WORK-620
ID:WORK-620Status:done

A rune config may omit block

SPEC-145 D2a. A composed rune has no BEM block and ships no CSS, but it still needs an engine config: its modifiers, universal attributes and meta blocks have to render. Today RuneConfig.block is required. The engine builds ${prefix}-${config.block} unconditionally (packages/transform/src/engine.ts), so a config without one emits rf-undefined. A rune with no config at all leaks data-rune-fields into the HTML.

Make block optional:

Priority:highComplexity:moderateMilestone:v0.40.0Source:SPEC-145
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Criteria completion

Criteria completion: 4 of 4 (100%) checked; tracking started on Oct 8, no incremental history yet0%25%50%75%100%Oct 8Oct 11

Tracking started Oct 8 — check back for trends.

Relationships

Implements 1
Related 2
Branches 3
main current done
claude/v040-blockless-config doneclaude/post-v0.38-roadmap-jb7pie donemain done

Acceptance Criteria

  • RuneConfig.block is optional in packages/transform/src/types.ts, and no config without a block emits rf-undefined, asserted on a fixture config
  • A block-less config's root carries no rf-* class and no data-rune-fields; its modifiers render as data-* attributes and its universal attributes and meta blocks render as they would with a block
  • refrakt contracts describes a block-less entry by its data-* modifiers, with no BEM selectors
  • npm run seo:baseline:check and refrakt contracts --check report no drift on either contract copy

Resolution

Completed: 2026-10-08

Branch: claude/v040-blockless-config PR: refrakt-md/refrakt#678

What was done

  • packages/transform/src/types.ts: RuneConfig.block is optional, and its doc comment explains block-less configs.

  • packages/transform/src/engine.ts:

    • block is empty when the config has none. Facet modifier classes and BEM element classes are skipped, and an empty class attribute is omitted. Every other step still runs.
    • Diagnostics (requiresParent, interactive guest, cover sandbox) name the rune via data-rune (D2a point 5).

  • packages/transform/src/contracts.ts: RuneContract.block is optional. The new generateBlocklessContract emits:

    • root: [data-rune="…"];
    • data-* modifiers with no classPattern;
    • inline styles, universal axes without selectors, childOrder and variants.

    It emits no elements, context modifiers or static modifiers.

  • validate.ts and the CLI plugin-validate.ts: block is optional, but an empty one is still an error.

  • Guards for the other block consumers: used-css.ts, i18n-extract.ts, CLI inspect.ts (single audit, full audit, dimension audit), scaffold-css.ts, meta-audit.ts, format.ts, editor deriveChildRunes, the Lumina css-coverage and prominence-reach tests, and the create-refrakt scaffolded coverage test.

  • Tests: the new packages/transform/test/blockless-config.test.ts compares the same fixture config with and without a block. validate.test.ts was updated.

  • Docs: site/content/extend/theme-authoring/config-api.md.

  • Changeset: minor for @refrakt-md/transform and @refrakt-md/cli.

Notes

  • Contracts (both copies) and the SEO baseline show no drift, as the milestone table requires.
  • The spec held: the unconditional class build was at engine.ts:318.
  • contextModifiers and staticModifiers are class-only, so they are inert on a block-less config. This matches D2a point 3: theming goes through the primitives' own context modifiers.
  • The editor's deriveChildRunes names child runes by block. A block-less child rune is left out of that set. It is not reachable today.
  • Slot names in block-less contracts are deferred to WORK-622, per the work item.