/src/sidebar/mod.rs`),
and the `InputEditorStyle` hook that has to be filled from coop tokens. Everything else
in `input/``display_map`, `rope_ext`, `mask_pattern`, `movement`, `selection`,
`indent`, `mode`, `element` — is deleted. Afterwards, `ropey`, `sum_tree`,
`lsp-types`, `tree-sitter`, `regex`, `unicode-segmentation`, and `uuid` can probably
leave `crates/ui`'s manifest.
Surfaces to re-verify: the chat composer (auto-grow, Enter to send, IME), the subject
line, the settings dialog, profile, relay and messaging lists, the import/restore/backup
dialogs, and sidebar search.
### Phase 3 — overlays and feedback
`popover` becomes a wrapper over base `Popover`; `modal` composes base `Dialog` and
`AlertDialog` while keeping the `Modal` API and `window.open_modal`; `notification`
moves onto `Toast`/`ToastManager` (base owns the stack, timers, and motion; coop owns
the visual and the placement from `theme.notification`); `tooltip` becomes a wrapper
over base `Tooltip`. `Root` and `window_ext` keep their public API and host the new
layers. No call site changes.
### Phase 4 — leaf controls, scroll, and resizable (one module per pull request)
Order: `tooltip`, `avatar`, `switch`, `button`, `scroll/`, `resizable/`. `button` is the
largest skin: the `ButtonVariants` and `ButtonCustomVariant` tables, the `compact`,
`loading`, and `caret` builders, and the variant names stay as they are, with styling
supplied through base's semantic-state styles. `scroll/` keeps the `ScrollableElement`
trait name so `.vertical_scrollbar(..)` call sites keep compiling, and `resizable/`
becomes a thin re-export of base's identically named API plus a `ResizeHandleRenderer`
for the coop hairline.
Each of these is independently shippable. Acceptance for each: no change outside
`crates/ui`, and the surfaces that use the module are pixel-identical before and after.
### Phase 5 — dock, tab, and menu (deliberately later)
Base has a full dock, but its contract is "layout is data, and the application
implements the renderer traits", while coop's `Panel`/`PanelView`/`DockArea`/`DockItem`
is an app-specific shell already consumed by `crates/workspace` and `crates/chat_ui`.
Moving it is a project of its own, and it would also retire `tab/` and touch `menu/`.
Keep them local until phases 14 have landed, then plan dock separately. Re-basing
menu positioning and dismissal on base `Popup`/`Positioner` is optional and later still.
## Verification
There is no UI test suite to lean on, so each phase gets the same treatment:
- `cargo check` and `cargo build` at the workspace root.
- `cargo check -p theme -p ui --target wasm32-unknown-unknown`. The web target cannot
be checked end to end until the pre-existing blocker below is fixed, so the migrated
crates are checked directly.
- Launch the app and walk the surfaces the phase touched. The settings dialog is the
densest single smoke surface (Button, GroupBox, Switch, Input, DropdownMenu,
PopupMenuItem), followed by the chat panel and the sidebar.
- For phase 4, record before/after screenshots per module.
- Keep the call-site diff at zero for phases 1, 3, and 4; if a call site has to change
because base has no equivalent (`set_loading` is the known candidate), list it in the
pull request.
### A pre-existing wasm blocker
`cargo check -p coop_web --target wasm32-unknown-unknown` fails while compiling
`errno 0.3.14`, which refuses `wasm32-unknown-unknown`. The path is
`coop_web → workspace → browser-signer-proxy → smol → async-io → rustix → errno`, none
of which involves GPUI. `crates/workspace/Cargo.toml` declares `browser-signer-proxy`,
but nothing under `crates/workspace/src` references it; the crate is only used by
`crates/state`, where it is already gated `#[cfg(not(target_arch = "wasm32"))]`.
Every version on that path (`errno 0.3.14`, `rustix 1.1.5`, `async-io 2.6.0`,
`smol 2.0.2`) is identical before and after phase 0, and no file on it is part of this
work, so the web build was already broken. The remedy is deleting that one stale
dependency line, but that is unrelated to the migration and is deliberately left out.
Until it is done, read the wasm exit criterion for phases 1-4 as "`theme` and `ui`
compile for `wasm32-unknown-unknown`".
## Risks and non-goals
- **Snapshot lag.** The `gpui-pre` package is a republished snapshot, so it trails zed
`main` by however long it takes longbridge to cut the next release (a few days). A new
GPUI API is therefore unavailable until then. That is the price of not maintaining a
fork; the escape hatch — vendoring `gpui-base` and patching it onto zed's git
repository — should stay unused.
- **The `gpui` dependency line is load-bearing.** Depending on zed's git `gpui`
alongside `gpui-base` looks harmless and is not: it puts two GPUI crates in the graph
and every window, context, and element crossing between them becomes a type error.
- **Two `Theme` globals.** Confine `gpui_base::Theme` to `theme::sync_base` and
`crates/ui` internals; application code keeps using `theme::ActiveTheme`. Avoid
importing both `Theme` types into one file.
- **`gpui_tokio` is vendored, not ours.** `crates/gpui_tokio` is zed's crate kept
verbatim at `crates/gpui_tokio/src/lib.rs` because the `gpui-pre` family does not
publish it and the nostr client needs a Tokio reactor. Re-sync or delete it if
longbridge ever ships an equivalent.
- **Non-goals:** adopting `gpui-component`, migrating dock/tab/menu, rewriting the
self-contained pieces (`icon`, `kbd`, `divider`, `skeleton`, `group_box`,
`indicator`), and changing any color, radius, or spacing value.
## Pull request sequence
| PR | Content | Touches outside `crates/ui` | Status |
| --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | Phase 0: `gpui` moves to the `gpui-pre` package, `gpui_tokio` vendored | root `Cargo.toml`, `Cargo.lock`, `web/Cargo.toml`, new `crates/gpui_tokio`; `crates/state` needed no edit | landed |
| 2 | Phase 1: base wiring, `sync_base`, deletions | `crates/theme` | landed |
| 3 | Phase 2: input, plus `history.rs``UndoHistory` and the `ropey`/`sum_tree`/… pruning | none, or the named gaps | not started |
| 4 | Phase 3: popover, modal, notification, tooltip | none | not started |
| 510 | Phase 4: one leaf module each | none | not started |
| later | Phase 5: dock, as its own plan | `crates/workspace`, `crates/chat_ui` | not started |
The end state: the application keeps its design system and its call sites, `crates/ui`
shrinks by roughly half, and the parts that are genuinely hard — text editing,
focus and IME, drag-resize arithmetic, overlay lifecycle, accessibility semantics — are
maintained upstream instead of in a fork.