Tessera – Info Blocks That Snap Together for WoW Forever

Download: CurseForge · Wago · GitHub releases

Written by an AI (Claude) from my ideas; I test every version in game; no human reads the code line by line.

TL;DR: Gold, bags, FPS, Legacy points… in small blocks that snap together like mosaic tiles. Made by a player who can't code and an AI that can't play (yet). So I test it a lot.

Tessera is a World of Warcraft addon for WoW Forever that shows small information blocks (gold, bags, durability, FPS, latency, time, XP, quests...) and launcher blocks (minimap and addon compartment buttons). Each block can be styled and placed on its own, and blocks placed against each other merge into a single frame, like the tiles (tesserae) of a mosaic.

It only uses data provided by the game itself, and embeds no library. LibSharedMedia is used when another addon provides it, to offer that addon's fonts, backgrounds and borders, and LibDataBroker to exchange data with DataBroker addons.

Made for WoW Forever. I build and test Tessera on WoW Forever. Its own systems (Legacy, camping, Comprehension, PvP) are still young and may change, so a game update can break a block until Tessera catches up.

What makes it different?

• Blocks that snap together. Drag a block against another and they merge into one bar. Build a top bar, a column, a corner cluster, or keep each block on its own.
• Made for WoW Forever. Legacy points (next reward, challenges per category), Comprehension (with the scrolls in your bags), Camping (buffs and kit), Honor, weapon skills.
• One look for everything. Every block shares the same tooltips and the same style: Blizzard's look, FlareUI, ElvUI, EllesmereUI, or fantasy styles built from the game's own frames.
• In your language. English and French from day one, plus German, Spanish and Brazilian Portuguese.
• Looked after. Each version is tested in game, and your layouts carry over from one version to the next.
• Ready to stream. Streamer mode hides other players' names, your other characters, your guild's name and your gold in one click.
• DataBroker both ways. Show your other addons' DataBroker objects as blocks, or share Tessera's blocks with Titan Panel, Bazooka or Arcana (formerly ChocolateBar).

Why make Tessera when addons like it already exist?

I love bars like Arcana (formerly ChocolateBar) and Bazooka. I used Broker_Everything a lot, and I spent hours building small bars with a single piece of info each, to put them in just the right spot on my interface. My favorite was StatBlock Core by Funkeh: free-floating blocks, one per piece of info, that I could put anywhere. It hasn't been updated since 2022. And tooltips didn't look the same from one broker addon to the next, French was often missing, and many of those addons were no longer maintained.

When the WoW Forever beta came out, I came back to WoW and found FlareUI: an interface with a fantasy look, not a futuristic one. Seeing what players were building with AI's help, I wanted to try something: a small thing just for me, that did exactly what I asked for.

That's how Tessera was born. It was never meant to be published. I wanted to learn how it works when you start a GitHub repo from scratch and release an addon. Then I put it through more testing than I gave the Forever beta itself, and the ideas kept coming. Some are in Tessera today. Others are on the way (see below).

So I decided to make it available to as many players as I could. That meant watching closely what the AI does: the right WoW words in every language, and code checked with the tools real addon developers use.

Where it is going

Plans, not promises:

• Accessibility for players with disabilities: Tessera follows the game's own accessibility settings and only adds what its blocks need. From 1.3, every new feature is checked with text twice as big, in high contrast and without a mouse.
• Full gamepad support, built on WoW Forever's own gamepad mode: something I have never seen in a panel or DataBroker addon.
• An interface that sizes itself from its texts, so no translation or bigger text ever overflows a button.
• A language setting, to use Tessera in another language than your game client.

Screenshots

Demo mode (/tessera demo) shows every block at once with sample values. The same blocks in the 19 styles (FlareUI is shown with the addon installed; without their addon, the interface styles are an imitation):

Interface and Blizzard styles

Square, Clean and Transparent styles

Fantasy styles and styles made from the game's frames

English and French built in

About this project: how Tessera is made

Tessera is a collaboration between me, a player, and an AI.

Me (Braincell1980). I don't write code. Life never gave me the chance to learn programming, and AI now lets me give free rein to my addon ideas. I also use the AI to learn how things work and why (GitHub, CurseForge, WoW's Lua and its interface, what a clean release looks like), so I make the decisions myself and understand what goes into each version. What I do:

• I had the idea of Tessera and I decide what it does: every feature, block, option and layout comes from my requests or got my approval.
• I choose the look: styles, colors, layouts, names, what goes in the menus.
• I test a lot, on WoW Forever: every version, with strange experiments, unusual placements and odd setups, to find the problems before you do.
• I try to think ahead, for every kind of player: other interfaces, other screens, other languages, other habits.
• I run the in-game checks (debug versions) that show how WoW Forever works, and I report bugs with screenshots.
• I review the texts, the French translation and the help.
• I decide when a version goes out, and I manage the CurseForge and GitHub pages.

Claude (an AI by Anthropic) writes everything else, from my instructions:

• all the code of the addon (Lua), and the automatic tests that run it outside the game;
• the English and French texts: options, tooltips, help, changelog, this page;
• the release tools (GitHub workflows, CurseForge upload) and the debug versions;
• the logo (set in Outfit, a free font) and the banner images.

Thanks to Funkeh, whose StatBlock Core (free-floating DataBroker blocks, no longer updated since 2022) was my first inspiration for Tessera.

What this means for you. Automatic tests and my own testing in game check the code, but no human programmer has reviewed it line by line. Bugs can remain: please report them with /tessera bug. Developers are welcome to read the code (MIT license, in this repository) and to suggest improvements.

In short, Tessera's AI Code Rating is E4d: a maintainer who does not program, 76–100% of the code written by AI, changes tested but not read by a human (details in ACR.md). AI-DECLARATION.md gives the AI's part at each stage (design, code, tests, docs, review, release).

How I look after it

• I play WoW Forever and test each version in game before I release it.
• Your layouts, styles and profiles carry over from one version to the next. If a change ever has to break them, Tessera warns you and converts them. Export texts from older versions still import.
• On every change, GitHub runs automatic checks: static analysis, the API audit addon reviewers use, a check against WoW Forever's own function list, a full run of the addon in English and French, and a test of the Forever blocks against a changing game.
• Compatibility with other addons goes through public standards only (DataBroker, LibDBIcon, LibSharedMedia), never through their internals, so their updates don't break Tessera.
• WoW Forever's own systems are young and may change. If a game update breaks a block, tell me and I'll fix it.
• Tessera is free and open source (MIT license): every feature for everyone, no premium version, no paid extras. You can read it, change it and share it.

I can't promise how many years I'll keep this up. Today, this is how I run it.

At a glance

• Interface: 16001 (WoW Forever)
• Languages: English and French; German, Spanish (Spain and Mexico) and Brazilian Portuguese made by Claude, not reviewed yet; other languages through CurseForge's localization tool
• Saved variables: TesseraDB
• Optional addons it adapts to: FlareUI, EllesmereUI and ElvUI (a matching style is offered; blocks snap to the XP bar of FlareUI, ElvUI and GW2 UI, and Tessera warns when they cover frames of FlareUI, EllesmereUI, ElvUI or GW2 UI), LibSharedMedia-3.0, LibDBIcon-1.0, LibDataBroker-1.1 and DataBroker display addons (Titan Panel, Arcana (formerly ChocolateBar), Bazooka...)

For players

Copy the Tessera folder into the Interface/AddOns/ folder of your WoW Forever installation (or let CurseForge do it). Type /tessera (or /tes) to open the options; the Help tab inside the game explains everything.

Highlights

• Mosaic placement: place blocks anywhere; dropped against each other, they merge in every direction: a bar, a column, a corner, an L shape... Stick a bar to a screen edge and stretch it over the whole width, or start from a ready-made layout (among them "Double bar": the top bar and a second bar always shown with the WoW Forever blocks).
• Demo mode: every block at once, sorted by category, with sample values; a banner switches the styles (or shows them side by side, one per column: "Mixed styles") and hides the game's interface, for screenshots. Your layout comes back afterwards.
• Blocks made for WoW Forever's own systems, which can also be shared with DataBroker display addons (Titan Panel, Arcana (formerly ChocolateBar), Bazooka...):
  • Legacy points: your points, the next reward, every reward of the track and your Legacy challenges completed per category; a click opens the Legacy panel;
  • Comprehension: your scroll-reading skill and the scrolls in your bags; a click casts Scroll Comprehension;
  • Camping: time left on your camp buffs, or your campfire kit's cooldown; a click lights a campfire with the kit;
  • Honor: your honor points (PvP ranks in a later version);
  • weapon skills read from Forever's skill list; profession, talent and Legacy blocks that open Forever's own windows.
• More than 40 blocks in all: gold (with history and your characters' gold; Alt + right-click forgets a deleted character), bags (with junk value), durability (with the repair cost), FPS and latency (with graphs), local and server time, date, XP, rested XP, coordinates, zone and subzone, friends, guild, group, quests, reputation, currencies, professions (one block each, plus cooking, first aid and fishing), talent points, hearthstone, mail, whispers, class reagents, ammo, item level, speed, volume, addon memory, instances, played time, goal, mana regeneration, character stats (the stat of your choice), group loot (click: /roll), streamer mode...
• Streamer mode (General tab, a key binding or its block): for streams and videos, other players' names, your other characters, your guild's name and your gold show as ***.
• Blocks that have nothing to show hide themselves and keep their place (in the ready-made bars, they sit in the second row). A group stays exactly where you drop it: no automatic recentering.
• Merge blocks in every direction; undo, alignment guides, frozen groups, spacer blocks; groups fused, as tiles with joints, or separate.
• Replace a block in place: the arrows on a hovered block (placement mode) put another block exactly there, with the same look, without moving anything else; a shown block swaps places, and the spacers of the ready-made layouts can be filled this way. A cross hides the block.
• Per-block style, icons (same size, square or round frame, black and white), opacity, scale, progress bar, thresholds, show on hover, alerts, click actions, and how the value is shown (gold format, coin icons, rounding; bag slots; XP; durability; latency; seconds; decimals...).
• DataBroker tab: other addons' DataBroker objects as blocks ("Plugins as blocks"); Tessera's blocks shared with Titan Panel, Arcana (formerly ChocolateBar), Bazooka... ("Sharing and mode"); a DataBroker mode, on automatically when such an addon is installed (Tessera then shows nothing itself), that can be turned off to use both.
• Look tab: styles, how groups look, screen edges, ready-made layouts, blocks in front of or behind Blizzard's frames, and sharing, in one place, with shortcuts to the frame and text of all blocks.
• Round minimap button (click: options, right-click: lock / unlock, drag it around the minimap); with FlareUI, Tessera is in FlareUI's addon bag instead.
• 19 styles: matching FlareUI, ElvUI, EllesmereUI or Blizzard's look (also without that addon, as an imitation), Square styles, Clean, Transparent, fantasy styles (Runestone: text only, black and white; Grimoire; Parchment; Arcane) and styles made of the game's own frames (Royal seal, Ironforge, Runeblade, Ember, Sylvan).
• Profiles with export/import, ready-made layouts and an automatic dungeon/raid profile; accessibility options (bright or soft colors for values and class colors, or colorblind values; high contrast; minimum text size). Class color on the text, background, border, icon frame and lines.
• Share only a style or only a layout as text; the import lists what is missing on your computer (other addons' blocks, media, WoW Forever blocks) before applying anything.
• Tooltips your way: bigger or smaller, or only while holding Alt (General tab).
• A quick tour on first launch (again from the Help tab), where the ready-made layouts can be tried one after the other right on the screen, and a demo mode showing every block by category with sample values and a style switcher.
• In front of or behind Blizzard's frames: Tessera never moves them. When blocks cover some of them (action bars, minimap, buffs), you choose whether the blocks stay in front or behind; placement mode (and Blizzard's Edit Mode) can switch every block for a while to see what is underneath.

Command	Effect
/tessera	Open or close the options
/tessera lock, /tessera unlock	Lock the blocks, or unlock them to move them
/tessera reset	Reset everything: empties the saved variables, then reloads the interface
/tessera minimap	Show or hide the minimap button
/tessera preview	Sample values in every block (for screenshots)
/tessera demo	Demo mode: every block by category, sample values, style switcher (again to leave)
/tessera bug	Report to copy into a bug report
/tessera broker	DataBroker mode on or off
/tessera recover	Bring back blocks that stick out of the screen
/tessera help	The list of commands in the chat

Key bindings (show / hide all blocks, lock / unlock, options, streamer mode on / off) are in the game's key bindings, Tessera category.

When unlocked: drag a block to move it (or its whole group), drop it against another block to merge them, Shift + drag to detach it, the cross on a hovered block (or Ctrl + click) to hide it, its arrows to replace it with another block, Ctrl + Z to undo, right-click for the quick menu; a panel under the placement banner shows what you can do with the hovered block. When locked: hover for the tooltip, left-click to open the related game window, Shift + click to copy the value to the chat, right-click for the block's settings, Alt + right-click for the quick menu.

Reporting a bug: type /tessera bug, copy the report from the window that opens and paste it into a new issue (a template is provided), or in the comments of the CurseForge page.

For developers

The code is plain Lua with no build step and no embedded libraries. Every file starts with a header explaining its role, and the tricky parts (secure clicks, secret values, border seams) are commented in place. Start with the headers of Core.lua, Modules.lua and Merge.lua.

Files (in load order, see Tessera.toc)

File	Role
Locales/enUS.lua	English strings: the base table ns.L. Every key must exist here.
Locales/frFR.lua	French strings, override ns.L keys when the game is in French.
Core.lua	Shared namespace, frames of known interface addons (ns.KNOWN_UI_FRAMES), media lists, frame skinning, saved variables and profiles, block creation/styling/visibility/updates, mouse handlers, snapping, default layout, events, the shared update timer, slash commands, minimap button.
Themes.lua	The styles (FlareUI, EllesmereUI, ElvUI, Blizzard modern/classic, Square styles, Clean, Transparent, fantasy styles, styles made of the game's frames), the style offered when an interface is installed.
Merge.lua	Docking blocks into groups, group layout (sizes, equal heights/widths, shared widths, second row placed once, hidden blocks keeping their place), unlock-mode name tags, border seams and corner joins.
Placement.lua	Coordinates and scale, relative positions, undo, alignment guides, snapping to Blizzard frames, frozen groups, quick menu, click actions, key bindings.
Layers.lua	Blocks in front of or behind Blizzard's frames: which frames the blocks cover, the question when locking, the temporary switch of placement mode; Edit Mode copies left by older test versions (back to the player's layout, cleanup).
Profiles.lua	Profile export / import (compact text; older texts still read), style and layout sharing with the check of what is missing, duplicate, automatic dungeon / raid profile.
SecureClicks.lua	Invisible secure buttons over blocks, so clicks open Blizzard windows without tainting them.
Changelog.lua	Version history for the in-game About tab (Changelog topic), sorted by kind since 1.0.0 (new, improvements, fixes), in English and French only (not sent to CurseForge's translation tool) (lua5.1 tools/changelog_md.lua > CHANGELOG.md regenerates CHANGELOG.md).
Modules.lua	Definitions of all data blocks. This is where you add a block.
Launchers.lua	Launcher blocks built from minimap buttons, LibDBIcon buttons and addon compartment entries.
Spacers.lua	Spacer blocks (empty, separator line or text).
Demo.lua	Demo mode: every block by category with sample values, style switcher (also mixed styles, one per column), the player's profile put aside and given back.
Broker.lua	DataBroker: other addons' data objects as blocks, Tessera's blocks published as data objects, DataBroker mode.
Bindings.xml	Key bindings (loaded automatically by the game, not listed in the TOC).
Options.lua	Options window (tabs Blocks — with sub-tabs Display, Text, Frame, Behaviour —, Look, General, Launchers, DataBroker — Plugins as blocks, Sharing and mode —, Profiles, Help, About), widgets, placement banner, text window (export / import / bug report), welcome popup and quick tour, Blizzard Settings page.

The docs/ folder (not shipped in the addon) is mapped in docs/README.md: the release guide (docs/RELEASE.md), the project status and ideas (in French), the CurseForge and Wago descriptions (docs/pages), studies (docs/etudes), finished plans (docs/archive), the strings sent to CurseForge's localization tool (docs/localization), the logo and the name in large sizes (docs/art), and the banner and screenshots used on this page (docs/media). CLAUDE.md holds the working rules of the project. ACR.md and AI-DECLARATION.md describe how AI is used in the project.

Automatic tests: lua5.1 tools/mock_run.lua . enUS (or frFR, frFR broker) loads the addon with a small imitation of the game API and runs every page and feature (texts exported by earlier versions, kept in tools/fixtures/, must still import); lint with luacheck .; lua5.1 tools/fuzz_blocks.lua . checks that the blocks built on WoW Forever's own systems survive missing or changed game functions; lua5.1 tools/check_docs.lua . checks that the documentation follows the code; tools/api_audit.py audits the code against the WoW API like addon reviewers do. All of them run on every push (.github/workflows/checks.yml).

How a value gets on screen

1. Modules.lua registers each block with ns:RegisterModule(key, def).
2. At login, Core.lua loads the profile from TesseraDB, creates one frame per block and applies its style (ns:ApplyStyle), position and docking (Merge.lua).
3. A block is refreshed by ns:UpdateBlock(key) when one of its events fires, or by the shared timer every interval seconds while it is shown.
4. UpdateBlock calls the module's update(cfg), which returns a text and an optional level (1 good, 2 warning, 3 bad). Core colors it, adds the label and icon if enabled, and asks for a layout pass when the text size changes.
5. The layout pass (ns:UpdateLayout in Merge.lua) sizes every block to its text, equalizes merged groups, keeps second rows flush with their bar and redraws the borders where blocks touch.

Adding a data block

Open Modules.lua: its header documents every field a block can define, with a minimal example. In short:

ns:RegisterModule("level", {
    label = "LEVEL",                          -- display name = L.LEVEL
    icon = "Interface\\Icons\\INV_Misc_Note_01",
    events = { "PLAYER_LEVEL_UP" },           -- or interval = seconds
    defaultEnabled = false,                   -- hidden until the player enables it
    update = function(cfg)
        return tostring(UnitLevel("player")), 1
    end,
    tooltip = function(tt, cfg)
        tt:AddLine("Some detail", 1, 1, 1)
    end,
})

Then add LEVEL = "Level" to Locales/enUS.lua and L.LEVEL = "Niveau" to Locales/frFR.lua. Never rename a block key once released: it is stored in players' saved variables. The block appears automatically in the options.

To open a Blizzard window on click, use secureMacro (a macro run by a secure button) rather than calling the function from Lua: on this client, opening UI panels from addon code taints them.

DataBroker

Broker.lua explains it in its header. In short: blocks under keys broker:<object name> show another addon's data object (looked up by name each time, so a disabled addon only hides the block); every data block with brokerShare is published as Tessera_<block key> while sharing is on; DataBroker mode (ns.brokerModeActive) hides all of Tessera's frames. A module needs nothing special to be shared: its update, tooltip and onClick are reused. Blocks that open Blizzard windows through secureMacro cannot do so from another addon's bar.

WoW Forever specifics

• Character names: WoW Forever names characters "First name Surname", unique in the whole region (RegionalUniqueNamesEnabled, read through _G). Tessera keys a character's saved data (gold, per-character profile) by that full name alone, as AceDB does (ns.CharacterKey). GetRealmName() is not used on WoW Forever: it returns a ruleset label ("Classic Beta PvE") that may change. At login, data saved under older keys ("Name-Realm", and "Full name-" from the 1.0.0-rc versions) moves to the full name once (ns:MigrateCharacterKey, ns:MigrateFullNameKeys); tools/fixtures/sv-rc9-forever.lua tests it on every push.

WoW Forever runs on the modern client (Midnight-era API) but has systems of its own, without public documentation yet. What Tessera found, with the development probes below:

• Legacy points (legacy block, Modules.lua): the "Legacy" reward track is a renown track of Blizzard's major factions system, faction ID 2802. The points are C_MajorFactions.GetMajorFactionData(2802).renownLevel; the reward levels come from C_MajorFactions.GetRenownLevels(2802) and each reward from C_MajorFactions.GetRenownRewardsForLevel(2802, level) (its name, else its toastDescription, else the item's name). Updated on MAJOR_FACTION_RENOWN_LEVEL_CHANGED and every minute. The block is registered only when ToggleLegacySystemUI (or LegacySystemFrame_LoadUI) exists. Legacy challenges are achievements: the achievement categories are the challenge categories (Classes, Crafting, PvP, Dungeons, Raids, Adventure, with sub-categories); the tooltip adds up GetCategoryNumAchievements per main category (parent -1). Not found yet as an API: the unspent points of the Legacy tree and the "Legacy points: 16/81" total, which only exist as texts of the Legacy panel (ChallengesPage.LegacyChallengePointSummary.PointsBar, TreePage.LegacyTreePointSummary).
• Comprehension (comprehension block): a secondary skill, skillID 3012 in C_SkillInfo (category 9, learned from level 6); its spell is 1296017. Scrolls in the bags are consumables of subclass 4, or items whose name holds the localized word "scroll" (weapon imbue scrolls are item enhancements).
• Camping (camping block): camp buffs are player auras: 1229741 (camp perks, 1 hour), 1229739 (welcoming campfire: sit 1 minute to get the buffs) and 1283391 (nearby campfire). The basic campfire kit is item 279981; its cooldown comes from C_Container.GetItemCooldown, and the block's click is /use item:279981.
• Honor (honor block): currency 1792 in C_CurrencyInfo.GetCurrencyInfo (25,000 max). The classic rank functions (UnitPVPRank, GetPVPRankInfo) do not exist; the new rank system still has to be found once characters can earn ranks.
• Weapon skills (weaponSkills block): the classic globals GetNumSkillLines / GetSkillLineInfo do not exist; C_SkillInfo.GetNumSkillLines() and C_SkillInfo.GetSkillLineInfo(i) do, and return one table per line (name, rank, maxRank, isHeader, isAbandonable, skillLineCategoryID, skillID). Weapon skills are the lines of category 6 (defense, skillID 95, is listed with them). The skills window is SkillsFrame, a tab of the character window.
• Opening windows: Forever has micro buttons that retail removed or merged: ProfessionMicroButton (professions book, used for gathering professions, which have no crafting window), TalentMicroButton, LegacyMicroButton, SpellbookMicroButton. Blocks click them with a /click macro on their secure overlay (MicroButtonMacro in Modules.lua), so the panels open from Blizzard's own code, without taint.
• All IDs above were found on the beta (October 2026) and may change.
• Development probes live in the test builds only (see "Test builds" below): they list what the client offers (API namespaces and functions, the Legacy panel's fields and texts, the raw skill list) in a window that can be copied, to adapt a block when Forever changes.

WoW-specific constraints to keep in mind

• Taint and secret values. This client uses the Midnight-era API, where some values are "secret" and comparing them from addon code raises an error. Values that may be secret are read inside pcall. Blizzard panels are opened through secure macro buttons (SecureClicks.lua).
• Combat lockdown. Secure buttons cannot be created, moved or hidden in combat; they are positioned in screen coordinates and re-synced after combat.
• Forever-only functions. The code uses the modern C_* API of this client. Functions that only exist on WoW Forever, and other addons' globals, are read through _G["Name"] and called in pcall: if the game removes or changes one, the block shows nothing instead of an error (tools/fuzz_blocks.lua checks it).
• Blizzard's code stays untouched. Tessera never replaces a Blizzard function or moves a Blizzard frame: replacing one taints the interface and can break it in combat. To react to the game, it listens to events (or, if ever needed, hooksecurefunc, which runs after Blizzard's function without replacing it). Blizzard's own interface code for WoW Forever is mirrored in Gethe/wow-ui-source, branch forever (named "Camelot" in that code).

Saved variables

TesseraDB holds the profiles (profiles[name], see PROFILE_DEFAULTS in Core.lua), the profile mode (useGlobal, globalProfile, charProfiles), each character's gold (chars), and a few account-wide options. Each profile stores its general settings and one table per block in blocks[key] (see BLOCK_DEFAULTS in Core.lua).

Translations

Locales/enUS.lua defines every key; every other language only overrides keys and falls back to English for anything missing.

• English and French are written in the repository (enUS.lua, frFR.lua). Other languages live in CurseForge's localization tool; Claude's German, Spanish and Brazilian Portuguese drafts were imported there by hand, checked first with tools/check_translation.py.
• Every other language is translated by the community with CurseForge's localization tool. Its file (e.g. Locales/deDE.lua) only holds a --@localization(...)@ line that the BigWigs packager replaces with the translated strings when it builds the release zip, so a copy installed straight from GitHub simply shows those languages in English.
• Small keys, easy to translate. On CurseForge, changing a text asks every translator to redo that whole text. So long texts are split: the in-game help has one key per line or paragraph (HELP_<TOPIC>_<n>, topic titles HELP_T_<TOPIC>), and their order is given by ns.HELP_LAYOUT / ns.HELP_LAYOUT_BROKER at the end of Locales/enUS.lua. To add a line, create a new key (next free number of its topic) and put it where it belongs in the layout; to change a line, keep its key. Never renumber, rename or reuse a key (this also goes for the numbered quick tour steps, TUTORIAL_<n>). tools/check_docs.lua refuses any text longer than 600 characters.
• The English and French texts are written in tools/gen/*.py; python3 tools/gen/build.py writes Locales/enUS.lua and Locales/frFR.lua from them (it checks that every key has its French text and the same %s / %d).
• docs/localization/ holds the English and French strings in the format CurseForge imports (regenerate with lua5.1 tools/export_locales.lua . enUS docs/localization/enUS.lua, same for frFR). The release workflow sends both to CurseForge before packaging, so translators always see the current strings; nothing has to be imported by hand.

Releasing

One workflow publishes everywhere: Package and release (.github/workflows/release.yml, "Run workflow" in the Actions tab). It checks the documentation, tags the version written in Tessera.toc, sends the strings to CurseForge, builds the zip with the BigWigs packager and uploads it to GitHub, CurseForge and Wago. Details (in French) in docs/RELEASE.md.

Checking your changes

luacheck .                       # static checks (uses the provided .luacheckrc)
lua5.1 tools/mock_run.lua .      # loads the addon in a rough WoW API mock, prints Lua errors
lua5.1 tools/fuzz_blocks.lua .   # WoW Forever's blocks survive missing or changed game functions
lua5.1 tools/check_docs.lua .    # README, help, descriptions, changelog, strings: up to date?
python3 tools/api_audit.py <lua-language-server> <vscode-wow-api folder>
python3 tools/forever_api_check.py <BlizzardInterfaceResources folder, branch forever>

tools/api_audit.py runs the audit addon reviewers use: the Lua Language Server with Ketho's WoW API annotations (vscode-wow-api). It fails on unknown globals and deprecated functions. Functions that only exist on WoW Forever (not in Blizzard's documentation of the modern API) and other addons' globals are read through _G["Name"], which tells readers they may be missing.

tools/forever_api_check.py compares every C_Namespace.Function call with the function list of the WoW Forever client itself, from the forever branch of Ketho's BlizzardInterfaceResources (it also lists the client's CVars and events). A call the client lacks fails the check, unless a fallback takes over on the same line.

tools/check_docs.lua checks that the version is the same everywhere, that CHANGELOG.md and docs/localization/ match the code, and that every public command, block, Lua file and option tab appears in the README, the in-game help and the CurseForge / Wago descriptions. A release stops if it fails.

The mock only catches Lua errors (nil calls, typos, load order); it does not replace testing in game.

Test builds

Released versions have no command a player does not need. The test builds given to the author for his test sessions add one extra file (TesseraDev.lua, kept out of this repository and never packaged) at the end of Tessera.toc: /tessera test (blocks to check, layouts for the name tags, tooltip settings, back to the player's profile) and the development commands (debug report, WoW Forever probes, shape test). Core.lua only calls ns.DevCommand when that file is there; the mock loads it with TESSERA_DEV=<path>.

License

MIT — see LICENSE.