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ADR 0008: Vendor products integrate through host adapters

Document status: accepted. Canonical source.

Decision delegated to research on 2026-08-30. Evidence: nuif:research:figma-plugin-and-rest-api-as-automation-surface, nuif:research:figma, and nuif:research:adobe-uxp-host-integration.

ADR 0012 amends clauses 5 and 8 for the active vendor priority: Affinity is the desktop interchange target and Canva is the programmable adoption target. The Adobe clauses below remain the historical decision and prior-art record.

Context

The native NUIF editor is a reference implementation and conformance tool. It is not a plug-in runtime for every design product. Figma and Adobe applications already own their document stores, undo systems, permissions, extension runtimes and distribution channels. Embedding the NUIF editor executable would duplicate the host shell and would not provide access to the host document.

Source adapters use byte spans because they synchronize retained source. Host APIs expose objects and properties instead of source bytes, so they require a different correspondence record and evidence report.

Decision

  1. A vendor product integrates NUIF through a host adapter that maps its public object API to canonical NUIF documents and operations. It does not embed the NUIF editor application.
  2. nuif-adapter::HostAdapterReport is the common evidence envelope for API hosts. It records profile, direction, host/API versions, optional host revision, canonical hash, host-object correspondence, fidelity and unmapped-data preservation.
  3. Every host and product has a separately versioned bounded profile. “Figma” and “Adobe” are not fidelity claims by themselves.
  4. Figma uses a user-run TypeScript/JavaScript Plugin API bridge with dynamic page loading. The default package has no network access. UI-frame file transfer and host-object mutation are separate message channels.
  5. Adobe UXP delivery is one .ccx package per supported host. The initial profile targets InDesign. Photoshop is separate and performs all mutations inside one executeAsModal transaction. Illustrator remains unclaimed until its current public SDK and package contract are researched and tested.
  6. Host correspondence uses host object identifiers plus namespaced NUIF metadata when the host documents such persistence. Duplicate or missing persisted identifiers are repaired with new NUIF identifiers and reported; silent identity reuse is forbidden.
  7. Vendor plug-in versions are independent of the native editor version. A plug-in declares the NUIF profile/spec revisions it supports and runs the same checked-in fixtures before publication.
  8. GitHub Actions may build and retain review artifacts. Publication into Figma Community or Adobe Marketplace remains a separately authenticated, host-governed release step.

Consequences

  • Vendors can adopt NUIF without adopting the reference editor UI or Rust.
  • API and source adapters share fidelity semantics while using correspondence appropriate to their medium.
  • A credential-free repository can test pure mapping logic and checked-in host snapshots, but live-host claims require the named host/version evidence.
  • Marketplace identifiers, approvals and publisher accounts remain outside the repository and cannot be inferred from a GitHub release.