TextForge

A modular, UI-agnostic rich document creation and PDF generation engine.

Overview • Architecture • Key Features • Repository Structure • Tech Stack • Installation • Usage • License

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Overview

TextForge is a modular, UI-agnostic rich document creation and PDF generation engine. It is built around a strict separation between a pure, deterministic document engine (TextForge.Core) and the client interfaces that consume it (TextForge.Desktop, with Web and Mobile clients planned).

This separation means the same document domain models, layout logic, and PDF compilation pipeline can power a desktop app today and a WASM or MAUI client tomorrow — without duplicating a single line of business logic.

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Architecture

TextForge enforces a one-directional dependency: client interfaces depend on the core engine, never the other way around. TextForge.Core has zero UI framework dependencies and is fully deterministic, stateless, and platform-agnostic.

                        ┌───────────────────────────────┐
                        │          TextForge.Core        │
                        │  (Pure Document Domain Engine)  │
                        │                                 │
                        │  • Document / Section / Module   │
                        │    domain models                │
                        │  • Layout & typography tokens     │
                        │  • Validation & schema rules       │
                        │  • Serialization routines           │
                        │  • QuestPDF compilation pipeline     │
                        │                                       │
                        │  Zero UI dependencies · deterministic │
                        │  stateless · platform-agnostic        │
                        └───────────────┬───────────────────────┘
                                        │
                     depended on by (never the reverse)
                                        │
        ┌───────────────────────────────┼────────────────────────────────┐
        │                               │                                │
        ▼                               ▼                                ▼
┌───────────────────┐        ┌────────────────────┐          ┌─────────────────────┐
│  TextForge.Desktop │        │   TextForge.Web      │          │  TextForge.Mobile     │
│  (Avalonia UI)      │        │   (planned · WASM)    │          │  (planned · MAUI)      │
│                     │        │                        │          │                        │
│ • Activity Bar       │        │  Browser-based client   │          │  Native mobile client   │
│ • Module Tree         │        │  reusing Core engine      │          │  reusing Core engine     │
│ • Active Module Editor │        │  via WebAssembly            │          │  via .NET MAUI             │
│ • Live Viewport         │        └────────────────────┘          └─────────────────────┘
│ • Property Inspector     │
└───────────────────────────┘

Layer boundaries:

Layer	Responsibility
TextForge.Core	Pure document domain models, QuestPDF compilation engine, PDF pipeline, validation, schema definitions, serialization. No UI framework dependencies.
TextForge.Desktop	Cross-platform desktop interface (Avalonia UI + CommunityToolkit MVVM). Multi-zone workspace, system shell integrations.

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Key Features

• Modular Block Composition — Build documents from composable, structured content modules.
• Live Layout Preview — Real-time visual feedback as document content and structure change.
• Deterministic PDF Generation — High-fidelity, reproducible document compilation powered by QuestPDF.
• Cross-Platform — Runs natively on Windows, macOS, and Linux via Avalonia UI.
• UI-Agnostic Extensibility — Core engine is ready to power future Web (WASM) and Mobile (MAUI) clients without logic duplication.

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Repository Structure

TextForge/
├── assets/
│   ├── branding/            # SVG logos (logo-dark.svg, logo-light.svg), icon.png
│   └── icons/                # Multi-res app-icon.ico, .icns, favicon.ico
├── src/
│   ├── TextForge.Core/       # Domain models, QuestPDF compilation pipeline
│   └── TextForge.Desktop/    # Avalonia UI shell, Views, ViewModels
├── tests/                    # Automated test suites
└── README.md

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Tech Stack

Component	Technology
Target Framework	.NET 10.0
Desktop UI Toolkit	Avalonia UI (v12.x) — Fluent Theme, Inter font
MVVM Framework	CommunityToolkit.Mvvm (v8.x)
PDF Compilation Engine	QuestPDF

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Installation

Prerequisites

• .NET 10.0 SDK or later
• Git

Steps

# 1. Clone the repository
git clone https://github.com/ahmdkaml/TextForge.git
cd TextForge

# 2. Restore dependencies
dotnet restore

# 3. Build the solution
dotnet build

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Usage

Run the desktop client directly from the repository root:

dotnet run --project TextForge.Desktop

This launches the Avalonia-based desktop workspace, giving you access to the Activity Bar, Document Outline / Module Tree, Active Module Editor, Live Viewport, and Property Inspector.

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Desktop Workspace

TextForge.Desktop presents a multi-zone productivity workspace:

• Activity Bar — primary navigation between workspace modes.
• Document Outline / Module Tree — hierarchical view of document structure and modules.
• Active Module Editor — focused editing surface for the currently selected module.
• Live Viewport / Rendered Preview Host — real-time rendered preview of the compiled document.
• Contextual Property Inspector — inspect and edit properties of the active selection.

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Roadmap

• TextForge.Web — Blazor/WASM client reusing TextForge.Core
• TextForge.Mobile — .NET MAUI client reusing TextForge.Core
• Plugin/extension system for custom modules
• Template marketplace

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Contributing

Contributions are welcome. Please open an issue to discuss significant changes before submitting a pull request.

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License

This project is licensed under the MIT License. See the LICENSE file for details.

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_{Built with .NET, Avalonia UI, and QuestPDF.}