Drawing Multica icons

Every icon in the product is a Multica drawing exported from @multica/ui/icons. No icon library is installed, and lint rejects imports from one. When you need a new symbol, draw it.

Before drawing

1. Search packages/ui/icons/index.ts for the name and for synonyms. If an existing glyph already means the same thing, add an alias to ALIASES in drawings.mjs instead of drawing a near-duplicate.
2. Pick a name that describes the symbol, not the feature (Webhook, not IntegrationsNav). Follow the existing PascalCase names.

Where things live

• packages/ui/icons/drawings/construction.mjs holds the shared geometry helpers.
• packages/ui/icons/drawings/drawings.mjs holds every drawing as inner SVG markup, plus ALIASES.
• packages/ui/icons/glyphs.ts and index.ts are generated. Never edit them by hand; icons.test.ts fails when they drift.

Construction

• Grid. 24×24 viewBox, with a 2px round-capped, round-joined stroke from the renderer. Keep geometry inside 2.5–21.5. Most silhouettes span 2.75–21.25. An object glyph whose longest side is under about 17 renders visibly smaller than its neighbours; only chevrons, X and similar marks stay small. Keep parallel strokes at least 3 apart so a gap survives at 14px. A stroke that crosses a shape, such as a pencil's cap line, ends exactly on the outline's centreline; the round cap pokes out if it runs past. When you scale or move a body, recompute these endpoints.

• Corners. Use shape([[x, y, k], ...]) and rect(x, y, w, h, k), which build continuous-curvature (squircle) corners. Typical k values:

  • 5–7 for large containers such as cards, windows and chat bubbles.
  • 2.5–4 for small parts.
  • 1–1.5 for tips and points.
  • 0 for a hard corner, which is rare.

  Do not hand-write a r r arc corners for rectangles.

• Anything that points. Chevrons, arrowheads, < > brackets, prompts and direction triangles (play, skip) turn at a sharp vertex: a straight polyline such as M9 6L15 12 9 18, or head(x, y, dir, depth, half) for an arrowhead with its tip at (x, y). Never round the tip with a curve or a k corner; the round stroke join is the only softening. The bend in a corner or U-turn arrow's shaft may stay rounded.

• Checks. Use tick(a, v, b): two straight strokes meeting at a tight vertex. Never bow a stroke through a curve where it should turn a corner; a check or any other angular mark drawn that way reads as handwriting.

• Dots. dot(x, y, r) with r 1.1–1.5. Use dots only where they carry meaning: info, alert, eyes, status lights.

• Polygons and stars. polygon(cx, cy, radii, count, k).

• Reuse parts. file(), folderBody, bubble, ring, user(), link, cw and ccw already exist. A variant (…Off, …Plus, …X) is the base drawing plus one stroke. A slash runs m3 3 18 18.

Body and details

• Mark the main closed silhouette with class="b" (body). The active sidebar item fills it at 20% opacity.
  • Any icon that can appear in navigation must have a body. A test enforces this for route icons.
  • Only mark closed shapes. An open arc with a fill closes into a stray chord.
• Mark strokes that sit inside the body with class="k" (detail).
• Detail budget. At most two inner details. Every detail must carry meaning: a check, a symbol, a divider that defines the object. Drop decorative highlights, extra lines and texture. Icons render at 14px in dense rows, where a third detail turns into noise.

Loop

1. Add the drawing to DRAWINGS in drawings.mjs. Keep sections grouped by subject.
2. Run pnpm --filter @multica/ui icons --preview NewName Neighbour1 Neighbour2. Open the printed HTML file in a browser and check four things:
   • At 48px: does the geometry sit on the grid, with even optical weight next to its neighbours?
   • At 18px and 14px: is it still legible, or do inner details merge?
   • In the tinted (active) tile: does only the silhouette fill?
   • Against similar glyphs: can it be told apart at a glance?
3. Run pnpm --filter @multica/ui icons to regenerate glyphs.ts and index.ts.
4. Import the new name from @multica/ui/icons. Then run pnpm --filter @multica/ui test and the typecheck for the package that uses it.