OpenChamber provides UI runtimes (web/desktop/VS Code) for interacting with an OpenCode server (local auto-start or remote URL). UI uses HTTP + SSE via @opencode-ai/sdk.
Desktop(Electron) boots the web server in the same Node process as the Electron main, then loads the web UI fromhttp://127.0.0.1:<port>. No sidecar subprocess.Desktop(Tauri, legacy) still spawnsopenchamber-serveras a bun-compiled sidecar binary. Kept only for auto-update compatibility with existing Tauri installs.- All backend logic lives in
packages/web/server/*(andpackages/vscode/*for the VS Code runtime). The native shell is not a feature backend. - The shell is used only for stable native integrations: menu, dialog (open folder), notifications, updater, deep-links, quit confirmation.
- New desktop work goes into
packages/electron/. This is the forward path. packages/desktop/(Tauri) is kept running in parallel only to preserve auto-update for existing installs until the cutover. Do not add features to it; do not port bug fixes back unless they actually affect currently-released Tauri users.- Desktop-side changes (IPC handlers, native integrations, window/quit/notification behavior) land in
packages/electron/main.mjs+packages/electron/preload.mjs. The__TAURI__shim exposed by the preload keeps the shared UI working against both shells, so renderer-side code should not branch on shell type. - Electron imports the server via
@openchamber/web/server/index.js(workspace dep) and callsstartWebUiServer({...}). The returned handle hasgetPort()/stop(). Notifications flow via anonDesktopNotificationcallback injected at startup — no stdout-parsing IPC. - Build/release: both shells ship in the same GitHub release today (
.github/workflows/release.yml). The one-shot Tauri → Electron auto-update migration is documented indocs/TAURI_TO_ELECTRON_CUTOVER.md; run that when the user decides to flip. - After the cutover ships and stabilises,
packages/desktop/is deleted; this note collapses back to "Desktop is Electron".
- Runtime/tooling: Bun (
package.jsonpackageManager), Node >=20 (package.jsonengines) - UI: React, TypeScript, Vite, Tailwind v4
- State: Zustand (
packages/ui/src/stores/) - UI primitives: Base UI (
@base-ui/react, primary source for dropdown/select/dialog/menu/tooltip/etc. — wrappers live inpackages/ui/src/components/ui/), Radix UI (package.jsondeps, legacy usages being migrated), HeroUI (package.jsondeps), Remixicon (package.jsondeps) - Server: Express (
packages/web/server/index.js) - Desktop (forward): Electron 41 (
packages/electron/) - Desktop (legacy, maintenance-only): Tauri v2 (
packages/desktop/src-tauri/) - VS Code: extension + webview (
packages/vscode/)
Workspaces are packages/* (see package.json).
- Shared UI:
packages/ui - Web app + server + CLI:
packages/web - Desktop shell (Electron — forward):
packages/electron - Desktop shell (Tauri — legacy, maintenance-only):
packages/desktop - VS Code extension:
packages/vscode
Before changing any mapped module, read its module documentation first.
Web runtime and server implementation for OpenChamber.
Server-side integration modules used by API routes and runtime services.
Quota provider registry, dispatch, and provider integrations for usage endpoints.
- Module docs:
packages/web/server/lib/quota/DOCUMENTATION.md
Git repository operations for the web server runtime.
- Module docs:
packages/web/server/lib/git/DOCUMENTATION.md
GitHub authentication, OAuth device flow, Octokit client factory, and repository URL parsing.
- Module docs:
packages/web/server/lib/github/DOCUMENTATION.md
OpenCode server integration utilities including config management, provider authentication, and UI authentication.
- Module docs:
packages/web/server/lib/opencode/DOCUMENTATION.md
Notification message preparation utilities for system notifications, including text truncation and optional summarization.
- Module docs:
packages/web/server/lib/notifications/DOCUMENTATION.md
WebSocket protocol utilities for terminal input handling including message normalization, control frame parsing, and rate limiting.
- Module docs:
packages/web/server/lib/terminal/DOCUMENTATION.md
Server-side text-to-speech services and summarization helpers for /api/tts/* endpoints.
- Module docs:
packages/web/server/lib/tts/DOCUMENTATION.md
Skills catalog management including discovery, installation, and configuration of agent skill packages.
- Module docs:
packages/web/server/lib/skills-catalog/DOCUMENTATION.md
All scripts are in package.json.
- Validate:
bun run type-check,bun run lint - Build all:
bun run build - Desktop build (Electron — primary):
bun run electron:build - Desktop dev (Electron):
bun run electron:dev - Desktop build (Tauri — legacy):
bun run desktop:build - VS Code build:
bun run vscode:build - Release smoke build:
bun run release:test(shell script:scripts/test-release-build.sh)
- Web bootstrap:
packages/web/src/main.tsx - Web server:
packages/web/server/index.js - Web CLI:
packages/web/bin/cli.js(package bin:packages/web/package.json) - Desktop (Electron — primary):
packages/electron/main.mjs(boots the web server in-process viastartWebUiServer, loads web UI over loopback; preload atpackages/electron/preload.mjsexposes the__TAURI__IPC shim so shared UI code is shell-agnostic) - Desktop (Tauri — legacy):
packages/desktop/src-tauri/src/main.rs - VS Code extension host:
packages/vscode/src/extension.ts - VS Code webview bootstrap:
packages/vscode/webview/main.tsx
- UI client wrapper:
packages/ui/src/lib/opencode/client.ts(imports@opencode-ai/sdk/v2) - SSE hookup:
packages/ui/src/hooks/useEventStream.ts - Web server embeds/starts OpenCode server:
packages/web/server/index.js(createOpencodeServer) - Web runtime filesystem endpoints: search
packages/web/server/index.jsfor/api/fs/ - External server support: Set
OPENCODE_HOST(full base URL, e.g.http://hostname:4096) orOPENCODE_PORT, plusOPENCODE_SKIP_START=true, to connect to existing OpenCode instance
- Settings shell:
packages/ui/src/components/views/SettingsView.tsx - Settings shared primitives:
packages/ui/src/components/sections/shared/ - Settings sections:
packages/ui/src/components/sections/(inclskills/) - Chat UI:
packages/ui/src/components/chat/andpackages/ui/src/components/chat/message/ - Theme + typography:
packages/ui/src/lib/theme/,packages/ui/src/lib/typography.ts - Terminal UI:
packages/ui/src/components/terminal/(usesghostty-web)
- Git:
packages/ui/src/lib/gitApi.ts,packages/web/server/index.js(simple-git) - Terminal PTY:
packages/web/server/index.js(bun-pty/node-pty) - Skills catalog:
packages/web/server/lib/skills-catalog/, UI:packages/ui/src/components/sections/skills/
- Do not modify
../opencode(separate repo). - Do not run git/GitHub commands unless explicitly asked.
- Keep baseline green (run
bun run type-check,bun run lintbefore finalizing changes).
- Prefer the smallest correct change.
- Preserve working behavior before improving structure.
- Do not add cleverness where a direct implementation is enough.
- Do not infer critical state from weak signals when a stronger source exists.
- Do not encode policy only in UI; enforce it in core logic.
- Do not hide data loss, partial failure, or fallback behavior. Make it explicit in code.
- Finish work end-to-end: implementation, verification, and cleanup.
- Keep diffs tight; avoid drive-by refactors.
- Follow local precedent; inspect nearby code before introducing new patterns.
- Backend changes: keep web, desktop, and VS Code behavior consistent when they share contracts.
- TypeScript: avoid
any, blind casts, and shape guessing. - React: prefer function components + hooks; use classes only when required.
- Control flow: prefer early returns and explicit branching over nested ternaries.
- Styling: Tailwind v4, typography via
packages/ui/src/lib/typography.ts, theme vars viapackages/ui/src/lib/theme/. - Shared UI patterns: reuse shared primitives before introducing feature-local markup patterns.
- Toasts: use the wrapper from
@/components/ui; do not importsonnerdirectly in feature code. - No new deps unless asked.
- Never add secrets or log sensitive data.
- Keep orchestration entrypoints thin:
index.js, bridge files, bootstrap files, provider roots. - Move route, domain, and runtime logic into focused modules with clear ownership.
- Prefer dependency injection over hidden module coupling.
- Add or update module documentation when ownership changes.
- Prefer deterministic state over heuristics.
- Use live server/session state for live activity. Do not let historical anomalies masquerade as current execution.
- If a fallback is necessary, scope it narrowly to the active entity and treat it as temporary.
- Restore derived UI state from authoritative records. Example: restore model or agent from the latest user message, not assistant-side guesses.
- Derive live UI behavior from live state channels, not persisted history.
- Use historical records to restore context, not to infer that work is still in progress.
- If live state is delayed, use the narrowest possible transient fallback and clear it as soon as authoritative state arrives.
- If web defines a route or payload contract that shared UI depends on, keep VS Code and desktop parity where applicable.
- Shared behavior differences must be intentional and visible in code.
- Do not ship a web-only assumption into shared UI.
- Cross-directory and multi-entity operations must tolerate partial failure.
- Prefer per-item results, rollback paths, or resumable cleanup over all-or-nothing assumptions.
- Never leave optimistic state or local caches stranded after failure.
All safety and correctness rules MUST be enforced in core command logic, independent of output mode.
Interactive/pretty UX (@clack/prompts) is a presentation layer only.
It must never be the only place where validation or restriction is enforced.
The same functional outcome and safety gates MUST hold for all execution modes:
- Interactive TTY (full Clack UX)
- Non-interactive shells (piped/stdin-less automation)
--quiet--json- Fully pre-specified flags (no prompts)
In all modes, invalid operations MUST fail with non-zero exit code and deterministic error semantics.
Do not rely on prompts to enforce policy.
- Prompts MAY help users choose valid inputs.
- Core validators MUST run even when prompts are unavailable or skipped.
--quietsuppresses non-essential output only; it does not weaken validation.--jsonchanges output shape only; it does not weaken validation.
Detailed Clack UX patterns (primitives, prompt gating, and implementation checklist)
are defined in the clack-cli-patterns skill and should not be duplicated here.
When working on terminal CLI commands, prompts, or output formatting, agents MUST study the Clack CLI skill first.
Before starting terminal CLI work:
skill({ name: "clack-cli-patterns" })
Scope: terminal CLI only (for example packages/web/bin/*). Do not apply this requirement to VS Code or web UI work.
When working on any UI components, styling, or visual changes, agents MUST study the theme system skill first.
Before starting any UI work:
skill({ name: "theme-system" })
This skill contains all color tokens, semantic logic, decision tree, and usage patterns. All UI colors must use theme tokens - never hardcoded values or Tailwind color classes.
These rules exist because violating them has caused measurable regressions (render cascades, memory bloat, UI jank). They apply to all UI and sync layer work.
- Treat common stores as render fanout boundaries. An unnecessary reference change in shared state can re-render large parts of the app.
- Do not put high-frequency state in broadly consumed stores. Fast-changing state should live in narrow stores with narrow subscribers.
- Update only the fields that changed. Preserve references for untouched state branches.
- Prefer leaf selectors over container selectors. Subscribe to the smallest stable value that satisfies the component.
- Isolate hot consumers. If a value changes often and only a few components need it, move it to a narrower store or consume it in a memoized child.
- Do not subscribe shell/layout components to broad live collections. If a shell only needs one field, entity, or derived flag, subscribe to that instead of the whole collection.
- Treat provider roots as global hot paths. A top-level provider must not subscribe to high-frequency data unless the feature is actually enabled and the subscription is essential.
Zustand skips re-renders when a selector returns the same reference (Object.is). Every new object/array reference triggers a re-render in every subscriber.
- Never spread all state fields in an update. Only create new references for fields that actually changed. A
message.part.deltaevent should not clonesession,permission, etc. - Select leaf values, not containers.
useStore((s) => s.permission[sessionID])is correct.useStore((s) => s.permission)subscribes to every permission change across all sessions. - Preserve references when merging. If prepending older messages, keep existing message object references. Only add truly new items. Return the original array if nothing was added.
- For derived collections, preserve item identity when presentation-relevant fields are unchanged. Reuse previous item references for unchanged rows/items and move high-frequency live fields to narrow per-item selectors.
A single store with N properties means every subscriber re-evaluates on every state change. Split stores by change frequency and subscriber set.
- Group state by how often it changes. Streaming state (updated 60/sec) must not live with user preferences (updated on click).
- Group state by who reads it. If only 2 components need a value, it belongs in a store that only those 2 subscribe to.
- Cross-store reads use
.getState(). Actions in one store that need another store calluseOtherStore.getState()— imperative, no subscription. - Never add unrelated state to an existing store just because it's convenient. Create a new store.
- Gate expensive operations on the hot path. During streaming,
message.part.deltaandmessage.part.updatedfire ~60/sec. AnyfindIndex,filter, or iteration added to these handlers multiplies across every event. Gate behind a cheap boolean check first (e.g., checknext[0]before scanning the array). - Skip no-op updates. If an incoming event doesn't change the state (same role, same finish, same timestamps), return
falsefrom the reducer to avoid creating new references. - Coalesce by key. Same-entity events (e.g., repeated
session.statusfor the same session) should replace earlier ones in the queue, not accumulate. - Preserve event ordering semantics. Reducers and queues must not let stale deltas or out-of-order events corrupt the latest state.
- Do not widen live-activity fallbacks. A fallback for delayed status should inspect only the current trailing entity, not arbitrary historical records.
- Do not let lightweight polling erase rich fields. If light mode omits fields (e.g.,
diffStats), preserve previous rich data until a heavy follow-up fetch lands. - Use two-phase polling. Run cheap change detection first; only run heavy status fetches for directories that actually changed.
- Use the shadow Map pattern. Insert optimistic data into the store for instant UI, AND register it in a separate tracking Map. Cleanup happens deterministically via
mergeOptimisticPageon the next data fetch — not via heuristics in the event reducer. - Pass client-generated IDs to the server. Use the same ID format as the server (hex-encoded timestamps). Pass
messageIDtopromptAsyncso the server echoes back the same ID. This prevents duplicates and enables in-place replacement. - Rollback on error. Remove the optimistic entry from both the store and the shadow Map.
- Stabilize bridge callbacks. When wiring hook callbacks into module-level refs, use stable ref wrappers so effects do not loop on changing function identities.
- Capture send config at queue time. Queue items must include provider/model/agent/variant snapshot; do not re-resolve from mutable live state at send time.
- Keep server-selected attachments sendable. Preserve server-backed file selections in queue/submit flows and convert them to proper
file://URLs before sending. - Do not let text input state repaint unrelated chrome. Typing should not force unrelated controls, menus, indicators, or toolbars to re-render on every keystroke.
- Extract slow-changing chrome from hot input paths. If controls do not depend on the current text value, move them behind memoized boundaries with stable callbacks.
- Treat startup 502/503 as transient. Retry bootstrap/session-list flows with bounded retries/intervals, especially in VS Code where API readiness can lag bridge startup.
- Use polling recovery when failures are swallowed. If an async loader resolves without throwing on failure, recover with interval retries gated by loaded-state checks.
- Never use
await waitForFrames()for scroll preservation. Frames of visible scroll jump are unacceptable. UseuseLayoutEffectto adjust scroll synchronously after React commits DOM — before the browser paints. - Capture scroll state before the state change, restore in layout effect. The pattern: save
scrollHeight/scrollTopinto a ref before triggering the update, consume it inuseLayoutEffecton the rendered output. - Do not let viewport resizes masquerade as content growth. Viewport-height changes must not trigger the same scroll compensation logic used for actual content growth.
- Disable or narrow native/browser scroll anchoring when custom scroll logic exists. Browser anchoring and app-managed pinning/follow logic will fight and produce jiggle.
- Autosize textareas without transient collapse on growth. Avoid
height='auto'shrink/expand cycles on every character when the content only grew; this creates visible layout bounce.
- Do not sort structural lists directly from high-churn live fields. If live updates are frequent, sorting directly from them causes reorder thrash and wide rerender cascades.
- If live recency is required, freeze order during high-frequency updates and apply a one-shot reorder only at an intentional lifecycle edge. Choose the lifecycle edge explicitly instead of letting every intermediate update reshuffle the UI.
- Use one ordering source for all views of the same data. Different views of the same entities must derive from the same ranked list or rank map; do not let each surface re-derive ordering independently.
- Do not mix global snapshots and local live snapshots without an explicit reconciliation policy. If multiple data sources feed one view, define which fields win and how they merge.
- Extract high-frequency hook consumers into separate components. If a hook re-evaluates 60/sec (e.g., streaming status), wrap its consumer in a
React.memochild component so the parent doesn't re-render. - Use custom
React.memocomparators for message rows. Compare render-relevant fields (role, finish, parts count, part IDs) — not object references.
- Cap in-memory caches with both count and byte limits. Entry count alone doesn't prevent memory bloat from large files. Use dual-constraint LRU (e.g., 40 entries OR 20MB).
- Set store session limits to match loaded data. If bootstrap loads N sessions, set
limit >= N. Otherwise the next SSE event triggers trimming that silently removes sessions. - Invalidate caches on mutations. File content cache must clear entries on write, delete, rename. Prefetch cache must clear on session eviction.
- Use TTLs to prevent redundant fetches. If a session was fetched <15s ago, skip re-fetching — SSE events keep it current.
- Never cache directory strings in closures. Directory can change at any time (worktree switch). Read it dynamically from
opencodeClient.getDirectory()at call time. - Pass directory hints when the source of truth isn't available yet. Newly created sessions aren't in the sync store until SSE delivers them. Pass the known directory as a parameter instead of relying on lookup.
- When adding fallback logic, ask: can stale persisted data keep this path active forever?
- When deriving UI state, ask: is this live state, historical state, or inferred state?
- When adding store fields, ask: who reads this, how often does it change, and should it live elsewhere?
- When touching polling or bootstrap, ask: can a lighter payload erase richer existing data?
- When handling optimistic updates, ask: where is rollback, reconciliation, and duplicate prevention?
- When changing shared routes or state contracts, ask: what breaks in web, desktop, and VS Code?
- When fixing a bug with a heuristic, prefer narrowing the heuristic over widening it.
- Run
bun run type-checkandbun run lintbefore finalizing. - For hot-path changes, verify behavior under streaming or repeated events, not just static render.
- For sync or startup changes, verify fresh load, retry/failure, and restart behavior.
- For session changes, verify create, stream, abort, permission, archive/delete, and revisit flows when relevant.
- Releases + high-level changes:
CHANGELOG.md - Recent commits:
git log --oneline(latest tags:v1.4.6,v1.4.5)