CLAUDE.md#

Tips for future agents working in this repo.

Architecture#

matlab/
  solve_template.m the whole solve as ONE script — mip load -> import ->
                   resample -> surfaceop -> write result.json — with
                   {{PLACEHOLDER}} tokens for the parameters. The engine's
                   buildSolveScript fills them per solve, and the UI offers
                   the filled script for download any time a mesh is loaded
                   (before solving too — a solve might fail or hang). The
                   same script runs in desktop MATLAB with the converted
                   .msh alongside: via mip, or by commenting out the mip
                   line and putting surfacefun on the path.
src/mesh/          Pyodide + meshio upload pipeline (bridge.py runs in Pyodide)
src/engine/        run-per-solve wrapper over numbl/browser's
                   createNumblSession: solve() fills the template and boots
                   a fresh session with the script + mesh staged, reads
                   result.json back via session.readFile, and disposes the
                   worker. numbl owns the worker, VFS, mip bootstrap, and
                   IndexedDB package persistence; prewarm() at page load
                   triggers the one-time package download.
src/pde/presets.ts PDE definitions, presets, slow-mesh warning threshold
src/render/        three.js SurfaceView (mesh preview / solution) + parula
scripts/engine-test.mjs  headless Node check of the whole MATLAB pipeline

Key gotchas#

• numbl >= 0.4.12 from npm. Needs NumblSession.readFile (0.4.10), enumeration-class support and the 1×1-tensor broadcast-assignment fix (0.4.11 — surfacefun's surfacemesh.patchtype / dealm idiom depend on both), and the 1×1-tensor gather-orientation fix (0.4.12 — surfacefun's trianglepts recursion breaks without it; see numbl's test_scalar_tensor_vector_index_shape.m). To develop against a local numbl checkout, point package.json at file:../../numbl and run npm run build:lib && npm run build:browser there after source changes; when switching back to a ^ range, rm -rf node_modules package-lock.json && npm install (else npm ci fails on the stale file: link).
• surfacemesh.import needs MSH 4.1, one cell type. surfacefun's gmsh reader (+surfacemesh/+import/gmsh.m) parses MSH 4.1 node-entity blocks, not 2.2, and accepts triangle (type 2) or quad (type 3) elements — but errors on meshes containing both. src/mesh/bridge.py and scripts/make_samples.py write the canonical 4.1 form (one surface entity block, sequential 1-based ids); the bridge splits quads into triangles when an upload mixes the two kinds. Uploaded .msh files in other layouts pass through meshio and get rewritten to 4.1.
• Triangle patches are flat vectors, not grids. An order-p tri patch holds n(n+1)/2 points (n = p+1) in surfacefun's trianglepts(n) ordering; quad patches are column-major n-by-n grids. solve_template.m reports ptype plus points-per-edge n, and SurfaceView triangulates tri patches with a JS port of surfacefun's trilattice.m.
• Solve errors reject the solve() promise with the MATLAB error message (a failed script run is a numbl bootError). Each solve is a fresh session, so nothing needs to stay alive across failures.
• jsonencode collapses 1-element vectors to scalars. Patch arrays are at least (p+1)(p+2)/2 >= 6 long so it never bites here, but remember it when adding payload fields.
• Package caching: numbl/browser persists /system (mip + installed packages) in IndexedDB, wiped after 30 min of inactivity (numbl's default; lowered from 24 h so a rebuilt surfacefun package refreshes without a manual clear) — the prewarm session at page load re-downloads ~28 MB after a wipe; solves after that only pay a per-run mip load (~1 s). Delete the numbl-embed-system IndexedDB database to force a cold boot.

Testing#

• npm run engine-test — full headless solve in Node against the local numbl build (dist-lib), including a quantitative eigenfunction check. It fills and runs matlab/solve_template.m standalone per solve (as the browser does; the fill logic mirrors engine.ts's buildSolveScript), sharing one VFS across solves as the stand-in for IndexedDB persistence, and passes the mip search path explicitly, exercising the same searchPaths-scan behavior the numbl/browser session relies on. Downloads are cached in .cache/ keyed by URL; delete the cache to test fresh installs.
• python3 <venv>/bin/python with meshio 5.3.5 can exercise src/mesh/bridge.py outside Pyodide (redirect its /work constant).
• Browser verification (Pyodide upload path, session boot, IndexedDB persistence across reloads, 3D view) is manual: npm run dev.