/*******
 * Extract the contents of a balanced, nested delimiter region from a string.
 *
 * Purpose:
 * - Used by tokenizers/parsers to grab the *body* of a bracketed segment
 *   (e.g. array/object-ish forms) while correctly handling:
 *   - nesting (depth),
 *   - quoted strings,
 *   - backslash escapes inside quotes,
 *   - multi-character openers/closers.
 *
 * Core semantics:
 * - Assumes the caller has already consumed the opener.
 * - `startIndex` must point to the first character *after* the opener.
 * - Scans forward until the matching `closer` that returns depth to 0.
 *
 * Quote rules:
 * - Only double quotes (`"`) are treated as string delimiters.
 * - While inside quotes:
 *   - `\"` does not terminate the quote,
 *   - `\\` toggles escape state normally,
 *   - openers/closers are ignored (they do not affect depth).
 *
 * Delimiter rules:
 * - Maintains `depth` starting at 1 (the initial opener already seen).
 * - Each opener occurrence increments depth.
 * - Each closer occurrence decrements depth.
 * - When depth reaches 0:
 *   - Returns `{ body, endIndex }` where:
 *     - `body` is the substring between `startIndex` and the closer,
 *     - `endIndex` is the index of the closer’s first character.
 *
 * Multi-character delimiter support:
 * - If `opener`/`closer` are multi-character strings, matching uses
 *   `str.startsWith(opener, ix)` / `str.startsWith(closer, ix)`, and
 *   the scan index advances by the delimiter length.
 *
 * Error behavior:
 * - If the scan reaches the end of `str` without closing (depth never returns
 *   to 0), throws a transform error indicating an unmatched opener/closer
 *   pair starting at `startIndex`.
 *
 * @param str - Source string to scan (may be a joined multi-line slice).
 * @param startIndex - Index of the first character immediately after the opener.
 * @param opener - Opening delimiter sequence (single- or multi-character).
 * @param closer - Closing delimiter sequence (single- or multi-character).
 * @returns `{ body, endIndex }` where `body` is the extracted inner text and
 *          `endIndex` is the index of the closer’s first character.
 *******/
export declare function slice_balanced_arr(str: string, startIndex: number, /* index of the first char *after* the opener */ opener: string, closer: string): {
    body: string;
    endIndex: number;
};
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