Snippbot Desktop: your agents, one hotkey away

One app, two window modes, one chat view: the spec was locked before any app code was written.

2 window modes

Quick Chat from the menu bar or tray, and a Full workspace.

< 2 s hotkey to typing

The goal for opening Quick Chat from anywhere.

0 agents on the desktop

Agents, memory and jobs stay on your daemon; the app is a window into it.

• Tauri 2 instead of Electron: a download of about 25 MB, using the WebView the system already has.
• The daemon stays the single source of truth, so closing the app never stops an agent.
• Local tools are opt-in and limited to folders you pick, with shell commands off by default.

Linus rebuilt the Tauri shell around a sign-in that never leaves Rust.

1 Keychain item

Sign-in, device token and Cloudflare Access token in one entry, read once per launch.

3 deep links

Pair the app, pair local tools, or open a chat; each one asks before it acts.

35 Rust tests

Sign-in, deep links, Cloudflare Access, local tools and window placement.

• Refresh tokens stay in the macOS Keychain or Windows Credential Manager; the window only ever sees short-lived tokens.
• Setup finds a daemon on this computer, searches the local network on request, or checks a remote address step by step.
• Quick Chat opens next to the tray icon, or on the screen under your cursor when you press the hotkey.

Adam moved the web app's chat engine into a shared package, so the desktop app and the web UI stream, queue and reconnect the same way.

79 chat-engine tests

Including 7 real replies recorded from the daemon and replayed in tests.

2,600 web tests still passing

The web UI kept every import path after the move.

• Streaming, tool steps, questions, approvals, queued messages, interjections and stop all share one engine.
• A dropped connection replays the reply from the server instead of losing it.
• Messages typed while the daemon is unreachable are held on the computer and sent when it reconnects.

The daemon learned to sign in a desktop app and pair it from the web UI.

90 days, longest sign-in

Keep me signed in for 1, 7, 30 or 90 days, or just this launch.

3 ways to sign in

Username and password, a pairing link, or a 6-digit code.

• A new Pair Desktop App dialog on the Devices page sends a one-click link straight into the app.
• The same pairing pattern sets up tools on this computer, with its own device token.

Versions 0.1.0 and 0.1.1 were published, and eight polish PRs followed the next day.

3 installers

Apple silicon and Intel DMGs, plus a per-user Windows installer.

8 polish PRs in a day

From drag-and-drop in the installed app to tab colours.

• Tabs can be dragged between groups or onto a pane edge to split it, and layouts tile to the shape of the screen.
• Quick Chat lists the main window's tab groups and flags the chats that are waiting on you.
• On Windows, closing the window asks whether to quit or keep running in the tray.