CodeForge

CodeForge is a Windows-first desktop workspace for running local coding agents against real projects. It combines a React/Tauri desktop app, a Rust agent runtime, a Codex-derived CLI/TUI, shared workspace tooling, and an optional Visual Studio VSIX bridge.

The repository directory may still be named snowAgents, but the shipped desktop product is CodeForge.

Features

• Project registry for local repositories, Visual Studio solutions, Unreal project files, and project-specific build commands.
• Workspace chat UI with persistent conversation history, trace events, and code-link navigation.
• Agent runtime with provider selection, tool-call tracing, subagents, goal state, MCP server tools, workspace tools, git tools, document/PPTX readers, and optional shell execution.
• Provider configuration for Codex CLI, OpenAI-compatible endpoints, CodeBuddy, Claude, DeepSeek, MiniMax, Ollama, and local gateway profiles.
• Visual Studio integration through a loopback VSIX bridge for solution context, file opening, project/file listing, and search endpoints.
• cf.cmd launcher for the bundled Codex-derived terminal experience, using %USERPROFILE%\.codeforge as its config home.

Repository Layout

src/                         React + Vite desktop UI
src-tauri/                   Tauri 2 backend and desktop agent runtime
src-tui/                     CodeForge CLI/TUI binary
crates/codeforge-core/       Shared workspace, file, goal, and office tooling
vsix/SnowAgent.VSBridge/     Visual Studio bridge extension
codex/                       Codex-derived git submodule used by the CLI/TUI
docs/                        Architecture and bridge protocol notes
tools/                       Local helper and smoke-test scripts

Requirements

• Windows
• Node.js 22 or newer
• Rust stable toolchain with Cargo
• Tauri 2 prerequisites for Windows desktop builds
• Visual Studio 2026 Community or compatible MSBuild toolchain for the VSIX bridge
• .NET/MSBuild restore support for vsix\SnowAgent.VSBridge

Bootstrap

From the repository root:

git submodule update --init --recursive
npm install
cargo fetch --manifest-path src-tauri\Cargo.toml
cargo fetch --manifest-path src-tui\Cargo.toml
dotnet restore vsix\SnowAgent.VSBridge\SnowAgent.VSBridge.csproj

The codex/ submodule is required by the CLI/TUI. If cf.cmd reports that the submodule workspace is missing, run the submodule command again.

Run the Desktop App

Use the Tauri dev command when working on the actual app:

npm run tauri dev

npm run dev starts only the Vite frontend. It is useful for pure UI work, but Tauri commands and backend-backed screens will not work without npm run tauri dev.

Build

Build the release desktop executable without installer bundles:

.\build-release.bat

Output:

src-tauri\target\release\codeforge-desktop.exe

Build installer bundles:

.\build-release-installer.bat

Outputs:

src-tauri\target\release\bundle\nsis\CodeForge_0.1.0_x64-setup.exe
src-tauri\target\release\bundle\msi\CodeForge_0.1.0_x64_en-US.msi

Build the CodeForge CLI binary:

.\build-codeforge-cli.bat

Output:

src-tauri\target\release\codeforge.exe

Common Checks

npm run build
npm run lint
cargo test --manifest-path src-tauri\Cargo.toml
cargo test --manifest-path src-tui\Cargo.toml

For repository changes that affect the desktop product, the required final verification command is:

D:\code\snowAgents\build-release.bat

Configuration and Data

CodeForge stores runtime state locally:

%LOCALAPPDATA%\SnowAgentDesktop\projects.json
%LOCALAPPDATA%\SnowAgentDesktop\codeforge.sqlite3

Provider and MCP configuration live under:

%USERPROFILE%\.codeforge\config.toml
%USERPROFILE%\.codeforge\settings.json

settings.example.json shows the legacy/provider JSON shape. CodeBuddy model entries can also be imported from:

%USERPROFILE%\.codebuddy\models.json

MCP servers are configured in config.toml with [mcp_servers.<id>] sections. The runtime supports stdio and HTTP MCP transports, manual connect/disconnect, tool listing, and exposing connected MCP tools to agent runs.

Visual Studio Bridge

The desktop backend starts a local registration server at:

http://127.0.0.1:39000

The VSIX starts its own dynamic loopback endpoint, registers the active Visual Studio process with the desktop app, and exposes POST /openFile plus related workspace/search endpoints. See docs\vs-bridge-protocol.md for the protocol details.

Build the VSIX with MSBuild:

& "C:\Program Files\Microsoft Visual Studio\18\Community\MSBuild\Current\Bin\MSBuild.exe" vsix\SnowAgent.VSBridge\SnowAgent.VSBridge.csproj /restore /p:Configuration=Debug

Debugging flow:

1. Start CodeForge Desktop with npm run tauri dev.
2. Open vsix\SnowAgent.VSBridge\SnowAgent.VSBridge.sln in Visual Studio.
3. Start the VSIX debug profile, which launches the experimental Visual Studio instance.
4. Open a solution that matches a CodeForge project.
5. The project should move to the bridge-connected state in the desktop app.

CLI Launcher

Run the bundled terminal agent from any workspace:

.\cf.cmd

The launcher forwards the caller's current directory to the bundled Codex binary and keeps its config isolated in %USERPROFILE%\.codeforge.

License

MIT. See LICENSE.