Sourcerer

A Tauri 2 + React 18 desktop shell: a dockable multi-pane research workbench for scholars. The shell hosts applets (Library, Wiki, Graph, Chat, Notes, Writing Studio, Power Browser, Kanban, News, KeyPass, Databasise, Applet Builder) plus a persistent right-hand Dashboard Assistant. Applets not yet built render as high-fidelity demo stubs and are replaced one at a time via the applet registry — the demo half is a deliberate feature, not debt.

v1.0 "Desktop Shell MVP" shipped 2026-07-14 — 7 phases, 35 plans: frameless shell chrome, a dockview-based workspace, persisted named layouts, the applet framework, the Notes applet (the one real applet, proving registry → host API → storage → AI seam end to end), the Home dashboard and Assistant panel, and a headless Pi sidecar behind host.ai().

v2.0 "Container Platform" is planned but not started. See .planning/research/CONTAINER-PLATFORM-PLAN.md — note its host-reality caveat: the plan was written against a Windows + WSL2 host and the project has since migrated to NixOS.

Prerequisites

nix develop provides the Rust toolchain pinned by rust-toolchain.toml, Node pinned by .nvmrc, and every Tauri Linux system dependency (webkitgtk_4_1, libsoup_3, gtk3, librsvg, pkg-config, and friends) — no imperative installs. Run direnv allow once (.envrc already wires use flake) for automatic shell entry on cd, or run nix develop directly.

Verified on this host inside nix develop: rustc 1.97.1, Node v24.18.0, npm 11.16.0.

Commands

npm ci               # required first — never `npm install`, see below
npx vitest run       # unit tests once (`npm test` is bare vitest = watch mode)
npm run build        # tsc && vite build
npm run tauri dev    # needs the Rust toolchain + system deps above
cd sidecar && npm test

Use npm ci, not npm install: package.json floats several deps behind carets (vite: ^7.0.4, @tauri-apps/api: ^2) while the lockfile pins the exact set v1.0 was verified against. React is pinned hard at 18.2.0 and must not drift to 19 — see CLAUDE.md for why.

Layout

src/                      React shell, applets, assistant
src-tauri/                Rust backend (window, store plugin, ai_complete seam)
sidecar/                  headless Pi agent process behind host.ai()
.planning/                GSD planning artifacts (phases, research, milestones, spikes)
design-sync-setup-guide/  design handoff — the visual source of truth