Agent-Skills.md

Agent Skills: Titanium Alloy How-tos

Titanium Alloy CLI and configuration guide. Use when creating, reviewing, analyzing, or examining Alloy projects, running alloy commands (new, generate, compile), configuring alloy.jmk or config.json, debugging compilation errors, creating conditional views, using Backbone.Events for communication, or writing custom XML tags. AUTO-DETECT: If the project has app/views/ + app/controllers/ structure and the task involves Alloy CLI commands, project configuration, or build issues, invoke this skill first.

UncategorizedID: maccesar/titanium-sdk-skills/alloy-howtos
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pnpm dlx add-skill https://github.com/macCesar/titools/tree/HEAD/skills/alloy-howtos

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skills/alloy-howtos/SKILL.md

Skill Metadata

Name
alloy-howtos
Description
"Titanium Alloy CLI and configuration guide. Use when creating, reviewing, analyzing, or examining Alloy projects, running alloy commands (new, generate, compile), configuring alloy.jmk or config.json, debugging compilation errors, creating conditional views, using Backbone.Events for communication, or writing custom XML tags. AUTO-DETECT: If the project has app/views/ + app/controllers/ structure and the task involves Alloy CLI commands, project configuration, or build issues, invoke this skill first."

Titanium Alloy How-tos

Practical guide for Alloy MVC projects in the Titanium SDK.

Project detection

️ℹ️ Auto-detects Alloy projects This skill checks for Alloy projects when invoked and provides CLI and configuration guidance.

Detection is automatic. No manual command is needed.

Alloy project indicators:

  • app/ folder with Alloy structure
  • alloy.jmk or config.json files

Behavior based on detection:

  • Alloy detected -> Provide Alloy CLI command guidance, configuration file help, Alloy-specific troubleshooting
  • Not detected -> Explain this skill is for Alloy projects only and suggest Alloy guides if the user wants to migrate

Quick reference

| Topic | Reference | | -------------------------------------------- | ----------------------------------------------------------------------- | | Best Practices & Naming Conventions | best_practices.md | | CLI Commands (new, generate, compile) | cli_reference.md | | Configuration Files (alloy.jmk, config.json) | config_files.md | | Custom XML Tags & Reusable Components | custom_tags.md | | Debugging & Common Errors | debugging_troubleshooting.md | | Code Samples & Conditionals | samples.md |

Key practices

Naming conventions

  • Never use double underscore prefixes (__foo) - reserved for Alloy
  • Never use JavaScript reserved words as IDs

Global events - use Backbone.Events

Avoid Ti.App.fireEvent / Ti.App.addEventListener. It can cause memory leaks and poor performance.

Use the Backbone.Events pattern:

// In alloy.js
Alloy.Events = _.clone(Backbone.Events);

// Listener
Alloy.Events.on('updateMainUI', refreshData);
// Clean up on close
$.controller.addEventListener('close', () => {
    Alloy.Events.off('updateMainUI');
});

// Trigger
Alloy.Events.trigger('updateMainUI');

Global variables in non-controller files

Always require Alloy modules:

const Alloy = require('alloy');
const Backbone = require('alloy/backbone');
const _ = require('alloy/underscore')._;

Conditional views

Use if attributes in XML for conditional rendering (evaluated before render):

<Alloy>
    <Window>
        <View if="Alloy.Globals.isLoggedIn()" id="notLoggedIn">
             <Label text="Not logged in" />
        </View>
        <View if="!Alloy.Globals.isLoggedIn()" id="loggedIn">
            <Label text="Logged in" />
        </View>
    </Window>
</Alloy>

Conditional TSS styles:

"#info[if=Alloy.Globals.isIos7Plus]": {
    font: { textStyle: Ti.UI.TEXT_STYLE_FOOTNOTE }
}

Data-binding conditionals:

<TableViewRow if="$model.shouldShowCommentRow()">

Common error solutions

| Error | Solution | | --------------------------------------- | ------------------------------------------------------- | | No app.js found | Run alloy compile --config platform=<platform> | | Android assets not showing | Use absolute paths (prepend /) | | Alloy is not defined (non-controller) | Add const Alloy = require('alloy'); | | iOS invalid method passed to UIModule | Creating Android-only object - use platform attribute |

CLI quick reference

# New project
alloy new [path] [template]

# Generate components
alloy generate controller <name>
alloy generate model <name> <adapter> <schema>
alloy generate style --all

# Compile
alloy compile [--config platform=android,deploytype=test]

# Extract i18n strings
alloy extract-i18n en --apply

# Copy/move/remove controllers
alloy copy <old> <new>
alloy move <old> <new>
alloy remove <name>

Configuration files priority

config.json precedence: os:ios > env:production > global

Access at runtime: Alloy.CFG.yourKey

Custom XML tags

Create reusable components without widgets. Drop a file in app/lib/:

app/lib/checkbox.js

exports.createCheckBox = args => {
    const wrapper = Ti.UI.createView({ layout: "horizontal", checked: false });
    const box = Ti.UI.createView({ width: 15, height: 15, borderWidth: 1 });
    // ... build component, return Ti.UI.* object
    return wrapper;
};

view.xml

<CheckBox module="checkbox" id="terms" caption="I agree" onChange="onCheck" />

Key: the module attribute points to the file in app/lib/ (without .js). The function must be create<TagName>.

See custom_tags.md for complete examples.

Resources

references/

Reference docs by topic:

  • best_practices.md - Coding standards, naming conventions, global events patterns
  • cli_reference.md - All CLI commands with options and model schema format
  • config_files.md - alloy.jmk tasks, config.json structure, widget.json format
  • custom_tags.md - Creating reusable custom XML tags without widgets
  • debugging_troubleshooting.md - Common errors with solutions
  • samples.md - Controller examples, conditional views, data-binding patterns

Related skills

For tasks beyond Alloy CLI and configuration, use these related skills:

| Task | Use This Skill | | ---------------------------------------- | -------------- | | Modern architecture, services, patterns | ti-expert | | Alloy MVC concepts, models, data binding | alloy-guides | | SDK config, Hyperloop, app distribution | ti-guides |