Monogrid ensures every line in a Unicode box drawing has the same visual width — accounting for CJK characters (2 columns), emoji (2 columns), combining marks (0 width), and ASCII (1 column).
The width tables are Q.E.D verified across xterm.js, Alacritty, and Ghostty.
Quick Start
# Check a file
monogrid check docs/guide.md
# Auto-fix alignment issues
monogrid fix docs/guide.md
# Verify at character level
monogrid qed docs/guide.md
Installation
Included with the Monolex app, or install via:
niia setup
# Verify
monogrid version
┌──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┐
│ ~/.niia/bin/ │
├──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┤
│ │
│ monogram 8.4 MB Code search (trigram + call chain) │
│ monogrid 2.2 MB Box alignment (Unicode width + 9 rules) │
│ monokist 6.9 MB Git structure (branch/commit cache) │
│ monomento 6.6 MB Document search (trigram + ref graph) │
│ │
└──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┘
Commands
check — Inspect Without Modifying
monogrid check <files...> [-v] [--show-flow]
| Flag | Description |
|---|
-v | Verbose — show box details (pattern, nesting, inner boxes) |
--show-flow | Show flow diagram detections (info only) |
monogrid file.md works without the check keyword.
Exit code 0 if no issues, 1 if issues found.
fix — Auto-Fix with Loop
monogrid fix <files...> [--outer-only] [--max-iter N] [--qed]
| Flag | Description |
|---|
--fix-all | Fix outer width + inner │ position (default) |
--outer-only | Fix outer width only |
--max-iter N | Max iterations (default: 10) |
--qed | Run Q.E.D verification after fixing |
This command modifies files in place.
qed — Q.E.D Deep Verification
Character-by-character width analysis. For each box:
- Calculates visual width of every line
- Lists every non-ASCII character with its Unicode codepoint and width
- Groups by category (COMBINING, BMP_WIDE, HIGH_WIDE, DEFAULT)
- Verifies recalculated width matches expected
Only meaningful after all issues are fixed.
structure — Structural Analysis
monogrid structure <files...>
report — Compact File Survey
monogrid report <files...>
Workflow
┌──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┐
│ RECOMMENDED WORKFLOW │
├──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┤
│ │
│ Step 0: monogrid report docs/*.mdx │
│ → Survey: which files, how many issues │
│ │
│ Step 1: monogrid fix docs/*.mdx │
│ → Auto-fix outer + inner Rule 6 (~90% resolved) │
│ │
│ Step 2: monogrid check docs/problem-file.mdx -v │
│ → See remaining issues (manual-only rules) │
│ │
│ Step 3: monogrid structure docs/problem-file.mdx │
│ → Diagnose structural overflows │
│ │
│ Step 4: (manual edit) + monogrid qed docs/file.mdx │
│ → Character-level proof of correctness │
│ │
│ Step 5: monogrid report docs/*.mdx │
│ → Confirm 0 issues across all files │
│ │
└──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┘
What It Checks
Monogrid enforces 9 alignment rules:
| Rule | Name | Auto-Fix |
|---|
| 1 | Outer box width consistency | Yes |
| 2 | Missing inner border (closing │) | No |
| 3 | Inner ║ position consistency | No |
| 4 | Inner border ═ width match | No |
| 5 | Flow diagram recognition | Info only |
| 6 | Single-line box │ position | Yes |
| 7 | Missing border (content overflow) | No |
| 8 | ASCII box detection (+---+) | No |
| 9 | Structural overflow analysis | No |
Width Rules
CodexMono renders characters at these widths:
| Category | Width | Examples |
|---|
| ASCII | 1 | A-Z, 0-9, !@# |
| Box Drawing | 1 | ┌ ─ ┐ │ └ ┘ ╔ ═ ╗ ║ |
| CJK Ideographs | 2 | 漢 字 한 글 |
| Hangul Syllables | 2 | 가 나 다 |
| Emoji | 2 | ✅ ❌ ⭐ 💥 🔥 |
| Fullwidth ASCII | 2 | Ａ Ｂ Ｃ |
| Combining Marks | 0 | Variation Selectors (VS16) |
Common mistake: ⚠ (U+26A0) is width 1, not 2. But ⚡ (U+26A1) is width 2.
These are only 1 codepoint apart but have different widths. Monogrid’s tables handle this correctly.
Self-Verification
Monogrid’s own --help output passes monogrid check with 0 issues:
monogrid --help > /tmp/help.txt
monogrid check /tmp/help.txt
# ✅ All boxes aligned correctly (outer + inner)!
# Total issues found: 0
Origin
Monogrid is an exact port of check-boxes.py v5.7 (Python, 1,984 lines) to Rust (2,719 lines). The Unicode width tables were verified through ASURA 3-Phase Research across three terminal emulators. Both versions produce identical results on all test files. 
