Desktop Architecture

Technical documentation covering the internal architecture of Crab Desktop.

Crab Desktop is an Electron application with three main processes: the renderer (React UI), the main process (Node.js), and the Crab sidecar (Rust binary). Communication flows through a typed IPC protocol.

Architecture Documents

• Overview — High-level architecture and process model
• IPC Protocol — Typed message passing between processes
• State Management — Reactive state with Zustand stores
• Event System — Event bus and subscription model
• Agent Sidecar — Rust sidecar process for Crab operations
• Terminal Subsystem — PTY management and terminal emulation
• SSH Subsystem — Remote workspace SSH connections
• LSP Integration — Language server protocol support
• Build & Packaging — Electron build pipeline and distribution