Stitches

What are stitches?

Frankie's zero-dependency, zero-registry package system. Drop a .fk file in the right folder and stitch it in.

Feature	Category	Summary
stitch "name"	language	Load a package by name — resolves from ./stitches/ then ~/.frankie/stitches/
frankiforms	stitch	Form field validation — required, min/max length, email, numeric, pattern
frankitable	stitch	ASCII table rendering from a vector of hashes
frankicolor	stitch	ANSI color helpers for terminal output
frankipager	stitch	Pagination math — total pages, slicing, prev/next
frankiconfig	stitch	Layered config loading from defaults, JSON file, and env vars
frankistring	stitch	Additional string functions
frankietemplate	stitch	Mustache-compatible template rendering for Frankie
frankiecookie	stitch	Signed cookie helpers for Frankie
---

The stitch Keyword

stitch loads a Frankie package by name. It resolves the file in two locations, in order:

1. ./stitches/<name>.fk — project-local (checked first)
2. ~/.frankie/stitches/<name>.fk — user-global

If neither exists, a clear error tells you exactly what to do:

╔══ Frankie Runtime Error ══════════════════════════════
║  [Frankie] Stitch not found: "frankiforms"
║    Put frankiforms.fk in ./stitches/ or ~/.frankie/stitches/
╚═══════════════════════════════════════════════════════

Each stitch is loaded at most once — calling stitch "name" multiple times in the same program is safe.

Compared to require

	require	stitch
Path	Explicit: require "lib/utils"	By name: stitch "frankiforms"
Resolution	Relative to cwd	./stitches/ then ~/.frankie/stitches/
Signals	Your own code	Third-party packages
Convention	lib/ folder	stitches/ folder

They use the same underlying machinery — stitch is require with a conventional resolution path and a more meaningful name for the job.

Project layout with stitches

myapp/
├── main.fk
├── test.fk
├── lib/
│   └── utils.fk        ← your own code, loaded with require
└── stitches/
    ├── frankiforms.fk   ← third-party, loaded with stitch
    └── frankitable.fk

Anyone cloning your repo immediately knows what stitches/ contains.

---

Writing Your Own Stitch

A stitch is any .fk file. Drop it in ./stitches/ and stitch "name" loads it.

# stitches/myutils.fk

def slugify(s)
  s.downcase.gsub("[^a-z0-9]+", "-").strip
end

def truncate(s, n)
  if s.length <= n
    s
  else
    s[0...n] + "..."
  end
end

# main.fk
stitch "myutils"

puts slugify("Hello World!")    # hello-world
puts truncate("Long string", 4) # Long...

Conventions

• Prefix private helper functions with _ to signal they're internal.
• Use ## doc-comments for frankiec docs compatibility.
• Keep each stitch focused on one concern.
• Avoid redefining stdlib functions.