Forge Overview

RealmForge — Content Editor

Status: Active Development Technology: .NET 10 / Avalonia / ReactiveUI

Overview

RealmForge is the official content management tool for RealmEngine. It connects directly to the Postgres database via ContentDbContext and provides a desktop UI for browsing and editing all game content entities.

Architecture

• UI: Avalonia 11 with ReactiveUI view-models
• Data access: ContentDbContext (EF Core via RealmEngine.Data) — no JSON files on disk
• Content tree: Driven by ContentRegistry routing table (Domain → TypeKey → Entity)
• Editor: AvaloniaEdit JSON text view of DB entity fields; form mode for individual properties
• References: DB-backed reference picker via ContentRegistry

Running

powershell dotnet run --project RealmForge

Requires a ContentDb connection string in ppsettings.json:

json { "ConnectionStrings": { "ContentDb": "Host=localhost;Database=realmengine;Username=...;Password=..." } } "@ | Set-Content "c:\code\RealmEngine\RealmForge\README.md" -Encoding UTF8

@"

RealmForge — Developer Notes

Last Updated: March 2026 Technology: .NET 10 / Avalonia 11 / ReactiveUI / EF Core (Postgres)

Overview

RealmForge is the content authoring tool for RealmEngine. It queries and modifies game content directly in Postgres via ContentDbContext. There is no JSON file editing — all content is DB-first.

Key Services

Service	Purpose
ContentTreeService	Builds left-panel hierarchy from ContentRegistry
ContentEditorService	Loads and saves typed entities from correct DbSet by table name
ReferenceResolverService	Builds @domain/path:item reference catalog from ContentRegistry
EditorSettingsService	Persists minimal editor preferences (theme) to local JSON

Long-term Direction

The current entity editor presents DB content as JSON text. In future versions this will be replaced by proper form-based editing. JSON export (DB → file) will be supported server-side for deployment pipelines.