Update Skia Milestone Skill

Scripts

• scripts/update-versions.ps1 — Phase 6: Updates all version files and runs verification (replaces manual sed/grep)
• scripts/regenerate-bindings.ps1 — Phase 7: Regenerates bindings, reverts HarfBuzz, reports new functions

Overview

Updating Skia is the highest-risk operation in SkiaSharp. It touches:

• The native C++ Skia library (upstream merge)
• The custom C API shim layer (must be adapted to new C++ APIs)
• Generated P/Invoke bindings
• C# wrapper code
• All platforms (macOS, Windows, Linux, iOS, Android, etc.)

Go slow. Research first. Build and test before any PR.

⚠️ Follow Every Phase In Order

This is a 10-phase workflow where each phase builds on the previous one. The phases exist because Skia updates touch four layers (C++ → C API → generated bindings → C# wrappers) and two repositories (mono/skia + mono/SkiaSharp). Skipping a phase doesn't just risk a build failure — it risks shipping broken binaries to customers who won't see the problem until runtime.

Each phase ends with a gate — a verification step that confirms the phase completed correctly. Re-read each phase's instructions before executing it, because the details are project-specific and easy to get wrong from memory.

What You're About to Do

The workflow follows this shape:

1. Research (Phases 1–3): Understand what changed in Skia, validate the analysis
2. Merge & Fix (Phases 4–5): Merge upstream, fix C API compilation errors
3. Update & Regenerate (Phases 6–7): Version files and bindings (both handled by scripts)
4. Verify (Phases 8–9): Review new functions, build, test
5. Ship (Phase 10): Create cross-linked PRs in both repos

Critical Rules

🛑 STOP AND ASK before: Creating PRs, Merging PRs, Force pushing, Any destructive git operations

🚫 BRANCH PROTECTION (MANDATORY)

❌ NEVER Do These

Workflow

Phase 1: Discovery & Current State

1. Identify current milestone:

   grep SK_MILESTONE externals/skia/include/core/SkMilestone.h
   grep "^libSkiaSharp.*milestone" scripts/VERSIONS.txt
   grep chrome_milestone cgmanifest.json
   

2. Identify target milestone from user request

3. Check for existing PRs — Search both mono/SkiaSharp and mono/skia for open update PRs

4. Verify upstream branches exist:

   cd externals/skia
   git remote add upstream https://github.com/google/skia.git 2>/dev/null
   git fetch upstream chrome/m{TARGET}
   

🛑 GATE: Confirm current milestone, target milestone, and that upstream branch exists.

Phase 2: Breaking Change Analysis

This is the most critical phase. Thorough analysis here prevents customer-facing breakage.

1. Read official release notes for EVERY milestone being skipped:

   • Fetch https://raw.githubusercontent.com/google/skia/main/RELEASE_NOTES.md
   • Document all changes for each milestone between current and target

2. Categorize changes by impact:

   Category	Risk	Examples
   Removed APIs	🔴 HIGH	Functions deleted, enums removed
   Renamed/Moved APIs	🟡 MEDIUM	Namespace changes, header moves
   New APIs	🟢 LOW	Additive changes, new factories
   Behavior changes	🟡 MEDIUM	Default changes, semantic shifts
   Graphite-only	⚪ SKIP	SkiaSharp uses Ganesh, not Graphite

3. Map each HIGH/MEDIUM change to C API files:

   cd externals/skia
   # Check which C API files reference affected APIs
   grep -r "GrMipmapped\|GrMipMapped" src/c/ include/c/
   grep -r "refTypefaceOrDefault\|getTypefaceOrDefault" src/c/ include/c/
   

4. Run structural diff on include/ directory:

   git diff upstream/chrome/m{CURRENT}..upstream/chrome/m{TARGET} --stat -- include/
   git diff upstream/chrome/m{CURRENT}..upstream/chrome/m{TARGET} -- include/core/ include/gpu/ganesh/
   

👉 See references/breaking-changes-checklist.md for the full analysis template, including verification steps for struct sizes, moved files, and diff-reading traps.

🛑 GATE: Present full breaking change analysis to user. Get approval before proceeding.

Phase 3: Validation

The agent performing the breaking change analysis has blind spots — it may filter out relevant changes or miss moved headers. An independent validation catches these before they become runtime crashes.

Launch an explore agent with model: "claude-opus-4.6" using the prompt template from references/validation-prompt.md — substitute the milestone numbers and paste your breaking change analysis table. The default explore model (Haiku) is too weak for accurate header-level validation — use Opus for reliability.

🛑 GATE: Validation agent has run and confirmed analysis. If it found missed items, update the analysis and re-present to user before proceeding.

Phase 4: Upstream Merge (mono/skia)

1. Create feature branch:

   cd externals/skia
   git checkout skiasharp
   git pull origin skiasharp
   git checkout -b dev/update-skia-{TARGET}
   

2. Merge upstream — use --no-commit for manual conflict resolution:

   git merge --no-commit upstream/chrome/m{TARGET}
   

3. Resolve conflicts — each conflict must be resolved individually. Never use git merge -s ours or git read-tree --reset — this destroys git blame attribution.

   ⚠️ MANDATORY: Before resolving ANY conflict, check file history for fork-specific patches. Run git log --oneline skiasharp -- <conflicted-file> — if the log shows intentional fork patches, keep our version. See gotcha #15 for details.

   File Category	Strategy
   BUILD.gn	Combine both — keep upstream structure AND SkiaSharp's platform flags + skiasharp_build target
   DEPS	Combine — keep our dependency pins, accept upstream structure
   RELEASE_NOTES.md, infra/bots/	Take upstream
   C API (include/c/, src/c/)	Keep SkiaSharp — adapt includes/API calls in post-merge commits
   Other upstream source (src/, include/)	Check history first — see gotcha #15

4. Commit the merge:

   git commit  # Creates proper two-parent merge
   

5. Verify our C API files survived the merge:

   ls src/c/*.cpp include/c/*.h  # All files should still exist
   

6. Source file verification — Check for added/deleted upstream files:

   git diff upstream/chrome/m{CURRENT}..upstream/chrome/m{TARGET} --diff-filter=AD --name-only -- src/ include/
   

   Cross-reference against BUILD.gn — new source files may need to be added.

🛑 GATE: Merge complete, conflicts resolved. Verify:

ls src/c/*.cpp include/c/*.h                    # C API files intact
git diff --check                                  # Zero conflict markers
git blame src/c/sk_canvas.cpp | head -20         # Attribution shows original commits, not just merge

Phase 5: Fix C API Shim Layer

This is where most of the work happens. The C API (src/c/, include/c/) wraps Skia C++ and must be updated when the underlying C++ APIs change.

1. Attempt to build to identify all compilation errors:

   dotnet cake --target=externals-macos --arch=arm64
   

2. Fix each error following these patterns:

   Error Type	Fix Pattern
   Missing type	Add/update typedef in sk_types.h
   Renamed function	Update call in *.cpp
   Removed enum value	Remove from sk_enums.cpp + sk_types.h. Flag as a C# breaking change — Phase 8 must add [Obsolete] or document removal
   Changed signature	Update C wrapper function signature
   New header required	Add #include in the relevant .cpp
   Legacy flag breaks C API	Update C API to use replacement API (see gotcha #6). Do not just comment out the flag without a plan

3. Update sk_types.h for any new enums or type changes:

   • Reset SK_C_INCREMENT to 0 in externals/skia/include/c/sk_types.h for the new milestone
   • Only bump it later if you add new C API functions in the same milestone
   • The build enforces that SK_C_INCREMENT matches libSkiaSharp increment in VERSIONS.txt

4. Build again — iterate until clean compilation

🛑 GATE: Native library builds successfully on at least one platform.

Phase 6: Update SkiaSharp Version Files

📋 This phase is handled by a script. The script updates VERSIONS.txt, cgmanifest.json, azure-pipelines-variables.yml, and verifies SK_C_INCREMENT — then runs the mandatory verification greps. It exits non-zero if any stale references remain.

In the SkiaSharp parent repo, run:

pwsh .claude/skills/update-skia/scripts/update-versions.ps1 -Current {CURRENT} -Target {TARGET}

The script handles all of these (so you don't have to do them manually):

• scripts/VERSIONS.txt: milestone, increment→0, soname, assembly, file, ALL ~30 nuget lines
• cgmanifest.json: commitHash, version, chrome_milestone, upstream_merge_commit
• scripts/azure-pipelines-variables.yml (if it exists)
• Verifies SK_C_INCREMENT is 0 in externals/skia/include/c/sk_types.h
• Runs mandatory grep verification — fails if any stale references remain

🛑 GATE: Script exits with ✅. If it exits with ❌, fix the reported stale references and re-run until it passes.

Phase 7: Regenerate Bindings

📋 This phase is handled by a script. The script runs the generator, IMMEDIATELY reverts HarfBuzz bindings (HarfBuzz updates are always separate), reports what changed, and lists any new functions that may need C# wrappers.

pwsh .claude/skills/update-skia/scripts/regenerate-bindings.ps1

The script handles all of these (so you don't forget any):

• Runs pwsh ./utils/generate.ps1
• Reverts binding/HarfBuzzSharp/HarfBuzzApi.generated.cs (proactively, not reactively)
• Reports the binding diff summary
• Lists NEW generated functions that may need C# wrappers in Phase 8

After the script completes, build C# to verify compilation:

dotnet build binding/SkiaSharp/SkiaSharp.csproj

Phase 8: Fix C# Wrappers

The C# build can pass with 0 errors while new C API functions remain invisible to users. New functions compile fine as unused internal static methods in the generated file, but without C# wrappers they're not part of the public API. This phase applies even when the build succeeds.

Step 1: Review new generated bindings for unwrapped functions:

# Show only NEW functions added by the regeneration
git diff binding/SkiaSharp/SkiaApi.generated.cs | grep "^+.*internal static"

For each new function, check whether a C# wrapper exists:

# Example: if sk_foo_bar was added, check for a wrapper
grep -rn "sk_foo_bar" binding/SkiaSharp/*.cs | grep -v generated

New functions from our custom C API additions typically need wrappers. New functions from upstream changes are usually additive and can be deferred.

Step 2: Fix files in binding/SkiaSharp/ based on the breaking change analysis:

Key rules:

• Add new overloads, never modify existing signatures (ABI stability)
• Use [Obsolete] for deprecated APIs with migration guidance
• Return null from factory methods on failure (don't throw)

Phase 9: Build & Test

# Build native (this also runs git-sync-deps)
dotnet cake --target=externals-macos --arch=arm64

# Build C#
dotnet build binding/SkiaSharp/SkiaSharp.csproj

Step 1 — Smoke tests (fast gate, ~100ms):

dotnet test tests/SkiaSharp.Tests.Console.sln --filter "Category=Smoke"

Smoke tests verify basic native interop: version compatibility, object creation, drawing, image loading, fonts, codecs, effects, and more. If these fail, something fundamental is broken — go back and fix before wasting time on the full suite.

⚠️ If the version compatibility smoke test fails with "incompatible native library", you missed a version update — go back to Phase 6 and verify ALL version lines. Do NOT work around this with --no-incremental or by copying native libs manually.

Step 2 — Full test suite (required before any PR):

dotnet test tests/SkiaSharp.Tests.Console.sln

This runs all test projects (core, Vulkan, Direct3D). Backend-specific tests self-skip when hardware isn't available. CI handles WASM/Android/iOS separately.

Smoke tests are just that — smoke. They verify the basics. The full suite MUST pass before the update can be considered complete. Do not create PRs with only smoke tests passing.

🛑 GATE: ALL tests pass (full suite, not just smoke). Do NOT skip failing tests. Do NOT proceed with failures.

Phase 10: Create PRs

🛑 STOP AND ASK FOR APPROVAL before creating PRs.

PR 1: mono/skia (submodule)

PR 2: mono/SkiaSharp (parent)

Submodule must point to the mono/skia PR branch.

Cross-link both PRs (same as native-dependency-update).

After creating BOTH PRs, update the earlier PR's description to include a link to the later one. Both PRs must reference each other.

Phase 10 Completion Checklist

Before proceeding to merge, verify ALL of these:

• Branch names follow dev/update-skia-{TARGET} convention in BOTH repos
• mono/skia PR targets skiasharp branch
• mono/SkiaSharp PR targets main branch
• SkiaSharp's externals/skia submodule points to the mono/skia PR branch (git submodule status)
• cgmanifest.json updated with new commit hash, version, and chrome_milestone
• scripts/VERSIONS.txt updated (ALL version lines, not just milestone)
• SkiaApi.generated.cs regenerated and committed
• Both PRs cross-reference each other
• Native build passes on at least one platform
• C# build passes with 0 errors
• All tests pass (with proper platform filtering)

Merge Sequence (CRITICAL)

1. Merge mono/skia PR first → creates new squashed SHA on skiasharp
2. Fetch new SHA in SkiaSharp's submodule
3. Update submodule pointer, push to SkiaSharp PR branch
4. Only then merge SkiaSharp PR

Merge Checklist

Before proceeding past each step, verify:

• mono/skia PR merged
• Fetched skiasharp branch to get new squashed SHA
• Updated SkiaSharp submodule to new SHA (cd externals/skia && git fetch origin && git checkout {new-sha})
• Pushed submodule update to SkiaSharp PR branch
• CI passes on updated SkiaSharp PR
• SkiaSharp PR merged
• Submodule points to a commit on skiasharp branch (not an orphaned branch commit)

❌ NEVER merge both PRs without updating the submodule in between. ❌ NEVER assume the submodule reference is correct after squash-merging mono/skia.

Reference Material

These files contain lookup information — consult them when you hit a problem or need context, not necessarily upfront:

• references/known-gotchas.md — 10 hard-won lessons from past updates (DEF_STRUCT_MAP, emsdk, BUILD.gn flags, HarfBuzz, DEPS forks, etc.) and a troubleshooting table
• references/typical-changes.md — Files typically changed in each repository during an update
• references/breaking-changes-checklist.md — How to analyze breaking changes between milestones