Your agents' workbench. Open a folder or a document, see it, pick a block, and ask — with the built-in VAV agent or Claude Code / Codex in the same thread. Writes land on disk and you accept or reject them. A real terminal sits beside the chat. Everything stays on your machine; each CLI agent manages its own auth.

New session: pick a workspace, pick an agent, ask one thing. Multi-split CLI TUIs (Swarm) are an optional advanced mode under Settings → Providers.

Features

• File workbench — tree / columns, format-aware preview (Office, PDF, Markdown, CSV, code, …), pick a block and ask beside the file
• Built-in VAV chat — Anthropic-, OpenAI-, or Google-native API (model metadata and live model lists come from the provider); image attachments reach vision models inline; tools write to the session folder; accept / reject the diff
• CLI in the same thread — Claude Code, Pi, Cursor, Devin, Antigravity, Codex, Grok, Kiro, OpenCode, and Cline over their structured protocol (install from Settings if the binary is missing)
• User PTY (⌘T) — real bash / zsh / PowerShell; top and vim work
• Per-session working directory, defaulting to a temporary workspace you can point at a real project; vav . / vav /path CLI open
• Git change inspector — status + diff in the Files tray; commit stays in the terminal or the agent
• English / Chinese UI, following the OS or a setting
• API keys stored encrypted via safeStorage (Keychain) — never as plaintext
• Spending — Settings panel for local usage plus provider subscriptions, and DeepSeek API balance when VAV talks to official DeepSeek
• Swarm (optional) — multi-split raw CLI TUIs; off by default in Settings → Providers
• Remote — Settings → Allow other devices; pair VAV Remote (iOS) or another computer. Conversations and keys stay on this machine
• Headless VAV — npx @21stware/vavd (or npm i -g @21stware/vavd && vavd) hosts sessions, keys, files, PTY, and agent turns. Desktop, iOS Remote, the local web UI, and the Chrome extension are shells over that daemon.

Website

The static site lives in site/ and is published to GitHub Pages by Actions:

https://vavapp.com
(also https://21stware.github.io/vav/)

Bilingual (toggle in the top-right; default follows the browser language, and ?lang=zh pins it). Marketing screenshots are captured in English, light and dark:

node scripts/capture-marketing-screenshot.mjs

Writes docs/screenshot.png (README hero) and site/assets/screenshot-*.png (site gallery), then derives the AVIF/WebP variants the site actually serves. The PNGs stay as the <picture> fallback. If you edit site/assets/*.png by hand, regenerate the variants or visitors keep the old ones:

npm run site:images        # add -- --force to rebuild everything
npm run brand:icons        # rebuild Windows .ico + site favicon from build/icon.png

Custom domain: vavapp.com (see site/CNAME). Apex uses GitHub Pages A/AAAA records; www is a CNAME to 21stware.github.io. Keep Cloudflare proxy DNS only (grey cloud) so GitHub can issue HTTPS.

Install

Grab a build from Releases. Each v* release includes the macOS DMG/ZIP, Windows installer, @21stware/vavd tarball, and the Chrome extension zip.

• macOS — Developer ID signed and notarized (app + DMG, ticket stapled); open the DMG and drag to Applications. Later versions update in-app (About → Check for Updates).
• Windows — not code-signed; SmartScreen may warn on first open (More info → Run anyway). In-app updates use the NSIS installer feed.

Then in Settings → “vav command”, install the vav CLI (defaults to ~/.local/bin). Run vav -h for usage; vav . opens a new session in the current directory.

On a machine that should host VAV without opening the desktop app:

npx @21stware/vavd
# or: npm i -g @21stware/vavd && vavd

Listens on all interfaces by default (--listen 127.0.0.1 for local-only). Opens a web UI on http://127.0.0.1:4752. Paste the pairing line into VAV → Connect or VAV Remote. The local web UI and Chrome extension discover a loopback daemon and pair automatically — or launch the desktop app with VAVD_URI / --vavd-uri so it opens as a vavd UI without the Connect paste. VAVD_SPAWN=1 / --with-vavd starts vavd as a child of the app and pairs automatically. Packaged builds do that by default (VAVD_SPAWN=0 / --no-vavd keeps the in-process host). The pairing secret is equivalent to local access on that machine. Set VAV_API_KEY (and optional VAV_API_ENDPOINT) so the daemon can call your model.

From this repo, npm run vav -- sessions / npm run vav -- send "hello" talks to that daemon over the same phone protocol.

Develop

Requires Node 22+, macOS or Windows.

npm install
npm run dev         # auto-fetches bundled officecli into resources/bin/ if missing

officecli (Office OOXML CLI) is vendored at build time (~32 MB) via npm run fetch:officecli and shipped in the app Resources/bin so the agent can create/edit .docx/.xlsx/.pptx without a system install.

Package (native modules mean you only build for the platform you’re on):

npm run dist        # macOS → release/vav-*-macos-arm64.dmg (signed + notarized when credentials are set)
npm run dist:win    # Windows → release/vav-*-windows-x64-setup.exe

First launch unlocks the Keychain store. File tree and terminal work immediately. The built-in VAV agent needs an API key (⌘, / Ctrl+,); Claude / Codex use their own login.

Shortcuts

⌘ on macOS, Ctrl on Windows; in-app hints switch automatically.

Action	Key
New session	⌘N
Send	⌘↩
Cancel current turn	Esc
Search in session	⌘F
New terminal tab	⌘T
Toggle sidebar / tools panel	⌘⇧H / ⌘⇧E
Settings	⌘,

A global hotkey can be recorded under Appearance; off by default.

Platform differences

Most things match; these are OS differences, not missing features:

	macOS	Windows
Agent & terminal shell	zsh / bash / fish	PowerShell
Closing the main window	Hides; turns and PTYs keep running; Dock restores	Quits for real (no Dock to restore from)
Space in the file tree	Quick Look	Opens with the system default app
Default global hotkey	⌃⌘Space	Ctrl+Alt+Space

Layout

src/
  shared/      domain types, IPC contracts, i18n
  main/
    store/     settings, secrets, conversation persistence
    agent/     LLM client, tool defs, turn loop
    terminal/  sticky shell, PTY management
    fs/        file listing and watchers
    cli.ts     `vav` command install and open-path parsing
  preload/     contextBridge `window.vav`
  renderer/    React UI, zustand stores, stream projection

Implementation notes: docs/TECH_DESIGN.md. Product behavior is specified in RPML via Origin and pulled by .agents/skills/origin-product-spec-management into .agents/specs/ (not checked in).

License

Dual-licensed — see NOTICE and LICENSE.

• Noncommercial (free): PolyForm Noncommercial 1.0.0. Download, study, personal customization, and noncommercial redistribution are allowed; keep the Required Notice and upstream repo https://github.com/21stware/vav.
• Commercial (paid): Selling, white-labeling, embedding in a paid product/service, or any commercial customization / commercial use requires a commercial license from the copyright holder. Contact: licensing@21stware.com.