sidex

SideX

VSCode's workbench, without Electron.

Why · What's Working · AI Agent · Getting Started · How It's Built · Contributing · Discord

--- SideX is a port of Visual Studio Code that replaces Electron with [Tauri](https://tauri.app/) — a Rust backend and OS's native webview. The same TypeScript workbench, the same editor, terminal, and Git integration, running without a bundled browser. > **Early release.** Core editing and the terminal are solid. The extension host and debugger are still in progress. See [What's Working](#whats-working) for the full picture. --- ## Why VSCode's memory useage is almost entirely from its bundled Chromium, not the editor itself. Tauri replaces that with the webview already on your system — WKWebView on macOS, WebView2 on Windows — shared across apps and costing almost nothing extra.

RAM savings are most tested on macOS, WKWebView is shared with Safari. On Windows the picture is more nuanced — WebView2 memory can look higher depending on how it's measured, and [it's an active area in the Tauri ecosystem](https://github.com/tauri-apps/tauri/issues/5889). The target is **under 200 MB at idle** on macOS. We'll publish real benchmarks once the app is stable enough for them to be meaningful. --- ## What's Working **Solid:** - Monaco editor with syntax highlighting and basic IntelliSense - File explorer — open folders, create, rename, delete - Integrated terminal — full PTY via Rust, shell detection, resize, signals - Git — status, diff, log, stage, commit, branch, push/pull/fetch, stash, reset - Themes — multiple built-in themes from the VSCode catalogue - Native OS menus (macOS, Windows, Linux) - Extension installation from [Open VSX](https://open-vsx.org/) - File watching, file search, full-text search, Rust-backed search index - SQLite storage, document management (autosave, undo/redo, encoding) - Built-in AI agent — chat, inline diffs, shell commands, multi-file edits; bring your own model provider, no account needed (see [AI Agent](#ai-agent)) --- ## AI Agent SideX has a built-in coding agent, and it needs no SideX account of any kind — no sign-in, no identity provider, no hosted service in the path. Every request goes from the editor to a server running on your own machine, and from there straight to whichever model provider you point it at. ### How it starts On launch, the app spawns its own agent server (`sidexai/sidex-server`, written in Go) as a child process bound to `127.0.0.1` on a random free port. It's supervised from [`src-tauri/src/server.rs`](./src-tauri/src/server.rs) and stopped when the app exits. If the server binary isn't built, the rest of the editor still works — the chat panel just reports itself as disconnected. ### Bring your own model There are no built-in model presets. You add a provider and a model ID yourself in **Settings → Models**. Credentials are resolved in this order, first match wins (see [`src-tauri/src/commands/providers.rs`](./src-tauri/src/commands/providers.rs)): 1. a key entered in **Settings → Models** 2. an environment variable already in your shell (`ANTHROPIC_API_KEY`, `OPENAI_API_KEY`, and so on — see [`.env.example`](./.env.example) for the full list) 3. an existing **Claude Code** or **Codex** CLI login on your machine, opt-in per provider 4. a keyless local model server on loopback — Ollama, LM Studio, llama.cpp, or vLLM — detected automatically Anthropic is called through its native Messages API (`/v1/messages`); every other provider, including local servers, is treated as OpenAI-compatible (`/chat/completions`). Credentials reach the agent server only through its process environment (`SIDEX_PROVIDER__KEY` / `_BASE_URL` / `_AUTH`), set fresh each time the app starts or restarts it. They're never written to a config file and never sent to the webview. > **Claude Code / Codex CLI logins** are optional, per provider, and off by default. SideX talks to Anthropic and ChatGPT with the same first-party client identity those CLIs use, so a connected login can run models. Usage still counts against that subscription. A billed API key in Settings → Models is the path that does not depend on a CLI login or the provider's consumer terms. ### Security: this server runs commands on your machine The agent server executes shell commands and edits files on your behalf — that's what lets it act as an agent. Binding it to `127.0.0.1` only is a deliberate security boundary, not an accident: nothing else on your network can reach it. `SIDEX_BIND_ADDR` can widen that if you need to, but the server refuses to start on a non-loopback address unless you explicitly opt in with `SIDEX_ALLOW_UNAUTHENTICATED=1`. Don't set that unless you understand the exposure and have your own authentication sitting in front of it — an open port on this server means arbitrary code execution for whoever can reach it. ### Building the agent server The agent server needs **Go 1.26 or later** to build (see [`sidexai/sidex-server/go.mod`](./sidexai/sidex-server/go.mod)): ```bash cd sidexai/sidex-server go build -tags fts5 -o sidex-server ./cmd/server ``` The app looks for a binary at that path automatically when running from a source checkout. Without it, everything except the chat panel works normally. See [`sidexai/sidex-server/.env.example`](./sidexai/sidex-server/.env.example) if you'd rather run the server yourself instead of letting the app manage it. --- ## Getting Started ### Run in Development ```bash git clone https://github.com/Sidenai/sidex.git cd sidex npm install npm run tauri dev ``` ### Build from Source ```bash npm install npx tauri build ``` `npx tauri build` runs the frontend build for you (`npm run build`), which already raises Vite's Node heap limit to 12 GB internally — no `NODE_OPTIONS` needed on a normal machine. If you still hit an out-of-memory error, raise it further yourself with `NODE_OPTIONS="--max-old-space-size=16384"` before the command. First build takes 5–10 minutes (Rust compile time). Pre-built binaries are not distributed yet. Everything above runs standalone, with no account and no setup. Want the chat panel connected too? See [AI Agent](#ai-agent) above — building the agent server is a separate, optional step. --- ## How It's Built SideX maps VSCode's Electron architecture onto Tauri layer by layer: | VSCode (Electron) | SideX (Tauri) | |---|---| | Electron main process | Tauri Rust backend | | `BrowserWindow` | `WebviewWindow` | | `ipcMain` / `ipcRenderer` | `invoke()` + Tauri events | | Node.js `fs`, `pty`, etc. | Rust commands (`std::fs`, `portable-pty`) | | Menu / Dialog / Clipboard | Tauri plugins | | Renderer (DOM + TypeScript) | Same — runs in native webview | | Extension host | Sidecar process (in progress) | The TypeScript frontend is a direct port of VSCode's workbench. The Rust backend is in `src-tauri/src/commands/` and handles everything that would have been a Node.js native module: file I/O, terminal PTY, Git, file watching, search indexing, SQLite, and process management. ### Project Layout ``` … ``` ### Tech Stack | Layer | Technology | |---|---| | Frontend | TypeScript, Vite 6, Monaco Editor | | Terminal UI | xterm.js + WebGL renderer | | Syntax / Themes | vscode-textmate, vscode-oniguruma (WASM) | | Backend | Rust, Tauri 2 | | Terminal | portable-pty (Rust) | | File watching | notify crate (FSEvents on macOS) | | Search | dashmap + rayon + regex (parallel, Rust) | | Storage | SQLite via rusqlite | | Extensions | Open VSX registry | | Agent server | Go, own process on loopback ([`sidexai/sidex-server`](./sidexai/sidex-server)) | For a deeper dive, see [ARCHITECTURE.md](./ARCHITECTURE.md) --- ## Contributing This was released early to get outside contributors involved. ### How to Contribute 1. Fork the repo and create a branch 2. Pick something — check [Issues](https://github.com/Sidenai/sidex/issues) or grab something from the Known Gaps list above 3. Submit a PR — contributors get credited ### Dev Notes - Follows VSCode's patterns — familiar if you've read the VSCode source - TypeScript imports use `.js` extensions (ES module convention) - Services use VSCode's `@inject` dependency injection decorators - New Rust commands go in `src-tauri/src/commands/` and register in `lib.rs` --- ## Community - **Discord:** [Join the SideX server](https://discord.gg/8CUCnEAC4J) - **X / Twitter:** [@ImRazshy](https://x.com/ImRazshy) - **Email:** [email protected] --- ## License MIT — SideX is a port of [Visual Studio Code (Code - OSS)](https://github.com/microsoft/vscode), which is also MIT licensed. See [LICENSE](./LICENSE) for details.