Spectrum

Spectrum is Photon's unified messaging SDK. Write handler logic against one app.messages stream and deliver it through iMessage, WhatsApp Business, Terminal, or a custom provider. This skill targets spectrum-ts 12.2.0; its code samples are TypeScript.

Contract gate

Identify the provider and load its topic file before writing provider-specific code. A sample is complete only when every import, method, content shape, platform ID, fallback, and thrown error belongs to spectrum-ts 12.2.0 and the selected provider contract. The universal method existing does not prove that every provider implements it; read capability-semantics.md whenever support affects correctness.

How this skill is organized

Each topic lives in its own file in this directory. Read the file relevant to the user's question.

File	When to consult
getting-started.md	Installation, the Spectrum() app instance, multi-platform setup, the four core primitives.
messages.md	Receiving messages, the Message shape, narrowing on content.type, filtering own messages.
content.md	Content builders for outgoing messages: text, markdown, attachment, voice, contact, richlink, app, poll, group, custom.
spaces-and-users.md	The Space interface, typing indicators, responding, creating DMs and groups.
reactions-and-replies.md	message.react(...), threaded message.reply(...), when to use which.
capability-semantics.md	Native support vs fallback, warn-and-skip, accepted no-op, and thrown errors.
platform-narrowing.md	Recovering platform-specific types from generic Spectrum primitives.
providers/imessage.md	iMessage — separate cloud/local providers, shared/dedicated cloud line model, per-phone routing, message effects, tapbacks.
providers/terminal.md	Terminal TUI provider — chat sidebar, reactions, replies, attachments, slash commands.
providers/whatsapp-business.md	WhatsApp Business Cloud API. 1:1 only.
custom-events-and-lifecycle.md	Per-provider event streams (app.typing, etc.), app.stop(), signal handling.
custom-platforms.md	Authoring your own provider with definePlatform — full field reference.
best-practices.md	Production architecture patterns Photon uses internally — debounce pipeline, in-flight cancellation, carry-forward, idempotent retries, per-resource memory, job-failure audit log.

See also

• Spectrum docs
• spectrum-ts on GitHub