Dawn Desktop

Dawn Desktop is the native chat-first Dawn client. It is for users who want private workspace threads, rich artifacts, local project context, and desktop notifications without opening the full Dawn Web control plane.

What Desktop Is

Dawn Desktop is an Electron app backed by the first-class desktop Dawn channel. It is not the full admin/control-plane app in a native shell. Dawn Web remains the place for workspace administration, agent setup, channel bindings, integrations, commands, skills, memory, and billing setup.

• Use Desktop for day-to-day personal chat with Dawn agents.
• Switch between Dawn workspaces from the header.
• Chat only with agents that are enabled for Desktop in that workspace.
• Keep desktop threads private to the signed-in user.
• Use richer rendering for attachments, images, progress, and HTML artifacts than external chat channels can provide.

Install And Sign In

1. Install the Dawn Desktop app from Download Dawn Apps in Dawn Web, or from the distribution link provided to your team.
2. Open Dawn Desktop.
3. Choose Open browser sign-in.
4. Complete Dawn sign-in in your browser.
5. Return to the desktop app after the local callback completes.

The current app uses browser PKCE sign-in. The Electron shell opens the Dawn web auth flow and listens on http://127.0.0.1:48613/auth/callback. The browser sign-in attempt times out after 180 seconds and can be cancelled from the app.

Start Working

1. Select a workspace from the header workspace menu.
2. Select a Desktop-enabled agent from the agents panel.
3. Create a new thread, or select an existing private desktop thread for that agent.
4. Send a prompt from the composer.
5. Use the stop button when a running prompt needs to be cancelled.

The app remembers the selected workspace and selected agent/thread per workspace. Threads are sorted by recent activity, can be renamed inline, and show active run state such as working or stopping.

Threads And Messages

Desktop threads use the same personal conversation pipeline as the other first-party private surfaces. Each selected thread loads the full message list returned by the Desktop API, plus progress entries and active run state.

• User, assistant, and system messages render in the timeline.
• Assistant progress appears live from the workspace event stream.
• Running prompts can be cancelled through the Desktop cancel endpoint.
• Prompt history is stored locally per workspace and agent, with up to 50 prompts available from the composer.
• Slash-command autocomplete loads the Desktop command catalog for the selected workspace using the private conversation surface.

Attachments And Artifacts

Desktop supports uploading files to the active agent, rendering returned message parts, and downloading generated files through the native save dialog.

• Add files from the composer file button, paste files into the composer, or drag and drop files onto the input area.
• Image attachments render inline with previews.
• Returned files and generated outputs can be downloaded from the message part controls.
• HTML artifacts render as cards with Preview and download actions.
• Opening an HTML artifact shows a resizable side preview pane with revision selection when multiple revisions exist.
• The preview iframe is sandboxed with scripts allowed, and authenticated attachment previews receive an access token URL when needed.

Local Project Context

Desktop can expose local project context to Dawn from the machine running the app. This is separate from connected repositories and documents, and lets an agent inspect the configured local root for that desktop installation.

• The local root is configured by the Desktop app distribution. If no local root is configured, Desktop local tools and shell tools are disabled.
• Read/search capabilities include local context summary, directory listing, file finding, file reads, and content search.
• Content search uses bundled ripgrep when available and falls back to a Node-based search.
• Local file reads and search are constrained to the configured root and reject path or symlink escapes.
• File write, patch, and shell capabilities are exposed only when the effective shell mode allows them.

Shell Tool Policy

Desktop follows the same effective shell-mode model as the CLI, with one additional requirement: a configured local root must exist. Shell commands are refused unless the effective shell mode allows them. The workspace policy is the maximum allowed mode; local desktop settings can inherit or reduce it, never raise it.

• Workspace disabled always refuses shell commands.
• Workspace allowed-safe allows only safe shell commands, even if the local desktop setting says allowed-all.
• Workspace allowed-all allows all only if the local setting is inherit or allowed-all.
• Local disabled always disables shell commands.
• Local inherit uses the workspace policy.
• Desktop also disables shell tools if there is no configured local root.

The app blocks obviously destructive or privilege-escalating commands in safe mode, including patterns such as rm, sudo, unsafe chmod, chown, dd, mkfs, fork bombs, and direct writes to disk devices.

Updates, Version, And Status

Desktop exposes update state in the user menu and status bar. The packaged app uses electron-updater with a managed update feed.

• macOS and Windows are the managed auto-update targets.
• The user menu can check for updates and restart when an update has downloaded.
• The status bar shows the current app version, updater state, effective shell tools mode, feedback launcher, and owner-visible billing usage.

Troubleshooting

• No workspaces appear: confirm the signed-in account can access the workspace in Dawn Web.
• No agents appear: confirm the workspace has at least one agent enabled for Dawn Desktop.
• Browser sign-in does not complete: check that the browser can reach the Dawn auth app and that local software is not blocking 127.0.0.1:48613.
• Prompt runs but local tools do not work: check the status bar shell tools mode and make sure a local root is configured.
• Shell commands are refused: the effective shell mode does not allow them. Workspace policy is the maximum; local settings can inherit or reduce it only.
• HTML preview is unavailable: download the artifact from the card. Preview requires a valid preview URL and authenticated attachment access when the artifact is served by Dawn.
• Update controls are disabled: auto-update is unavailable for this platform or package.

Give me a first-use checklist for Dawn Desktop in this workspace.

List what this selected agent can access from Dawn Desktop right now.