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mobilecritical PriorityID: cmp-skiko-metal-vulkan-lifecycle-reclamation

Compose Multiplatform Skiko GPU Canvas Lifecycle & Context Reclamation

Enforces deterministic teardown and reclamation of Skiko native GPU graphics contexts (Metal on iOS, Vulkan/OpenGL on Android) during mobile app backgrounding transitions. Prevents fatal GPU driver aborts (e.g., Metal command buffer invalidation, Vulkan out-of-date swapchains) and native memory leaks in custom Compose Multiplatform Skia/Canvas drawing pipelines.

Prohibited Anti-Pattern: Retaining active Skia GrDirectContext, native GPU surfaces, or unmanaged RenderTargets across app suspension cycles

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---
description: Compose Multiplatform Skiko GPU Canvas Lifecycle & Context Reclamation - Enforces deterministic teardown and reclamation of Skiko native GPU graphics contexts (Metal on iOS, Vulkan/OpenGL on Android) during mobile app backgrounding transitions. Prevents fatal GPU driver aborts (e.g., Metal command buffer invalidation, Vulkan out-of-date swapchains) and native memory leaks in custom Compose Multiplatform Skia/Canvas drawing pipelines.
globs: **/src/**/commonMain/**/*.kt, **/src/**/iosMain/**/*.kt, **/src/**/androidMain/**/*.kt
alwaysApply: true
verified_by: "agentrules.org"
license: "CC-BY-4.0"
source: "https://agentrules.org/rules/cmp-skiko-metal-vulkan-lifecycle-reclamation"
---

# Compose Multiplatform Skiko GPU Canvas Lifecycle & Context Reclamation

> **Severity**: CRITICAL | **Category**: mobile
> **Anti-Pattern Warning**: Retaining active Skia GrDirectContext, native GPU surfaces, or unmanaged RenderTargets across app suspension cycles

## System Constraints
You are a Principal Mobile Architect specializing in Compose Multiplatform and low-level Skiko/Skia rendering engines. Mandate strict GPU context lifecycle management. Any custom drawing using Skiko's `org.jetbrains.skia.*` APIs or direct canvas operations must strictly register lifecycle observers to release, flush, and abandon GPU buffers (Metal `CAMetalLayer` resources and Vulkan/EGL surfaces) before transitioning to the background.

## Strict Guidelines
- Engineers MUST ALWAYS hook custom Skiko or Skia RenderTarget/DirectContext resources to the host OS lifecycle (LifecycleEventObserver on Android, UIApplicationDelegate/NSNotificationCenter on iOS).
- Engineers MUST NOT cache native `org.jetbrains.skia.Image`, `org.jetbrains.skia.Surface`, `org.jetbrains.skia.Picture`, or `org.jetbrains.skia.DirectContext` instances in static variables or long-lived Singletons across composition boundaries.
- Code SHOULD call `DirectContext.flush()` followed by `DirectContext.resetContext()` or scoped disposal when notified of `ON_STOP` (Android) or `UIApplicationDidEnterBackgroundNotification` (iOS).
- Services MUST ensure that drawing loops (e.g., custom CADisplayLink or Choreographer frames invoking Skiko drawing) are immediately halted prior to background state persistence.
- Components NEVER execute canvas rendering calls or submit GPU command buffers once the window or native view surface is detached or transitioned out of active visibility.

## Bad vs Good Implementations
### Unsafe GPU Context Retention vs. Lifecycle-Aware Skia Surface Reclamation

#### Bad Antipattern (AI Common Hallucination)
> **Why it fails**: Retaining native Metal or Vulkan contexts without listening to suspension events triggers GPU command buffer aborts or driver termination when the OS reclaims graphic memory in the background.
```kotlin
// Anti-pattern: Persistent Skia DirectContext and Native Surface held across suspension
class CustomGpuCanvasRenderer {
    private var directContext: DirectContext? = null
    private var surface: Surface? = null

    fun render(width: Int, height: Int) {
        if (directContext == null) {
            directContext = DirectContext.makeMetal(contextPtr, queuePtr)
        }
        if (surface == null) {
            surface = Surface.makeRenderTarget(directContext!!, false, ImageInfo.makeN32Premul(width, height))
        }
        // Renders directly without tracking app backgrounding.
        // Crashes with Metal execution aborted (0000000e:kIOGPUCommandBufferCallbackErrorSubmissionsIgnored)
        // or Vulkan VK_ERROR_OUT_OF_DATE_KHR on resume.
        surface!!.canvas.clear(Color.WHITE)
    }
}
```

#### Production Standard (Correct)
> **Standard**: Properly destroys native surfaces and releases the DirectContext when the app moves to the background, preventing context corruption, OOM crashes, and GPU watchdog terminations upon resume.
```kotlin
// Production standard: Deterministic Lifecycle-Bound Native Reclamation
class CustomGpuCanvasRenderer : AutoCloseable {
    private var directContext: DirectContext? = null
    private var surface: Surface? = null
    private var isSuspended = false

    fun onPauseOrBackground() {
        isSuspended = true
        // Flush pending work and abandon direct context to release GPU textures/swapchains
        surface?.close()
        surface = null
        directContext?.flush()
        directContext?.abandon()
        directContext?.close()
        directContext = null
    }

    fun onResume() {
        isSuspended = false
    }

    fun render(width: Int, height: Int, contextFactory: () -> DirectContext) {
        if (isSuspended) return
        if (directContext == null) {
            directContext = contextFactory()
        }
        if (surface == null) {
            surface = Surface.makeRenderTarget(directContext!!, false, ImageInfo.makeN32Premul(width, height))
        }
        surface?.canvas?.let { canvas ->
            canvas.clear(Color.WHITE)
            directContext?.flush()
        }
    }

    override fun close() {
        onPauseOrBackground()
    }
}
```
Recommended MCP Servers (mcp-serverlist.com)

Equip agent with system tools to verify code for this stack.

Mobile Native Memory Leak Inspector
Analyzes native memory mappings and detects cross-compilation reference leaks between Kotlin/Native and iOS/Android graphics runtimes.
Recommended Agent Skills (askills.dev)

Ready-to-use executable skill functions tailored to this stack.

Skiko Native Symbol Audit
Scans Kotlin Multiplatform codebases for unclosed Skiko/Skia disposable instances and missing lifecycle hooks.
Architectural Specification & Invariant Rationale

Architectural Invariant Design: Compose Multiplatform Skiko GPU Canvas Lifecycle & Context Reclamation

Compose Multiplatform Skiko GPU Canvas Lifecycle & Context Reclamation defines an industrial-grade behavioral standard for mobile engineering. Enforces deterministic teardown and reclamation of Skiko native GPU graphics contexts (Metal on iOS, Vulkan/OpenGL on Android) during mobile app backgrounding transitions. Prevents fatal GPU driver aborts (e.g., Metal command buffer invalidation, Vulkan out-of-date swapchains) and native memory leaks in custom Compose Multiplatform Skia/Canvas drawing pipelines. Modern software architectures require strict adherence to deterministic patterns to guarantee high availability, maintainability, and zero security vulnerabilities.

Framework Paradigm Shift & Drift MechanicsLLMs are trained on millions of open-source repositories containing outdated code, legacy idioms, and unpatched antipatterns. When coding assistants generate implementations for this stack, they default to common statistical tokens: Retaining active Skia GrDirectContext, native GPU surfaces, or unmanaged RenderTargets across app suspension cycles Without an explicit system instruction file, developers spend hours debugging silent failures.
Failure Modes & Production Blast Radius

Hazard Analysis: What Breaks Without This Rule

The following failure modes have been cataloged from hundreds of hours of production code reviews where AI assistants produced non-compliant implementations:

Failure ModeAI Symptom (The Anti-Pattern)SeverityProduction Impact & Remedy
AI Hallucination & Deprecation DriftRetaining active Skia GrDirectContext, native GPU surfaces, or unmanaged RenderTargets across app suspension cyclesCritical
Violating this industrial standard introduces regression bugs, security risks, and unexpected runtime failures in production.
Enforce explicit behavioral system directives across all AI coding assistants in your repository.
Silent Architecture InconsistencyAI assistants produce mixed paradigms across files, creating fragmented codebase conventions.Medium
Increases cognitive load during code reviews and leads to maintenance debt across engineering teams.
Pin project conventions in .cursor/rules, CLAUDE.md, and AGENTS.md so all team agents follow identical guardrails.
Architectural Directives in Detail

Step-by-Step Production Directives

Each rule constraint below is injected into the AI agent's system prompt to establish deterministic boundaries:

1

Engineers MUST ALWAYS hook custom Skiko or Skia RenderTarget/DirectContext resources to the host OS lifecycle (LifecycleEventObserver on Android, UIApplicationDelegate/NSNotificationCenter on iOS).

Engineers MUST ALWAYS hook custom Skiko or Skia RenderTarget/DirectContext resources to the host OS lifecycle (LifecycleEventObserver on Android, UIApplicationDelegate/NSNotificationCenter on iOS).

Rationale:AI models frequently generate unconstrained code here because statistical language distributions lack project-specific architectural context. Mandating this directive ensures that generated code adheres to verified industrial production requirements.
Enforcement:Integrated into the Agent Pack rule file. When Cursor, Claude Code, or Codex processes this prompt, it applies this constraint before emitting syntax.
2

Engineers MUST NOT cache native `org.jetbrains.skia.Image`, `org.jetbrains.skia.Surface`, `org.jetbrains.skia.Picture`, or `org.jetbrains.skia.DirectContext` instances in static variables or long-lived Singletons across composition boundaries.

Engineers MUST NOT cache native `org.jetbrains.skia.Image`, `org.jetbrains.skia.Surface`, `org.jetbrains.skia.Picture`, or `org.jetbrains.skia.DirectContext` instances in static variables or long-lived Singletons across composition boundaries.

Rationale:AI models frequently generate unconstrained code here because statistical language distributions lack project-specific architectural context. Mandating this directive ensures that generated code adheres to verified industrial production requirements.
Enforcement:Integrated into the Agent Pack rule file. When Cursor, Claude Code, or Codex processes this prompt, it applies this constraint before emitting syntax.
3

Code SHOULD call `DirectContext.flush()` followed by `DirectContext.resetContext()` or scoped disposal when notified of `ON_STOP` (Android) or `UIApplicationDidEnterBackgroundNotification` (iOS).

Code SHOULD call `DirectContext.flush()` followed by `DirectContext.resetContext()` or scoped disposal when notified of `ON_STOP` (Android) or `UIApplicationDidEnterBackgroundNotification` (iOS).

Rationale:AI models frequently generate unconstrained code here because statistical language distributions lack project-specific architectural context. Mandating this directive ensures that generated code adheres to verified industrial production requirements.
Enforcement:Integrated into the Agent Pack rule file. When Cursor, Claude Code, or Codex processes this prompt, it applies this constraint before emitting syntax.
4

Services MUST ensure that drawing loops (e.g., custom CADisplayLink or Choreographer frames invoking Skiko drawing) are immediately halted prior to background state persistence.

Services MUST ensure that drawing loops (e.g., custom CADisplayLink or Choreographer frames invoking Skiko drawing) are immediately halted prior to background state persistence.

Rationale:AI models frequently generate unconstrained code here because statistical language distributions lack project-specific architectural context. Mandating this directive ensures that generated code adheres to verified industrial production requirements.
Enforcement:Integrated into the Agent Pack rule file. When Cursor, Claude Code, or Codex processes this prompt, it applies this constraint before emitting syntax.
5

Components NEVER execute canvas rendering calls or submit GPU command buffers once the window or native view surface is detached or transitioned out of active visibility.

Components NEVER execute canvas rendering calls or submit GPU command buffers once the window or native view surface is detached or transitioned out of active visibility.

Rationale:AI models frequently generate unconstrained code here because statistical language distributions lack project-specific architectural context. Mandating this directive ensures that generated code adheres to verified industrial production requirements.
Enforcement:Integrated into the Agent Pack rule file. When Cursor, Claude Code, or Codex processes this prompt, it applies this constraint before emitting syntax.
Technical Questions & Answers

Frequently Asked Technical Questions

Common questions developers face when configuring AI coding assistants for this stack:

Q:Why is Compose Multiplatform Skiko GPU Canvas Lifecycle & Context Reclamation critical for AI coding assistants?

Enforces deterministic teardown and reclamation of Skiko native GPU graphics contexts (Metal on iOS, Vulkan/OpenGL on Android) during mobile app backgrounding transitions. Prevents fatal GPU driver aborts (e.g., Metal command buffer invalidation, Vulkan out-of-date swapchains) and native memory leaks in custom Compose Multiplatform Skia/Canvas drawing pipelines. Without explicit behavioral boundaries, AI coding assistants (Cursor, Claude Code, Windsurf, Codex) rely on training data averages, which frequently produce deprecated, inefficient, or vulnerable code patterns.

Q:How does adopting this rule prevent AI hallucinations?

This rule explicitly declares what the AI must avoid (Retaining active Skia GrDirectContext, native GPU surfaces, or unmanaged RenderTargets across app suspension cycles) and prescribes verified positive examples. Grounding the LLM with negative and positive pairs eliminates guesswork.

Q:Which AI coding environments are supported?

This specification is multi-platform compatible: Cursor (.cursor/rules/*.mdc & .cursorrules), Anthropic Claude Code (CLAUDE.md), Windsurf (.windsurfrules), Codex / Cline (AGENTS.md), and GitHub Copilot (.github/copilot-instructions.md).

Q:Can I combine this rule with other technology stacks?

Yes. Use the Interactive Stack Builder or download an Agent Pack to merge this rule with other frontend, backend, database, security, and DevOps rules without syntax collision.

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