flexicon

Configuration should adapt to the user — not the other way around.

flexicon is a minimal, embeddable toolkit for building adaptive data structures that seamlessly bridge human-authored simplicity and machine-ready expressiveness.

Write your config as a list of names.
Refine it later into a full spec.
Your tools understand both — without compromise.

🌱 Core Philosophy: Adaptive Data Structures

At the heart of flexicon lies a simple idea:

Users deserve the easiest possible interface.
Systems deserve the richest possible specification.
There’s no need to choose.

We enable types that support dual representations:

• Simple: for humans (["logger", "http"])
• Detailed: for machines ({ "logger": { "level": "debug" }, "http": { "port": 8080 } })

This is formalized via the AdaptiveFormat trait:

pub trait AdaptiveFormat: Serialize + Deserialize<'static> {
    type SimpleFormat;
    type DetailedFormat;
    
    fn to_simple(&self) -> Self::SimpleFormat;
    fn from_simple(simple: Self::SimpleFormat) -> Self;
    fn to_detailed(&self) -> Self::DetailedFormat;
}

Types implementing this trait can fluidly move between user-friendly and system-optimized forms — automatically.

🧱 Core Components

adaptive::NamedMap<T>

A zero-overhead wrapper around HashMap<String, T> that accepts both formats out of the box:

• As an array of strings → creates placeholder values using T::from_name()
• As an object → parses full structured values

use flexicon::adaptive::NamedMap;
use serde::{Deserialize, Serialize};

#[derive(Clone, Serialize, Deserialize)]
struct Interface {
    version: String,
    optional: bool,
}

impl flexicon::FromName for Interface {
    fn from_name(name: &str) -> Self {
        Self {
            version: "latest".into(),
            optional: false,
        }
    }
}

// Human-friendly config
let simple: NamedMap<Interface> = serde_json::from_str(r#"["wasi:cli/stdio", "my:logger"]"#)?;

// Machine-optimized spec
let detailed: NamedMap<Interface> = serde_json::from_str(r#"
{
  "wasi:cli/stdio": { "version": "0.2", "optional": false },
  "my:logger": { "version": "1.0", "optional": true }
}
"#)?;

NamedMap<T> is the first building block in the flexicon ecosystem — designed to be embeddable, serde-optional, and dependency-free beyond core traits.

🛠️ Modules Overview

Note: As of v0.1, only adaptive::NamedMap<T> is implemented. The rest define the architecture for future expansion.

📦 Why flexicon?

• ✅ User-first configs: let users write less, express more
• ✅ No runtime cost: zero-copy where possible, no hidden allocations
• ✅ No framework lock-in: pure data structures, no runtime or macros
• ✅ Embeddable: < 500 lines of core logic, no heavy dependencies

Perfect for:

• Component manifests (e.g., in Arcella)
• Edge/IoT application descriptors
• CLI tools with layered config
• Any system where developer experience and system reliability must coexist

📄 License

Dual-licensed under:

• Apache License 2.0
• MIT License

flexicon — because great systems speak human.