How it works

SymbioteNative is built around one architectural fact: Fabric already exposes a framework-agnostic JavaScript seam.

React Native’s React renderer talks to this seam from its Fabric host config. SymbioteNative talks to the same seam from its own engine.

Render pipeline

Framework adapter
  React · Vue · future Svelte/Solid/Angular adapters
        ↓
Mutation API
  insert · remove · setProp · commit
        ↓
@symbiote-native/engine
  retained tree · clone-on-write · event normalization
        ↓
nativeFabricUIManager
  createNode · cloneNodeWithNewProps · appendChildToSet · completeRoot
        ↓
stock React Native
  Fabric C++ · JSI · Yoga · native views

Why the engine exists

Most UI frameworks express host updates as mutations: set a prop, insert a child, remove a child. Fabric is persistent: you do not mutate an existing node; you clone nodes with new props or children and atomically commit a new child set.

The engine is the translation layer between those worlds. It owns the retained shadow tree and turns adapter mutations into Fabric child set commits.

That means each framework adapter stays thin. A persistence bug is fixed once in @symbiote-native/engine, not once per framework.

What stays stock

SymbioteNative does not fork React Native native code. These stay ordinary React Native runtime pieces:

• Fabric C++ shadow tree
• Yoga layout
• JSI and Hermes
• iOS/Android host surfaces
• native modules

The only replaced layer is the JavaScript renderer that drives Fabric.

Events

Fabric returns events to the same handle passed at node creation time. In React, that handle is a Fiber. In SymbioteNative, it is a retained-tree node owned by the engine. The adapter maps framework event syntax onto engine listeners, and the engine normalizes native events back into those listeners.

Deeper architecture

The public site should explain the architecture directly instead of pointing readers at local repository notes. Deeper design rationale can be promoted into standalone public pages as the docs grow.