serumalt/Source/plugin/AGENTS.md

plugin module

Related source files

This directory contains guidance; the implementation remains in ../PluginProcessor.h and ../PluginProcessor.cpp.

Rules

• Keep this the JUCE AudioProcessor boundary: APVTS, engine, RAVE, presets and state.
• Declare the full parameter layout in createParameterLayout().
• Use juce::ScopedNoDenormals in processBlock.
• Guard getRawParameterValue and getParameter results before dereferencing them.
• Return silently on null or invalid state XML and invalid ValueTrees.
• Use raw new only for JUCE-owned objects (createEditor, createPluginFilter).
• Hold the engine control lock across preset and state changes; preserve parameter IDs and normalized values for saved-project compatibility.
• Factory presets reset sound parameters before applying overrides, while preserving UI scale.
• Save one copy of each custom state section. LFO shape arrays are stored as JSON text inside XML.
• RAVE is an ordinary parameter that enables a render-time boost; it does not rewrite other parameters.

IF-THEN

• IF state XML is null or invalid THEN return without touching the APVTS.
• IF a parameter is missing from a preset load THEN skip it with an if (auto* param = ...) guard.

Examples

// BAD: dereferences a possibly null XML result
auto xml = getXmlFromBinary (data, size);
auto state = juce::ValueTree::fromXml (*xml);

// GOOD: null guard, silent return
std::unique_ptr<juce::XmlElement> xml (getXmlFromBinary (data, size));
if (xml == nullptr)
    return;
juce::ValueTree state = juce::ValueTree::fromXml (*xml);
if (! state.isValid())
    return;

This file overrides /AGENTS.md where they conflict.