Architecture — Buxbrew Addon

Buxbrew — technical architecture (2.5.5)

Runtime data flow

Player presses action bar button
         |
Global UseAction wrapper(slot, checkCursor, onSelf)
         |-- lazy saved-slot hydration
         |-- optional watch-mode print of slot number
         |-- if watched slot matches --> doEmoteNow()
         |                                  |-- GetTime() / 90s gate
         |                                  |-- uniformly choose from EMOTES
         |                                  '-- SendChatMessage(line, "EMOTE")
         '-- call previously captured UseAction with original arguments

The implementation captures _Orig_UseAction = UseAction and replaces the global. It does not intercept spell success or combat-log events; it reacts to the button press itself. It forwards slot, checkCursor, onSelf to the previous function.

Core components

Symbol	Purpose
`EMOTES`	215 literal text strings, one chosen by `math.random(1, table.getn(EMOTES))`
`WATCH_SLOT`	Selected action slot, initialized from per-character saved data
`WATCH_MODE`	Unsaved diagnostic toggle printing slot numbers
`LAST_EMOTE_TIME`	Unsaved last-accepted trigger time, initialized to 0
`EMOTE_COOLDOWN`	Fixed 90-second interval
`MadAxeBuxbrewDB.slot`	Per-character persisted slot
`/mae`	Slash-command configuration, status, trigger and debug surface

The EMOTES pool contains strings, not animation IDs, voice files, sound kits or external JSON. There is no dependency, scheduler thread, addon-to-addon network traffic, interface panel or background per-frame tick.

Lifecycle and storage

The code registers VARIABLES_LOADED, PLAYER_ENTERING_WORLD, PLAYER_LOGIN and PLAYER_LOGOUT. On saved-variable or world initialization it reads the stored slot; on login it seeds math.random with a value derived from GetTime(); on logout it persists the current slot. Setting or resetting a slot also updates the saved table immediately.

The manifest declares ## SavedVariablesPerCharacter: MadAxeBuxbrewDB, not account-wide storage. Neither the cooldown nor watch-mode toggle persists through reload.

Interface and compatibility risk

Lua mismatch: code comments say “Lua 5.0-safe”, while the parser calls string.match(s, "..."), introduced in Lua 5.1. On a strict Lua 5.0 client, /mae may error before processing any command. This is a source-supported risk, not an observed runtime error.
Global hook: if multiple add-ons wrap UseAction, the resulting call chain depends on load order and whether each wrapper delegates.
Cooldown start: with LAST_EMOTE_TIME = 0, an eligible press before 90 seconds of GetTime() may be suppressed.
Localization: prose is authored in English and Unicode punctuation appears in the source. Verify encoding and language behavior in actual clients.
Input validation: /mae slot accepts any string convertible to a number; it does not validate action-bar bounds or integer-only values.
Chat restrictions: sending EMOTE depends on the live server/client and may be limited; no game test was executed.

Packaging

The repository contains Buxbrew.lua and Buxbrew.toc; manifest title Buxbrew, internal slash namespace MADAXEBUXBREW, internal source header MadAxeBuxbrew. Their difference is historical naming, not a required rename. A 2025-09-12 manifest commit aligned the filename reference to the actual Lua file.

Document information

Source: Buxbrew.lua and Buxbrew.toc as inspected on 2026-10-26. Static code reading only.