Development

How to set up, run, and work on Conductor locally.

Prerequisites

Node.js ≥ 20 (developed on 22) and pnpm — pinned to 10.11.0 via packageManager in package.json, so Corepack (corepack enable) picks the right version automatically. Don't run the build with pnpm 11: it considers a pnpm-10 node_modules foreign and wants to purge and reinstall it, which aborts in any non-TTY context (ERR_PNPM_ABORTED_REMOVE_MODULES_DIR_NO_TTY) — including scripts/release-build.sh.
Rust stable (developed on 1.95) via rustup
Tauri platform build deps — see the Tauri prerequisites guide. On macOS: xcode-select --install.

Run

pnpm install
pnpm tauri dev     # Vite + the Tauri shell (Rust)

Vite serves the frontend on port 1420. The first tauri dev compiles Rust deps (~30 s); later runs are fast.

Frontend-only checks

pnpm build         # type/compile the Svelte + Vite frontend
pnpm preview       # preview the built frontend

Rust-only checks

cd src-tauri
cargo check        # fast type-check of the Rust core
cargo build        # full build

Where things live

See the full tree in Architecture & boundaries. The short version:

src/ — Svelte 5 frontend. App.svelte owns layout, tabs, splits, shortcuts, and persistence; src/lib/ holds the components and the pure layout.js split-tree logic.
src-tauri/src/ — the Rust core: pty.rs (terminals), projects.rs (scan + git + editors), fs.rs (files + tasks), agent.rs (Elyra RPC bridge), and lib.rs (the command registry).

Adding features

A new Rust command: write a #[tauri::command] and register it in lib.rs's generate_handler!. See Tauri commands.
New persisted state: extend serialize() / applySnapshot() in App.svelte, and document the key in State & persistence.
A new palette action: push an entry into the derived commands list in App.svelte (see Command palette for the groups).

Keep every feature within the boundary: Conductor is a host/launcher, never an AI agent — no model calls, no API keys, no prompts/tools.

Debugging

Webview console: use the dev window's web inspector for frontend logs and errors.
Rust logs: output from pnpm tauri dev shows Rust println!/eprintln! and panic traces.
Terminal issues: check the PTY event wiring (pty://data/<id> / pty://exit/<id>) and that the pane's termId is dot-free (Tauri event names reject .).

Conventions

Match the existing code style (Svelte 5 runes, small pure helpers, Rust commands that return Result<_, String>).
Update the docs and CHANGELOG.md ([Unreleased]) with notable changes.

Checks before you push

pnpm check                        # svelte-check (errors *and* warnings) + security suite
cd src-tauri
cargo test                        # includes the SQL-escaping and locking regressions
cargo clippy --all-targets        # expected to be warning-free
cargo fmt                         # the tree is rustfmt-clean as of 0.9.2 — keep it that way

pnpm check also runs scripts/check-security.mjs, which asserts that HTML sanitising still strips attacks while preserving runbook cfile:/ctask: links, and that scrollback redaction masks credentials without touching ordinary output. If you change lib/sanitize.js or lib/redact.js, expect that suite to have an opinion.

Keep formatting commits separate from behavioural ones. A reviewer should never have to pick a logic change out of a few hundred reflowed lines.