# Ethen Code desktop

The desktop app is the planned home of Ethen Code on your machine: an
Electron app that hosts the V2 window and carries the local daemon inside
its bundle. It is not released yet; this page describes the plan as built
on the branch.

## The app

- Framework: Electron, with a prebuilt main-process bundle — the packaged
  app never transpiles at runtime.
- Identity: Ethen Desktop Code (`com.ethen.desktop`), version 0.1.0 on the
  branch.
- Distribution: a signed, notarized macOS disk image. macOS comes first;
  Windows and Linux follow later.
- Bundle contents: the Electron shell plus the local runtime under
  `local-runtime`, so the daemon starts with the app and needs no separate
  install.

## The V2 window

The desktop window renders the V2 console: a title bar carrying the
Ethen Code brand and a runtime-health indicator, a body with a sidebar, a
main task surface, and an optional context panel, and a terminal dock for
local terminal sessions. Window states — sidebar collapsed, context panel
open, dock open — follow the view contracts on the branch.

## First launch (planned)

The release plan launches the signed image on a clean macOS user, installs
from the disk image, and walks first launch: daemon start, pairing with the
web zone, and GitHub connection. Until a signed image is published, running
from source is the only path, and it is a developer path, not a release.

## Unsigned builds

Branch builds are unsigned. macOS Gatekeeper treats unsigned apps as
untrusted, which is one of the reasons there is no public download yet:
publishing starts only when signing and notarization credentials are in
place and the image staples cleanly.

## Related guides

- [Install Ethen Code](./install)
- [The local daemon](./daemon)