# docs/ai — index

Subsystems split out of [`ai.md`](../../ai.md) so a session pays only for the subsystem its task
touches. `ai.md` is now a **router** (what the product is, the architecture table, where truth
lives) and `AGENTS.md` carries the invariants that hold across all of them, so no rule is
reachable only from a file you forgot to open.

Read the file whose row matches the task. There is no required reading order.

| File | Covers | Read when |
|------|--------|-----------|
| [`frame-pipeline.md`](frame-pipeline.md) | Render budget & measurement (`FrameCadence`, per-element composite timing, scene dump), `SceneCompositor` design + `StripPool`, and `FramePump` from scene snapshot to encoder (pacing, pool/paste caches, backpressure, teardown, health stats) | Touching the compositor, the render loop, per-frame cost, `Services/Encoder/*`, or debugging dropped/juddering frames |
| [`capture.md`](capture.md) | The locked Background layer (screen/game/window capture, WinRT GraphicsCapture interop), the webcam seam + `CameraManager` sessions, MediaPipe background effects, and the vertical 9:16 tier's per-scene camera placement | Touching any frame source, the Background row, camera acquisition/conflicts, background effects, or vertical-tier camera geometry |
| [`output.md`](output.md) | The bundled `ffmpeg.exe` and the encoder subprocess (args, probe order, seams), local recording (REC/ON-AIR, filenames, private-broadcast close-out), and the WASAPI capture → filter → mix → named-pipe audio chain (TRAX, sync offset, ducking, limiter) | Touching ffmpeg args/bundling, encoder or recording behaviour, REC/ON-AIR, the audio mix and its meters, or loudness/sync problems |
| [`environment.md`](environment.md) | LAN hosts/IPs/SSH and the Gitea push recipe, the Windows `dotnet.exe` build + run commands, the test suite map, and the hermetic real-`MainWindow` test rule | Before building, running, adding a test, or reaching any box on the LAN |
| [`product.md`](product.md) | Brand/naming split, AI transparency, the GPL licensing prohibitions, the free-forever monetization posture, auth/account assumptions, and packaging/distribution | Branding, marketing, pricing, licensing, or packaging decisions |
| [`youtube-api.md`](youtube-api.md) | Go-live ordering + the broadcast-binding fix, the private-only lock, health parsing, end-stream pre-flight, Test mode, and chat-insert shape | Touching go-live, broadcast lifecycle, health polling, streaming close-out, or the chat service |
| [`overlays.md`](overlays.md) | The social bar, the native alert box (six animations, alert clip, ticker) and the chat box conventions — everything composited over the frame | Adding or changing anything drawn on top of the output |
| [`decisions.md`](decisions.md) | Retired paths with cause of death: the paid tier and pricing, Polar, Store IAP, the Store route, the deleted updater, the rejected monetization ideas, and the permanent out-of-product list | You are about to re-open a decision that was already settled |
| [`ui-surface.md`](ui-surface.md) | The control surface, scene strip, preview rail, hotkeys, broadcast drawer, toasts, transitions, brand logo, launch geometry, and the theme/properties-panel conventions | Changing anything the creator sees: layout, controls, theming, properties panel |

## Split-out yet to come

Nothing — `ai.md` is now a router with the always-read invariants; the subsystem detail lives here.