Agent Desktop Ffi

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name: agent-desktop-ffi version: 0.1.11 tags: ffi, c-bindings, cdylib, python, swift, node, go, rust-ffi requirements: - agent-desktop-ffi description: > C-ABI bindings over agent-desktop's PlatformAdapter. Consumers (Python ctypes, Swift, Node ffi-napi, Go cgo, C++, Ruby fiddle) link libagent_desktop_ffi.{dylib,so,dll} and call ad_* functions directly instead of spawning the CLI binary per call.

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agent-desktop-ffi

Direct C-ABI access to every PlatformAdapter operation. Build the cdylib with the workspace's release-ffi profile:

cargo build --profile release-ffi -p agent-desktop-ffi

The output is target/release-ffi/libagent_desktop_ffi.dylib (.so on Linux, .dll on Windows) plus a committed C header at crates/ffi/include/agent_desktop.h.

Four reference topics, loaded as needed:

ownership.md — who allocates / who frees,

for every *mut T the FFI hands back to the caller.

error-handling.md — errno-style

last-error contract, enum validation, panic boundary.

threading.md — macOS main-thread rule,

AXIsProcessTrusted inheritance when Python/Node dlopens the cdylib, and the single-owner handle invariant.

build-and-link.md — minimum working

example for Python ctypes and a C program that links the dylib.

⚠ Core constraints before you integrate

Main thread only (macOS). Call every adapter-touching entrypoint

(ad_get_tree, ad_resolve_element, ad_execute_action, ad_screenshot, clipboard, launch/close, window ops, observation, notifications, etc.) from the process's main thread. The FFI enforces this at runtime in every build profile — a worker-thread call returns AD_RESULT_ERR_INTERNAL with a diagnostic last-error. On non-macOS platforms the check is a compile-time true; there is no runtime cost.

Release profile. cargo build --release produces

panic = "abort" — any Rust panic inside an extern "C" fn will SIGABRT the host. Use --profile release-ffi to get the correct panic = "unwind" profile. CI enforces this.

Last-error lifetime. Pointers returned by ad_last_error_*

remain valid across any number of subsequent *successful* FFI calls on the same thread. Only the next failing call rotates them. Cache the pointer once, read it as many times as you need.

Handle release. Every ad_resolve_element result must be

released with ad_free_handle(adapter, handle) on the same adapter that produced it. On macOS this balances the internal CFRetain; on Windows/Linux the call is a no-op but safe to issue.

Enum discriminants. Every #[repr(i32)] enum field is validated

at the C boundary — invalid discriminants return AD_RESULT_ERR_INVALID_ARGS instead of undefined behavior.

ABI is unstable before 1.0. The header lists the exact current

shapes. Anything added or reordered in a later patch is a breaking change; pin the version of libagent_desktop_ffi you link against.

ad_get_tree returns a raw adapter tree, not the CLI snapshot.

Ref IDs are always null, no skeleton/drill-down pipeline is wired through, and interactive_only / compact follow adapter semantics which may diverge slightly from the CLI's post-processed shape. Use ad_find + ad_get / ad_is for point lookups, or invoke the CLI if you need CLI-parity JSON snapshots.