pixi-vn-ink-text-replacement

Text replacement: [key] substitution

Official docs: pixi-vn.com/ink/replacement.

When to use this skill

Use whenever ink text needs to show a value that isn't a plain ink variable — the result of a lookup function, a translation-aware substitution, or anything computed in JS/TS. Use pixi-vn-ink-characters instead if the specific need is "show a character's name" — that's this same mechanism, pre-wired with validation: "characterId".

Why [key] exists

Native ink can inject a variable's value with {name}, but has no syntax to inject the result of an arbitrary JS/TS function or lookup — {name} only ever reads an ink VAR/temp. Pixi'VN adds [key] (square brackets) for exactly that:

What do you want, [alice]?
* Talk to \[bob\]

\[bob\] escapes a literal [bob] that should print as-is rather than being treated as a replacement key — needed whenever a line legitimately contains square brackets unrelated to this mechanism (or, inside a choice, unrelated to the native-ink choice-bracket syntax, which uses the same [/] characters for a different purpose).

Registering a handler

import { TextReplaces } from "@drincs/pixi-vn-ink";

TextReplaces.add(() => "Alice", {
  name: "Replace Alice",
  validation: /alice/,
  type: "after-translation",
  i18nInterpolation: true,
  description: "Replaces 'alice' with the character's name.",
});

TextReplaces.add(handler, options):

• handler: (key: string) => string | undefined — receives the text found inside [...] (no brackets); return the replacement, or undefined to leave that occurrence untouched (e.g. because this handler doesn't actually recognize the key despite validation matching it).
• validation decides which keys this handler is even invoked for — one of:
  • "all" — always invoked, for every [key] found.
  • "characterId" — only when the key is currently a registered character id in RegisteredCharacters (see pixi-vn-ink-characters for the canonical use of this mode).
  • a RegExp — invoked when the key matches.
  • a ZodType<string> — invoked when schema.safeParse(key) succeeds.
• type — "before-translation" (runs before onInkTranslate; useful to rewrite a key into an i18next-style {{key}} token first) or "after-translation" (default — runs after translation, useful when the replacement depends on the already-translated text). See pixi-vn-ink for how translation itself is wired up.
• i18nInterpolation — when true, the handler's replacement is applied on the second occurrence of a matched key onward; the first occurrence instead becomes {{key}} once, so an i18next interpolation slot exists in the translated string for that key. Pair this with a missingInterpolationHandler in the i18n config that returns the raw value instead of an empty string for keys with no translation entry. Defaults to false (every occurrence is replaced directly).
• Handlers run in registration order, each on the current (possibly already-modified) text, so a later handler can see replacements a previous one already made.

A second example

TextReplaces.add(() => "Stephanie", {
  name: "steph_fullname",
  validation: /steph_fullname/,
  type: "after-translation",
  i18nInterpolation: true,
  description: "Replaces 'steph_fullname' with the full name of the character Stephanie.",
});

Everyone just calls her Steph, but her full name is [steph_fullname].

Related

• pixi-vn-ink-characters — [characterId] is the most common concrete use of this mechanism.
• pixi-vn-ink — translation wiring (onInkTranslate), and how to inspect every currently-registered TextReplaces handler via the Vite dev-server API (GET /__pixi-vn-ink/text-replaces) while debugging.