README.md

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An infinite canvas for your code, terminals, browsers, docs, and AI agents.

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Cate is a desktop IDE built on an infinite canvas. Spread editors, terminals, browsers, docs, and AI agents across freeform space instead of stacking windows and tabs. Float them, dock them into tabs and splits, or detach them into their own OS windows, and Cate restores the whole layout when you reopen the folder.

Getting started: open a folder and it becomes a workspace. Right-click to add panels, press Cmd+K for the command palette, drag panels onto the dock to build tabs and splits. No config files.

Install

Download a prebuilt release. Don't build from source for daily use.

Platform	Formats	Link
macOS	DMG, ZIP (arm64, x64)	Latest release
Windows	NSIS installer, ZIP (x64)	Latest release
Linux	AppImage, DEB, tar.gz (x64)	Latest release

What's inside

• Canvas & layout: infinite zoom and pan, docking into tabs and splits across four zones, detachable windows, saved layouts, and multi-project session restore.
• Editors & terminals: Monaco editors with syntax highlighting, multi-cursor, diffs, and Markdown preview; native xterm.js terminals via node-pty; document panels for PDFs, DOCX, and images.
• Git: git-aware file tree with live watching, plus a source-control sidebar for staging, branches, worktrees, history, and inline diffs. Full-text search.
• AI agents: in-app coding agent (Pi) with chat threads and per-chat model memory. Connect Anthropic, OpenAI Codex, GitHub Copilot, Gemini, OpenRouter, Groq, Mistral, DeepSeek, and more via OAuth or API key.
• Navigation: canvas-wide search across files, terminal scrollback, and panel titles; command palette; panel-to-panel keyboard navigation.

Keyboard shortcuts

macOS shown below; on Windows/Linux use Ctrl in place of Cmd.

Panels & files		View & navigation
New terminal	Cmd+T	Command palette	Cmd+K
New editor	Cmd+Shift+E	Search everything	Cmd+Shift+F
New browser	Cmd+Shift+B	Toggle sidebar	Cmd+B
New agent	Cmd+Shift+A	Toggle file explorer	Cmd+Shift+X
New canvas	Cmd+Shift+C	Toggle minimap	Cmd+Shift+M
New file	Cmd+N	Focus next / previous panel	Ctrl+Tab / Ctrl+Shift+Tab
Save file	Cmd+S	Move between panels	Cmd+←↑↓→
Close panel	Cmd+W	Delete focused panel	Cmd+Backspace

Canvas
Zoom in / out	Cmd+= / Cmd+-
Reset zoom	Cmd+0
Zoom to fit / selection	Cmd+1 / Cmd+2
Auto-layout canvas	Cmd+Shift+L
Pan canvas	Shift+←↑↓→
Toggle select / hand tool	Shift+Space
Undo / redo	Cmd+Z / Cmd+Shift+Z

Every shortcut is rebindable in Settings.

Build from source

For contributors. Use the release above otherwise.

Prerequisites:

• Bun: package manager and script runner.
• Node.js 20 or 22 LTS (see .nvmrc) on your PATH. The build scripts run under it; the runtime daemon bundles its own Node 22.
• Linux only: node-pty ships prebuilt binaries for macOS and Windows, but not Linux, so it compiles from source there. Install Python 3 and a C++ toolchain:
  • Debian/Ubuntu: sudo apt install build-essential python3
  • Fedora/RHEL: sudo dnf install @development-tools gcc-c++ make python3
  • Arch: sudo pacman -S base-devel python

Fresh clone, one command sets everything up (installs dependencies and builds the local runtime daemon):

git clone https://github.com/0-AI-UG/cate.git
cd cate
bun run setup

Then:

bun run dev          # dev server with hot reload
bun run typecheck
bun run test         # unit tests (vitest)
bun run test:e2e     # Playwright integration tests
bun run build        # production build
bun run package      # package for distribution (:mac, :win, :linux)

Packaged binaries land in release/. The runtime daemon is rebuilt by bun run runtime:tarball (re-run it after changing anything under src/runtime/).

Architecture

src/
├── agent/      # Embedded Pi coding-agent: process manager, auth, marketplace, panel UI
├── main/       # Electron main process: IPC, workspaces, windows, updater, security
├── preload/    # Context-isolated IPC bridge
├── renderer/   # React 18 app: canvas, docking, panels, sidebar, stores, hooks
└── shared/     # IPC channels and shared types

Cate runs all IPC through a context-isolated preload bridge. Filesystem access is scoped to registered workspace roots, browser panels disable node integration, and terminals can't spawn outside approved directories.

Stack: Electron 41, React 18, Zustand 5, Monaco 0.52, xterm.js 5.5 + node-pty 1.0, Tailwind 3.4, electron-vite, electron-builder, electron-updater, Sentry. PDFs and DOCX via pdf.js and mammoth, git via simple-git, file watching via chokidar. The agent runtime is @earendil-works/pi.

Contributing

See CONTRIBUTING.md. Release-by-release history lives in the CHANGELOG.

Star history

License

MIT