Iced 0.14 UI Debugging: The Agent Skill That Gets It Right

Where this fits

You're building a Rust desktop app with Iced 0.14 and hit a wall: a custom widget ignores mouse events, an overlay flickers, or your pane_grid won't re-layout after state changes. The 0.14 API shifted subtly from 0.13—event signatures, capture_event, invalidate_layout—and your agent keeps generating code from memory that fails to compile. This skill pins the agent to the current API, with a full reference and canonical examples, so it can diagnose and fix UI issues without guessing.

Why agents benefit

• Classifies the UI surface (widget, overlay, canvas, shader, layout) before generating code, preventing wrong-API mistakes.
• Loads canonical 0.14 examples instead of relying on training data that may reflect older versions.
• Detects the three most common failure modes: missing capture_event, missing invalidate_layout, and 0.13 event signatures.
• Provides a debugging guide for animation and render issues, reducing trial-and-error cycles.
• Ships a bundled full-API reference, so the agent can look up exact signatures without leaving the conversation.

Practical scenarios

Debugging a custom widget's event handling

Your widget doesn't respond to clicks. The skill's surface-selection guide points to iced::advanced and the example shows the correct on_event signature with capture_event. The agent applies the fix and verifies against the bundled reference.

Building an overlay that stays interactive

Overlays need proper event capture and layout invalidation. The skill's animated-layout guide explains how to keep the overlay responsive and avoid stale rendering, and the agent implements it directly.

Migrating from 0.13 to 0.14

You have a working 0.13 codebase and need to upgrade. The skill's gotchas section highlights the event signature changes, so the agent can systematically update call sites instead of guessing.

Add it to your agent workflow

Install with:

npx skills add vanillagreencom/kendex --skill iced-rs

Then ask your agent: "Debug this Iced widget that isn't redrawing" — the skill auto-loads and routes the agent to the right reference and example. For more context on this skill and others, check its listing at OpenAgentSkill.

Compare before adopting

Before committing, compare against other Iced skills by checking:

• Quality signals: Does the README include a workflow and failure-mode guide? Are examples canonical and version-pinned?
• Maintenance freshness: Last commit date and responsiveness to issues (the kendex report command is a good sign).
• Alternatives: Generic Rust UI skills may lack Iced-specific depth; weigh breadth vs. precision.
• Workflow fit: Does it match how you already use agents (e.g., auto-load vs. manual invocation)?

Why it is worth tracking

This skill has 64 stars and a clear maintenance path (MIT, active repo, issue reporting built-in). It's updated to Iced 0.14, a version that introduced breaking changes many developers are still migrating to. If you're building or maintaining Iced UIs, tracking this skill saves hours of API archaeology. Evaluate it when you next hit a 0.14-specific bug or start a new widget-heavy interface.