Reasonix Desktop (Electron shell)

macOS 1.38.7 update recovery

Desktop 1.38.7 can report current executable is not inside a macOS .app bundle before it installs a newer build. Quit Reasonix, mount the Apple Silicon, Intel, or Universal DMG from the official download page, and replace /Applications/Reasonix.app. The application bundle is replaced; settings, sessions, and other user data remain in their existing user-data directories. After this one-time full install, verify automatic update by updating the repaired build to the next candidate. Do not treat the manual replacement itself as an automatic-update pass.

Model/provider setup: English guide · 中文指南.

A native desktop window around the Reasonix Go kernel. The same transport-agnostic control.Controller that backs the chat TUI and the HTTP/SSE server is driven by the Electron shell through the desktop host protocol — the Go binary runs as a supervised service (reasonix-desktop --host-rpc over stdio), the shell owns the window, tray, menu and renderer lifecycle. See the host protocol and the migration record.

┌─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┐
│  Electron shell (desktop/electron)                           │
│    renderer: bridge.ts ──invoke──▶ window.reasonixDesktop     │
│    bridge.ts ◀─events── host.on("agent:event")                │
└───────────────▲───────────────────────────┬─────────────────┘
        desktop/invoke (JSON-RPC over stdio) │ desktop/event
┌───────────────┴───────────────────────────▼─────────────────┐
│  desktop/app.go   App (bound)  +  eventSink (event.Sink)     │
│  desktop/host_rpc.go  --host-rpc service, embedded dist      │
└───────────────▲───────────────────────────┬─────────────────┘
       commands │                            │ typed event stream
┌───────────────┴────────────────────────────▼────────────────┐
│  internal/boot.Build → internal/control.Controller (kernel)  │
│  (same assembly the CLI uses: providers, tools, gate, …)     │
└──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┘

Why a nested module

desktop/ is its own Go module (module reasonix/desktop, replace reasonix => ../). That keeps the CGO desktop build entirely separate from the CLI's CGO_ENABLED=0 single-static-binary guarantee: the parent module's go build / vet / test ./... skip this directory, while the import path stays under reasonix/ so it can still import the reasonix/internal/* kernel.

Prerequisites

• Go (matches the parent module).
• Node 24+ and pnpm 10 (npm install -g pnpm@10); pnpm --dir desktop install pulls the Electron toolchain for the shell.
• No platform webview dependencies: the shell ships its own Chromium.

Develop

For browser-only UI development with the built-in mock bridge:

cd desktop
pnpm install          # first run only
pnpm dev

For the complete Electron application, including the Go service and Vite dev server, use the single development entry point:

cd desktop
pnpm install          # first run only
pnpm dev:desktop

For a production-style renderer build instead of the Vite development server, the equivalent manual sequence remains:

cd desktop
pnpm install                                   # one workspace: frontend + electron
go build -o build/bin/reasonix-desktop-service .
pnpm --dir frontend build:electron             # rewrites drag regions for Chromium
pnpm --dir electron start                      # launches the shell against the service

Frontend-only iteration without the Go side:

cd desktop/frontend
pnpm install
pnpm dev             # opens in a plain browser; bridge.ts uses the dev mock

In a plain browser the native bindings are absent, so bridge.ts falls back to a mock that streams a canned turn (text + one edit_file tool call) through the exact same event contract — so layout, streaming, markdown, tool cards, and the diff seam can all be built without rebuilding Go.

pnpm --dir electron smoke                      # real-service end-to-end check

go run . -emit-contract frontend/src/generated regenerates the TypeScript contract; go test -run HostContract . fails when it drifts.

Test

The desktop package is a nested Go module, so parent go test ./... does not run it. Use the full lane before merging desktop changes, and the short lane for fast local feedback:

make desktop-test        # cd desktop && go test .
make desktop-test-short  # skips slow desktop integration/e2e checks

To find the next bottleneck, rank individual test cases from the JSON stream:

make desktop-test-times
# or: cd desktop && go test -count=1 -json . | python3 ../scripts/desktop-test-times.py

Frontend UI review checklist

For anchored menus, dropdowns, tooltips, and other portaled UI, review both the component code and the CSS positioning contract:

• If a component uses createPortal plus getBoundingClientRect(), it must handle scrollable ancestors, window resize, and visualViewport changes.
• Add a focused regression test when changing shared positioning primitives such as AnchoredPopover, not only the specific menu that exposed the bug.
• Exercise at least one scrollable container path, such as Settings content, when manually checking dropdown or popover changes.

Build

scripts/desktop-build.sh darwin/arm64 v0.0.0-dev   # one platform per run

The script regenerates the host contract (failing on drift), builds the Go service, and packages the Electron shell through desktop/packaging/package.mjs. Chromium cannot cross-compile the native targets from one host, so releases run it once per platform on a native runner.

frontend/dist is generated by the build (it's git-ignored except for a .gitkeep that keeps the Go //go:embed all:frontend/dist compilable on a fresh checkout). A bare go build without a prior pnpm build produces a service with no frontend assets.

Releases & auto-update

Desktop releases ride their own tag namespace, desktop-v<semver> (plain v* tags are the CLI release). Pushing one triggers .github/workflows/release-desktop.yml, which builds on a native runner per platform (Electron's Chromium can't cross-compile), packages each artifact, signs it with minisign, generates a latest.json manifest, publishes a GitHub release, marks the desktop release as GitHub's repository-wide Latest, mirrors everything to R2, and attaches the current desktop manifest to the matching CLI release for old clients that still ask GitHub's repository-wide latest release for it. The Linux artifact bundles Electron's Chromium and ships a root-owned chrome-sandbox helper in the .deb; no system webview is required.

git tag desktop-v1.1.0 && git push origin desktop-v1.1.0

The app checks latest.json on startup (R2 first, then the crash.reasonix.io desktop release gateway) and shows an update banner when a newer version is published; Settings → Software update has a manual check. The gateway resolves only the desktop desktop-v* release line and never uses GitHub's repository-wide /releases/latest shortcut, so updater behavior does not depend on homepage badge semantics. Self-update behavior by platform:

• Linux portable (.tar.gz) — download, verify the minisign signature, replace the binaries in the install directory, and relaunch through Guard. No elevation.
• Linux Debian/Ubuntu (.deb) — download the signed .deb, request administrator authorization via Polkit (pkexec), re-verify and install with apt-get --only-upgrade, then relaunch through Guard. The first build that ships the update helper and Polkit policy is a one-time bootstrap: existing .deb users should overwrite-install once with sudo apt install ./Reasonix-linux-amd64.deb (no uninstall required). After that, in-app authorized updates work. If Polkit/pkexec is unavailable, use the same manual command. Failed installs leave the running app intact so you can retry; successful installs are managed by apt/dpkg and are not auto-downgraded.
• Windows — download, verify the minisign signature, then run the per-user NSIS installer (no admin rights needed).
• macOS — Developer ID signed and notarized release builds update in place. Local and fork builds use ad-hoc signing and remain manual-only because Gatekeeper cannot authorize their replacement bundle.

Code signing — first launch

• Windows — stable builds carry an Authenticode signature (SignPath, approved per release; release-desktop.yml verifies every payload binary through scripts/verify-windows-authenticode.ps1 and fails the release otherwise). A brand-new version can still show SmartScreen until the signature accumulates reputation: More info → Run anyway.
• macOS — official release builds are signed and notarized. Choose the Apple Silicon or Intel DMG for the smallest download, or the Universal DMG when the CPU architecture is unknown. Local ad-hoc builds may still require clearing the quarantine attribute when Gatekeeper reports the app "is damaged" or is from an unidentified developer:

  xattr -dr com.apple.quarantine /Applications/Reasonix.app
  

  The release workflow's HAS_APPLE_CERT gate controls the signed, notarized, self-updating path.

Verifying a download

Artifacts are signed with minisign (public key ID AF12CA46F4A9EBB0). The .minisig signature sits next to each artifact in the release; verify with the minisign CLI:

minisign -Vm Reasonix-darwin-arm64.zip \
  -P RWSw66n0RsoSr6Zhh6qt5YO95YkpCayTOCMFVDNUQSjJYwxoYngNVBSq

Editor seams and workspace file previews

Code and diff rendering go through two components with stable prop contracts and lazy boundaries, so heavier viewers stay out of the initial bundle. CodeViewer keeps the compact highlighted viewer for chat, Markdown, and tool output, while workspace file previews opt into the searchable line-number viewer:

Component	Props	Default impl	Upgrade
components/CodeViewer.tsx	EditorProps	editors/HljsCode.tsx; editors/LineNumberCode.tsx when showLineNumbers is enabled	extend the implementation selection for Monaco or CodeMirror
components/DiffView.tsx	DiffProps	editors/HljsDiff.tsx (highlighted LCS/unified diff)	swap for editors/MonacoDiff or editors/CodeMirrorMerge

# Monaco
pnpm add @monaco-editor/react monaco-editor
# or CodeMirror 6
pnpm add @uiw/react-codemirror @codemirror/lang-javascript @codemirror/merge

Then add editors/MonacoCode.tsx (default-export a component taking EditorProps) and update the implementation selection in CodeViewer.tsx. ToolCard already routes edit_file calls' old_string/new_string through DiffView, and Markdown routes fenced code blocks through CodeViewer, so both seams light up everywhere at once.

WorkspacePanel passes showLineNumbers for text-file previews. The resulting viewer provides a line-number gutter, viewer-scoped Ctrl/Cmd+F search with case and whole-word options, copy support, and virtualized rendering above 100 lines. Search marks are applied only to visible rows so query input does not rebuild the entire highlighted document. Files above 512 KiB or 20,000 lines keep line numbers, search, copy, and virtualization but use escaped plain text instead of syntax highlighting. Workspace files are previewed up to 2 MiB; larger files display the first 2 MiB with a localized truncation notice.

Multi-platform adaptation

One Chromium runtime (Electron) serves every OS, so the remaining platform work is native-shell behavior, not per-engine rendering quirks:

• Linux — the shell runs with the Chromium sandbox (the .deb ships a root-owned 4755 chrome-sandbox, never --no-sandbox). Close-to-background is enabled only after a DBus health probe confirms a live StatusNotifierWatcher, a registered visual host, and this app's registered StatusNotifierItem. If any of them disappears while the main window is hidden, Reasonix presents the window again until the tray recovers.
• Windows — the shell follows the OS light/dark setting. Remote Markdown images are fetched by the Go backend with the configured proxy and re-served from the local asset origin, so embedded images never bypass the configured proxy. Image hosts must resolve locally to public addresses; direct, HTTP(S)-proxy, and SOCKS-proxy connections are pinned to those vetted IPs while preserving the original Host and TLS SNI.
• macOS — inset/hidden title bar; the CSS marks the top bar as an OS drag region (the Electron build rewrites --reasonix-draggable to -webkit-app-region) and leaves room for the traffic lights.
• Renderer recovery — the shell reloads a crashed renderer (render-process-gone) and reports service state to the UI; a renderer that never reports ready is presented anyway with a diagnostics trail instead of staying hidden.
• Theming — colors are CSS variables gated on prefers-color-scheme, so the UI follows the OS theme without native glue.
• Fonts / offline — system font stack only; no web-font fetches, so first paint is instant and identical offline.
• First paint — the window background is set to the dark shell color so there's no white flash before CSS loads.

Files

desktop/
  main.go            service entry: host launch modes, shell bootstrap
  host_rpc.go        --host-rpc service over stdio + -emit-contract
  app.go             App (bound command surface) + eventSink (event.Sink)
  wire.go            event.Event → JSON wire form (mirrors internal/serve/wire.go)
  electron/          Electron shell (main process, preload, browser surface)
  packaging/         @electron/packager pipeline + packaged smoke test
  frontend/
    src/
      lib/
        types.ts         wire contract (mirrors wire.go)
        bridge.ts        desktop host bridge + browser dev mock
        desktopHost.ts   the only module touching window.reasonixDesktop
        useController.ts event-stream reducer + command surface (the hook)
      components/
        Transcript, Message, ToolCard, Composer, ApprovalModal, ContextGauge,
        Markdown, CodeViewer, DiffView
        editors/  PlainCode, PlainDiff   ← editor seam impls (swap targets)

Telemetry

The desktop app sends one anonymous ping per launch to crash.reasonix.io: a random anonymous install id (generated locally and not an account id), app version, OS, architecture, Windows build/revision or bounded Linux distribution/kernel/session facts, and the renderer engine tag. When the previous process ended abnormally, the next normal launch may also send a bounded native diagnostic (lifecycle phase, symbolized stack, window failure kind, and coarse device facts). Reports queued by the retired WebView2/WebKitGTK shell still decode and forward unchanged after upgrade. Panic values are removed and paths/secrets are scrubbed before the report is queued. The install id is attached only while sending and is not stored in a pending crash file. It never includes conversations, account data, API keys, file contents, usernames, hostnames, GPU driver details, or full local paths.

Opt out any time: Settings > Updates > "Anonymous usage ping", or set telemetry = false under [desktop] in the global config. Dev builds never ping or upload queued native diagnostics. Frontend crash and performance-pressure reports remain separate and are sent only when the user clicks "Send report" on the diagnostic UI.

Aggregate quality metrics are also enabled by default and can be disabled from Settings > Updates > "Share aggregate quality metrics", or by setting metrics = false under [desktop]. These metrics are anonymous signal/bucket counts, lifecycle/window failure buckets, and preference buckets; they never include conversations, prompts, keys, paths, base URLs, or file contents.