Audit Swiftui Liquid Glass

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name: audit-swiftui-liquid-glass description: Audit macOS SwiftUI liquid glass for correctness, current APIs, and production conventions. Use for that domain or as part of a full audit.

Bundled resource root

Let <swiftui-plugin-root> be the absolute plugin directory two levels above this SKILL.md. Resolve that path before running commands or opening shared references. When these instructions say swiftui-ctx, invoke <swiftui-plugin-root>/scripts/swiftui-ctx; do not assume the command is on PATH.

Audit SwiftUI Liquid Glass

AUDIT-ONLY · macOS-only · SwiftUI-only. Run this on a finished or in-progress macOS SwiftUI project to detect — and where certain, fix — every way Liquid Glass goes wrong on a macOS 26 (Tahoe) target: hallucinated names, wrong-layer placement, glass-on-glass, missing containers, missing/wrong availability gates, scroll-edge traps, re-glassed free chrome, and broken morphs. Findings are written to disk in the toolkit's unified schema; certain mechanical defects are fixed under the fix-safety protocol. This is never a from-scratch glass generator.

Liquid Glass is the toolkit's highest API-hallucination domain (the API shipped at WWDC25, after most training data). Be suspicious wherever AI wrote glass code.

Boundary / seam note (stay in lane)

• AppKit NSGlassEffectView / NSGlassEffectContainerView are out of scope. If audited code reaches for an AppKit glass surface, note it in one line and point to the future audit-appkit-liquid-glass skill — do not audit AppKit glass here.
• Materials (.ultraThinMaterial etc.) and Dark-Mode contrast belong to audit-swiftui-appearance-color — except where a material is the pre-26 fallback for a gated glass call (that stays here).
• The blanket "is every OS-floored API gated" sweep belongs to audit-swiftui-availability-gating; this skill owns glass gating in depth and defers non-glass gating there.

The three non-negotiable design rules

1. Navigation layer only — never content. Glass goes on toolbars/floating controls/sidebars, never on rows, cells, cards, text, images, charts, or full-screen backgrounds.
2. Never glass-on-glass. Glass can't sample glass; one glass layer over plain content.
3. Group siblings in a GlassEffectContainer. Ungrouped siblings sample independently → mismatched blur/tint, extra render passes, no morphing.

The placement test: remove the element — lost the ability to navigate/act → navigation layer (glass OK); lost information → content (glass wrong). Full reasoning + the placement-map artifact: references/design-rules-and-placement.md.

Defect index (glass-01 … glass-18)

id · tell · severity · fix · open reference. Severities: hard-fail (build break / never-correct), warning (compiles but non-native), advisory (judgment / perf). auto = mechanical single-answer fix; flag = show the ✅, dev applies.

id	One-line tell	Sev	Fix	Reference
glass-01	.glassBackground() / .liquidGlass() / LiquidGlassView / .material(.glass) / .background(.glass)	hard-fail	auto	glass-api-surface.md
glass-02	.glassBackgroundEffect() on a Mac target (visionOS-only)	hard-fail	auto	glass-api-surface.md
glass-03	.glassEffect() on content — List/ForEach/Table row, card, Text, Image	warning	flag	design-rules-and-placement.md
glass-04	two+ .glassEffect( nested/stacked (glass-on-glass)	warning	flag	design-rules-and-placement.md
glass-05	two+ sibling glass in one stack, no GlassEffectContainer	warning	flag	design-rules-and-placement.md
glass-06	a glass symbol ungated under a deployment target < macOS 26	warning	flag	availability-gating-glass.md
glass-07	#available(iOS 26, *) gating glass in a macOS target (wrong arm)	warning	auto	availability-gating-glass.md
glass-08	.regular and .clear mixed in one group	warning	flag	design-rules-and-placement.md
glass-09	two+ .tint( / .glassProminent among sibling glass (tint spam)	warning	flag	design-rules-and-placement.md
glass-10	.glassEffect() hand-applied to auto-adopting chrome (toolbar/sidebar/sheet)	warning	flag	chrome-and-scroll-edges.md
glass-11	leftover .toolbarBackground(.visible) / .toolbarColorScheme(_:) blocks glass	warning	auto	chrome-and-scroll-edges.md
glass-12	TextEditor in a NavigationSplitView detail → opaque toolbar	warning	flag	chrome-and-scroll-edges.md
glass-13	.glassEffect() + .background(.ultraThinMaterial) (double transparency)	advisory	flag	chrome-and-scroll-edges.md
glass-14	hand-rolled glass button instead of .buttonStyle(.glass)	advisory	flag	design-rules-and-placement.md
glass-15	Tab(...) adopted, selection on @State not @SceneStorage	advisory	flag	migration-and-morphing.md
glass-16	backward-compat LabelStyle kept at a macOS-26 floor	advisory	auto	migration-and-morphing.md
glass-17	glassEffectID morph missing a condition (container / namespace / animation / conditional render)	advisory	flag	migration-and-morphing.md
glass-18	glassEffectUnion siblings differ in shape / variant / tint	advisory	flag	migration-and-morphing.md

Three claims are UNVERIFIED — carry as advisory with the flag, never assert as fact (each is flagged in its reference + becomes source: verify against Xcode 26 SDK): the macOS scroll-edge default style (.hard-vs-.soft); the constrained-TextEditor opaque-toolbar pitfall (glass-12); the double-transparency crash (glass-13).

The real API, at a glance

Real (exist on macOS 26.0+): glassEffect(_:in:), GlassEffectContainer, .buttonStyle(.glass) / .glassProminent, Glass + .regular / .clear / .identity / .interactive(_:) / .tint(_:), glassEffectID(_:in:), glassEffectUnion(id:namespace:), glassEffectTransition(_:), backgroundExtensionEffect(), scrollEdgeEffectStyle(_:for:), scrollEdgeEffectHidden(_:for:), ToolbarContent.sharedBackgroundVisibility(_:). Glass.interactive(_:) is macOS 26.0+ and pointer-driven on the Mac — NOT iOS-only; never flag it as invented or iOS-only.

Hallucinated (never exist): .glassBackground(), .liquidGlass(), LiquidGlassView, .material(.glass), .background(.glass), GlassContainer, .buttonStyle(.liquidGlass). Real-but-platform-wrong: .glassBackgroundEffect() (visionOS-only).

✅ Correct (grounded in shipping macOS-26 code, not a placeholder)

The corpus consensus shape for glassEffect is (_, in:) (62% of real call sites; next is (in:) at 17%). The canonical example below is the highest-authority real macOS-26 call site (sindresorhus/Gifski, 8.4k★) — verbatim from swiftui-ctx file ex_9ebe1b2ae8 --smart:

// Button("Open") { … }
//     .buttonStyle(.glass)             // free glass on the control
VStack { … }
    .padding(.horizontal)
    .glassEffect(.clear, in: .rect(cornerRadius: 56))   // consensus (_:in:) shape, gated implicitly by a macOS-26 floor
    .background { Image(.background).resizable().opacity(0.3) }

• Real call site (permalink): https://github.com/sindresorhus/Gifski/blob/7f873856e2acd8b52e6681dee3aec31e6cab23e4/Gifski/StartScreen.swift#L28
• Apple spec (Sosumi doc:): https://sosumi.ai/documentation/swiftui/view/glasseffect(_:in:) — confirms macOS 26.0+, matching floors-master.md.

Signatures, floors, and the full ❌→✅ rewrites: references/glass-api-surface.md. Floor values are the reconciled truth in <swiftui-plugin-root>/references/_shared/floors-master.md and the canonical invented-name list in <swiftui-plugin-root>/references/_shared/hallucination-blacklist.md — read, never restate them.

The 8-step audit workflow (execute verbatim)

1. ORIENT. tree / find the SwiftUI sources. Read the deployment target (project.pbxproj MACOSX_DEPLOYMENT_TARGET, or Package.swift platforms:). It is load-bearing: glass-06/07 fire only when the floor is below macOS 26. Record it.
2. LOCATE. Run the shared hybrid lint runner: bash <swiftui-plugin-root>/scripts/swiftui-lint.sh --skill audit-swiftui-liquid-glass --dir <sources> --json /tmp/glass.json --sarif /tmp/glass.sarif. It runs this skill's tier-1 grep tells (lint/grep-tells.tsv) + tier-2 structural ast-grep rules (lint/ast-grep/*.yml — the not-in-container/glass-on-glass/wrong-arm rules grep can't express), plus a per-file parse probe, and emits unified JSON + SARIF. Read its parse_warnings — a flagged file did not fully parse, so a structural miss can't masquerade as clean; READ those by hand. The runner only LOCATES — never treat a hit as a finding. Engine + rule-file format + degradation: <swiftui-plugin-root>/references/_shared/lint-architecture.md.
3. READ. Open every located file in full — never pattern-match-and-patch blind. Container nesting, cross-line ownership, and gate scope are invisible to grep. Build a per-file inventory: each glassed view + navigation-or-content (placement test) + its container + its gate.
4. DETECT. Apply the index. Assign each candidate a confidence; report a finding only at 100% certainty (e.g. a hallucinated name, an iOS gate arm, an ungated symbol under a <26 floor).
5. VERIFY. For anything ≤ ~70% confidence (a symbol you're unsure exists, a floor you can't place, a behavior claim), run both evidence sources. (a) Practice — bash <swiftui-plugin-root>/scripts/swiftui-ctx lookup <api> --json (and swiftui-ctx deprecated <api> for a currency/deprecation rule): read its consensus (the canonical shape), deprecated+replacement, recommended permalink, introduced_macos, and co_occurs_with; a lookup exit 3 (not-found, with a did-you-mean suggestion) corroborates a hallucination finding — no shipping Mac app uses the symbol. (b) Spec — confirm via Sosumi: curl -sSL https://sosumi.ai/<apple-path> using references/source-directory.md for the path and <swiftui-plugin-root>/references/_shared/sosumi-reference.md for the protocol (never WebFetch developer.apple.com). Cross-check introduced_macos against floors-master.md and the Sosumi doc: floor. The CLI contract is <swiftui-plugin-root>/references/_shared/swiftui-ctx-reference.md. Promote with the citation or discard. Carry the three UNVERIFIED items as advisory with source: verify against Xcode 26 SDK — never as fact.
6. REPORT. Write each confirmed finding (output contract below). One finding per file, zero-padded, ordered. Write the run's _index.md.
7. FIX. Apply corrections under the fix-safety protocol (<swiftui-plugin-root>/references/_shared/fix-safety-protocol.md): clean-tree gate, findings-first, only fix_mode: auto (glass-01/02/07/11/16), one conventional commit per finding citing its rule_id, never weaken a check. The ✅ "Correct" is not a hand-written snippet — it is the swiftui-ctx consensus shape put in ## Correct, backed by a real macOS-26 example fetched with bash <swiftui-plugin-root>/scripts/swiftui-ctx file <recommended.id> --smart whose GitHub permalink (plus the Sosumi doc:) goes in ## Source as the canonical example. Leave flag-only findings open with that ✅ in ## Correct.
8. DOUBLE-CHECK. Re-grep each fixed file to confirm the tell no longer matches; record the evidence in ## Fix applied?. Re-confirm every citation still resolves and still says macOS 26.0. If a fix introduced a new tell (e.g. a glassEffect you added now needs a gate), loop that file back to DETECT.

Confidence gating (load-bearing)

Report a finding only at 100% certainty. Anything ≤ ~70% goes to VERIFY (step 5) before it can become a finding — never emit a speculative finding. Auto-fix only the mechanical set (glass-01/02/07/11/16); everything else is fix_mode: flag-only.

Output contract

Inherits the toolkit's unified contract (full schema + body sections + frontmatter keys: <swiftui-plugin-root>/references/_shared/finding-schema.md — do not restate it). Specialized for this domain:

• Findings: swiftui-audits/liquid-glass/<context>/NN-slug.md (one finding per file, zero-padded, ordered). Per-run index: swiftui-audits/liquid-glass/_index.md.
• domain: liquid-glass. Frontmatter is the canonical schema; fix_mode is auto for glass-01/02/07/11/16, else flag-only. availability reads from floors-master.md. source is an Apple URL + access date (fetched via Sosumi) or verify against Xcode 26 SDK.

Starter <context> folders (file here when…):

<context>	File a finding here when…
hallucinated-api/	a name doesn't exist on macOS (glass-01) or a visionOS-only symbol on a Mac target (glass-02)
design-rules-navigation-layer/	glass sits on content — rows, cells, cards, text, images, charts, fields, backgrounds (glass-03)
glass-on-glass/	glass is stacked on glass (glass-04)
container-grouping/	sibling glass lacks a GlassEffectContainer, or a morph/union is mis-wired (glass-05, glass-17, glass-18)
availability-gating/	a glass symbol is ungated under a <26 floor, or gated on the iOS arm (glass-06, glass-07)
scroll-edge-effects/	the TextEditor opaque-toolbar trap or a scroll-edge legibility issue (glass-12)
chrome-auto-adoption/	free chrome is re-glassed, leftovers block glass, or variant/tint discipline breaks (glass-08, glass-09, glass-10, glass-11, glass-14)
migration/	Tab/@SceneStorage restoration, the auto-removable LabelStyle, or double-transparency (glass-13, glass-15, glass-16)

New-folder rule: if a finding does not fit any existing context folder, create a new one under swiftui-audits/liquid-glass/ with a lowercase-hyphen slug naming the sub-category, and note it in the run's _index.md. Prefer an existing folder when the fit is reasonable; consistency across runs is a hard requirement. Two runs over the same code produce structurally identical trees.

Go-beyond artifact (optional): swiftui-audits/liquid-glass/_placement-map.md classifying every glassed view as navigation/content with a container-coverage score — see references/design-rules-and-placement.md.

Reference routing

File	Open when
references/glass-api-surface.md	a name/signature/existence question — the real allow-list + hallucination ❌→✅ (glass-01/02)
references/design-rules-and-placement.md	placement, glass-on-glass, container grouping, variant/tint, hand-rolled buttons (glass-03/04/05/08/09/14) + the placement map
references/availability-gating-glass.md	glass gating depth, the wrong-arm trap, the pre-26 fallback choice (glass-06/07)
references/chrome-and-scroll-edges.md	auto-adoption, leftover-override removal, scroll edges, the TextEditor trap, double transparency (glass-10/11/12/13)
references/migration-and-morphing.md	Tab/@SceneStorage, @available(obsoleted:26) LabelStyle, morph/union wiring (glass-15/16/17/18)
references/source-directory.md	step VERIFY — the Apple/WWDC/practitioner source map fetched via Sosumi
lint/grep-tells.tsv + lint/ast-grep/*.yml	step LOCATE — this skill's declarative lint rule set fed to the shared runner (tier-1 grep tells + tier-2 structural ast-grep); edit here to tune detection

Shared toolkit references (point in, never restate):

Shared file	For
<swiftui-plugin-root>/references/_shared/floors-master.md	every floor/availability value (the reconciled truth)
<swiftui-plugin-root>/references/_shared/hallucination-blacklist.md	the canonical invented-name list
<swiftui-plugin-root>/references/_shared/macos-arm-gating.md	the macOS-arm gating rule + wrong-arm failure
<swiftui-plugin-root>/references/_shared/finding-schema.md	the unified finding schema + frontmatter keys
<swiftui-plugin-root>/references/_shared/fix-safety-protocol.md	the 8-point fix-safety protocol (step 7)
<swiftui-plugin-root>/references/_shared/sosumi-reference.md	the Apple-doc spec fetch protocol (step 5 VERIFY)
<swiftui-plugin-root>/references/_shared/swiftui-ctx-reference.md	the practice-corpus CLI contract — lookup/deprecated/file --smart for the consensus shape + permalinked example (steps 5 VERIFY · 7 FIX)
<swiftui-plugin-root>/references/_shared/cross-ref-graph.md	seam ownership + cross_ref targets

Detection accelerator

bash <swiftui-plugin-root>/scripts/swiftui-lint.sh --skill audit-swiftui-liquid-glass --dir <files-or-dir> [--json out.json] [--sarif out.sarif] — the toolkit's one shared hybrid lint engine, fed this skill's declarative rules: tier-1 grep tells (lint/grep-tells.tsv, glass-01/02/03/06/07/08/09/11/12/13/15/16/17/18)

• tier-2 ast-grep structural rules (lint/ast-grep/*.yml — glass-04 glass-on-glass, glass-05 not-in-container, glass-07 wrong-arm gate-scope) that grep cannot express. It runs a per-file parse probe (surfaces "did not fully parse" so a structural miss can't look clean), emits unified JSON + SARIF, exits 2 on any hard-fail (glass-01/02/06/07) for a CI gate, and degrades to grep-only with a notice if ast-grep is unreachable (npx --package @ast-grep/cli ast-grep; faster: brew install ast-grep). It only LOCATES — always READ each hit in full before reporting (step 3). The legacy scripts/glass-lint.sh is now a thin pointer to this runner. Engine + rule-file format + JSON/SARIF shape + safety rails: <swiftui-plugin-root>/references/_shared/lint-architecture.md.