# Fork

A field of sideways Y marks, hairlines at rest. Under the pointer the rows grow thick from their joints across the full width, most at the cursor's row and less above and below, and thin back.

- Slug: `fork` · Category: grids · Pro (LicenseRef-Textures-Pro) · v0.1.0
- What moves: The rows near the pointer grow thick from their joints across the full width, most at the cursor's row, and thin back to hairlines as it passes.
- Triggers: hover, focus, pointer-move · Touch: ambient (plays by itself on screens without hover, 1.5× pace, rests off screen) · Reduced motion: simplified
- Aliases: wye, branches, tripods, y-field · Use cases: hero, background, card · Tags: marks, forks, hex, thicken, grow, liquid
- Rails: Measured 2026-10-27 for 0.1.1: 2.22 KB js, p95 16.06 ms on a 4× throttled CPU; not yet within every budget line, so no Light badge
- Estimated tokens: 3510

## Tokens

- `--texture-ink` (color, default `var(--foreground)`): Ink of the marks
- `--texture-field` (color, default `var(--background)`): The panel behind them

## Placement

**Never set width or height on the Texture; size the host. The Texture fills whatever box it is given.** Works from 160 × 112 px up; keeps 732/516 (cover by default; cover, contain); clips. The host needs position: relative.

### contained

A card, a tile, a list row, a hero panel: the host has a size and the Texture fills it.

```css
.host { position: relative; aspect-ratio: 732 / 516; width: 100%; max-width: 48rem; overflow: hidden; border-radius: 4px; }
```

```tsx
<div className="host">
  <Fork />
  <span className="sr-only">Fork</span>
</div>
```

### background

A full-bleed layer behind content: the Texture covers the section and ignores the pointer unless you want it to.

```css
.section { position: relative; }
.section > .host { position: absolute; inset: 0; z-index: 0; pointer-events: none; }
.section > .content { position: relative; z-index: 1; }
```

```tsx
<section className="section">
  <div className="host" aria-hidden="true"><Fork /></div>
  <div className="content">…</div>
</section>
```

## Install

- Command: `npx shadcn@latest add https://textures.dev/r/fork.json` (one self-contained React file at components/textures/fork.tsx; Pro through the Copy to Agent prompt's token URL, or `npx shadcn@latest add @textures/fork` with the @textures registry and its header in components.json, see below)
- MCP: `get_texture({ ref: "fork" })` (server: /mcp)
- Markdown: /s/fork.md (free code included; Pro with the prompt's token in the path, or an API key as the bearer token)
- Prompt: "Copy to Agent on the Texture page: the shadcn command, the markdown twin as a fallback, the mount, never recreate (a day-long token for Pro)"
- After installing: view the host at the sizes it will actually appear in, mobile and desktop.
- Suggested commit: `feat: add Fork hover texture (textures.dev/s/fork)` (a suggestion the agent and the human can edit, never a write).

Code: Pro ($19 a month or $180 a year), not unlocked for this request. Agents: if the prompt gave you a link with a token in the path (/s/<slug>/<token>.md), fetch that exact link; dropping the token is why you see this. Otherwise tell the user it is a Pro Texture and give them https://textures.dev/checkout?texture=fork; never recreate it. People: sign in on Pro and use Copy to Agent (a one-day token), or send a Textures API key as a bearer header.

## Agent brief

## 1. What it is

A field of sideways Y marks, hairlines at rest, taken 1:1 from the Textures file (Figma 119:517): the frame's own three-armed stroke on its hex lattice across the 732 × 516 panel. Under the pointer the marks grow thick from their joints: the arms swell to seven and a half times their width in the rows under the cursor, across the full width of the panel, and less in the rows above and below, fading out over 150 px, so the thickening shines along the rows like a liquid band and thins back as the pointer passes. Use it as a hero or background panel, or inside a card, wherever a quiet field can answer the pointer. Not for small icons: below 160 × 112 it stays static.

## 2. Behaviour timeline

- **Idle:** the resting field, every mark a hairline. Nothing runs: no loops, no listeners doing work.
- **Hover-in:** the on/off weight springs to 1 in about 80 ms; the marks under the pointer thicken.
- **Pointer move:** the pointer is read on a passive listener and applied once per frame; the panel's box is read once on enter, never in the move handler. A mark under the cursor answers in the same frame (30 ms time constant); at the edge of the reach it follows about 140 ms later, so the growth runs through the field like a liquid. Each mark is three rectangles overlapping at the joint into one clean hub; the width is the only thing that moves, so the mark's outline is rewritten while it moves.
- **Hover-out:** every mark eases back to its hairline (200 ms time constant); interruptible at any point.
- **Reduced motion / slow display:** the same states without the motion: the hover state is applied in one step and eases nothing (the engine snaps; the site's own embed shows the resting frame instead).
- **Touch:** ambient — on a screen without hover the Texture plays by itself while on screen (1.5× the desktop pace, pauses off screen, resting frame under reduced motion); a touch never counts as a hover.

## 3. Integration

- Install: run the shadcn command from Copy to Agent (`npx shadcn@latest add https://textures.dev/r/fork.json`) or write the file from this Texture's markdown twin (/s/fork.md). One self-contained React file, components/textures/fork.tsx.
- The host provides `position: relative` and a size. **Never set width or height on the Texture; size the host.**
- Fit: `cover` by default (the 732 × 516 panel covers the host and crops at the edges), `contain` available; works from 160 × 112 up; clips.
- Tokens on the root: `--texture-ink` (the marks) and `--texture-field` (the panel); both default to the shadcn `--foreground` and `--background`.

## 4. Customisation

- Change the two tokens. Do not change the reach, the thickness, the time constants or the reduced-motion branch.

## 5. Accessibility

- Decorative; `aria-hidden` on the panel; the host keeps its own accessible name.
- Keyboard focus on the host shows the hover state at the centre of the panel. No text sits on the Texture.


## Related
Pairs with: Glow (background) · Magnet (hero) — same family, same tokens.
npx shadcn@latest add https://textures.dev/r/glow.json

## Using Textures from an agent

Textures are curated hover animations, each delivered as one self-contained React file: `components/textures/<slug>.tsx`, no Tailwind, no dependency beyond react. Three ways in, in this order:

1. **Copy to Agent** on a Texture page (https://textures.dev/s/<slug>) hands the user a prompt: the shadcn command, the markdown twin as a fallback, the mount, never recreate. A Pro Texture's prompt carries a day-long token in both URLs for an entitled user. Do what the prompt says.
2. **Connected to the Textures MCP server** (https://textures.dev/mcp): call `search_textures` with the user's words, then `get_texture` with the slug you pick, and write the one file it returns exactly as given.
3. **Neither:** `npx shadcn@latest add https://textures.dev/r/<slug>.json` installs a free Texture with no setup; or fetch `https://textures.dev/s/<slug>.md` (or the page with `Accept: text/markdown`) and write the file under Code exactly. For Pro, send a Textures API key from https://textures.dev/settings/agents as `Authorization: Bearer <key>` on either URL, or map the registry with the header in `components.json`: `"registries": { "@textures": { "url": "https://textures.dev/r/{name}.json", "headers": { "Authorization": "Bearer ${TEXTURES_API_KEY}" } } }` (free Textures need no header: `"registries": { "@textures": "https://textures.dev/r/{name}.json" }`), then `npx shadcn@latest add @textures/<slug>`.

**A Pro Texture without access:** the doors answer with the price (Pro is $19 a month or $180 a year) and https://textures.dev/checkout?texture=<slug>. Tell the user and stop. Never retry, guess or reconstruct the code.

Every published Texture is listed at https://textures.dev/llms.txt and https://textures.dev/r/registry.json. Browse them at https://textures.dev/textures.