Runs on your server · opens in a browser
dox is a 95 MB server that opens a workspace in your browser. Windows float on a canvas you can pan and zoom. Each app is a folder you can copy out. Conversations are files, not accounts.
No account. No relay. No copy of your repository sitting on someone else's disk.
One Node process on your laptop or your box. It serves a page; the page is the IDE. Nothing leaves the machine unless you call something that goes out.
The agent talks to whichever model endpoint you configure: DeepSeek, Anthropic, or anything that speaks the same API. Requests start from your server, billed to your key.
Every app is a folder with a manifest.json, a build and, if it needs one, a server router. Copy it out and it still runs on its own.
Each layer knows only the one beneath it. Apps name events; a JSON graph decides who hears them; the canvas draws windows; the server mounts folders.
One folder per app: a manifest, a built front end, and an optional server router. Editor renders source, Explorer renders the filesystem, Agent renders conversation files. Adding an app is adding a folder.
A graph of edges, explorer.sessionClick → agent.loadSession, and a small SDK with two verbs. Apps never learn who is listening. Rewiring two apps is one line of JSON.
One HTML file. Infinite pan, stepped zoom from 50% to 200%, floating windows, keyboard control, and a saved layout that is just a file.
One Node process. It scans app/*/, imports the routers, and serves everything from a single origin on port 3000. Static files go through sirv; routing is 260 lines of our own.
No bundler config is shared between apps. No package is hoisted across them. Each app carries its own dependencies so that it can leave.
Same machine, same project (16.7k lines), one window open. Memory is the sum of the process tree after it settles.
| Metric | dox | code-server | VS Code |
|---|---|---|---|
| Memory, workspace open | 137 MB | 925 MB | 1,580 MB |
| Processes | 2 | 6 | 9 |
| Cold start | 118 ms | 349 ms | 755 ms |
| On disk | 2.8 MB | 705 MB | 987 MB |
In most editors, the assistant is a panel bolted to the side. In dox it is an app that renders a file type, exactly the way the editor renders source and the image app renders bitmaps.
A .sss file holds a title, the turns, and the tool calls made along the way. It shows up in the explorer with its own metadata. Double-click it and the agent resumes. Move it to another machine and it opens there too.
Editor renders .ts. Image renders .png. Agent renders .sss. Same mechanism, three apps.
No build step for the server, no install for the container. The apps ship built.
git clone https://github.com/dox012/dox.git
cd dox
node dox.mjs
# → http://localhost:3000/None of them knows the others exist. Delete one, and the canvas still loads.
CodeMirror 6, tabs, autosave, file tree from the explorer.
Files, folders, sessions, multi-select, drag to canvas.
Chat with tools. Renders .sss sessions.
URLs, PDFs, video and audio inside a window.
Bitmaps, notes anchored to the file, zoom.
What the canvas is made of.