pixijs

PixiJS v8 Development Skill

PixiJS is the fastest, most lightweight 2D rendering library for the web, supporting WebGL and WebGPU. This skill provides comprehensive API references, patterns, and best practices from official PixiJS v8 documentation.

If invoked directly via /pixijs, use $ARGUMENTS as the user's question to guide which reference files to read, if arguments are provided.

How to use this skill

This skill bundles PixiJS documentation organized by topic. Read only the reference file(s) relevant to the user's question — don't load everything at once.

Reference files

All reference files are in references/:

File	When to read	Topics covered
getting-started.md	New project setup, ecosystem overview	Ecosystem libraries, scaffolding, npm create pixi.js, basic usage example
architecture.md	How PixiJS works internally, performance, rendering pipeline	Architecture, environments, garbage collection, performance tips, render groups, render layers, render loop, scene graph
application.md	Application setup, game loop, plugins	Application class, Ticker, CullerPlugin, ResizePlugin, TickerPlugin
scene-objects.md	Working with display objects	Container, Sprite, Graphics (+ fill, pixel lines), Mesh, NineSliceSprite, ParticleContainer, TilingSprite, Renderers, cacheAsTexture
text.md	Any text rendering	Text, BitmapText, HTMLText, SplitText, TextStyle
visual-effects.md	Colors, filters, math, textures	Color class, filters/blend modes, math utilities, texture lifecycle
interaction.md	Click/touch/pointer events, accessibility	Event system, pointer/mouse/touch events, hit areas, accessibility overlays
assets.md	Loading images, audio, fonts, spritesheets	Assets API, background loader, compressed textures, manifests/bundles, resolver, SVGs
migration.md	Upgrading from v7, Three.js interop	v8 migration guide (breaking changes, new APIs), mixing PixiJS + Three.js
index.md	Need deeper detail than reference files provide	URLs to every individual doc page for fetching via WebFetch

Workflow

1. Identify the topic from the user's question (or from $ARGUMENTS if invoked directly)
2. Read the relevant reference file(s) from references/ — usually just one or two
3. If the reference file doesn't have enough detail, look up the specific page URL in references/index.md and fetch it with WebFetch to get the full doc page
4. As a last resort for broad questions, fetch https://pixijs.com/llms-full.txt — but prefer targeted fetches from index.md

Key PixiJS v8 patterns to remember

These are the most common gotchas and patterns that come up. Apply them even without reading the reference files.

Async initialization (v8 breaking change)

const app = new Application();
await app.init({ background: '#1099bb', resizeTo: window });
document.body.appendChild(app.canvas);

app.init() is async because of WebGPU support. Always await it before using the app.

Single package imports

// v8 — everything from one package
import { Application, Sprite, Container, Assets, Graphics } from 'pixi.js';

// NOT like v7 sub-packages
// import { Sprite } from '@pixi/sprite';  // WRONG in v8

Graphics API (v8 — build shape first, then style)

const g = new Graphics();
// v8: shape first, then fill/stroke
g.rect(0, 0, 100, 50);
g.fill('red');
g.stroke({ color: 'black', width: 2 });

// NOT v7 style:
// g.beginFill(0xff0000);  // WRONG in v8
// g.drawRect(0, 0, 100, 50);  // WRONG in v8

Asset loading

// Single asset
const texture = await Assets.load('image.png');

// Multiple assets
const textures = await Assets.load(['bunny.png', 'background.png']);

// With bundles
await Assets.init({ manifest: 'manifest.json' });
await Assets.loadBundle('game-screen');

Game loop

app.ticker.add((ticker) => {
    sprite.rotation += 0.01 * ticker.deltaTime;
});

Always multiply by ticker.deltaTime for frame-rate independent movement.

Vite caveat

When using Vite, wrap your code in an async IIFE — top-level await causes issues in production builds (Vite <=6.0.6):

(async () => {
    const app = new Application();
    await app.init({ ... });
    // ...
})();

Ecosystem quick reference

When the user asks about these libraries, read references/getting-started.md for details and links:

• @pixi/react — React 19+ bindings for declarative PixiJS
• @pixi/layout — Flexbox-style layout via Yoga engine
• pixi-spine — Skeletal animation
• pixi-filters — Visual effects (blur, glow, color, displacement, etc.)
• pixi-sound — WebAudio API playback
• @pixi/ui — Pre-built UI components (buttons, sliders, lists, etc.)
• @pixi/assetpack — Asset pipeline and optimization

Freshness

The bundled reference files are a snapshot of PixiJS v8 docs. If the user asks about something that might have changed recently or isn't covered in the references, fetch the specific doc page URL from references/index.md using WebFetch. The llms.txt endpoints are:

• Index: https://pixijs.com/llms.txt
• Medium: https://pixijs.com/llms-medium.txt
• Full: https://pixijs.com/llms-full.txt