Assembler

Inspiration

Software work is spread across repository state, local environments, production references, browser sessions, and the context a developer must repeatedly reconstruct. Ordinary browser tabs remember pages, not projects. Assembler starts from the opposite model: a view is disposable, while explicitly approved project knowledge is durable.

What it does

Assembler is a Windows desktop browser organized around local software projects. It safely inspects a selected Git repository, records confirmed resources and pinned read-only surfaces, isolates browser identity by project, and restores Project Home without resurrecting remote tabs. The bundled Northstar Launch project lets a judge test the full signed-out path offline, without a repository, Git installation, or build toolchain.

Ask Project is an optional read-only assistant. A user chooses the exact local sources, previews them, and approves them before a question is sent. The pinned Codex runtime uses GPT-5.6 with action tools disabled, bounded context, strict source grounding, and project isolation.

How it was built

Assembler uses Electron 43, React, TypeScript, SQLite through better-sqlite3, and native Windows filesystem identity checks. Its release bundles an integrity-pinned Codex 0.144.5 runtime, the native SQLite ABI, the reparse inspector, deterministic demo assets, and Git for Windows MinGit. Codex helped turn the product declaration into incremental TDD tasks, implement the app, run real-process Windows tests, investigate CI-specific filesystem behavior, and perform specification, quality, authentication, privacy, and security reviews.

Challenges and learning

The hardest work was preserving strict local boundaries across Windows path aliases, reparse points, native ABI changes, process shutdown, project-scoped browser partitions, and authentication isolation. Packaging added another constraint: the clean-machine app had to carry every required runtime without leaking build paths or development files. The resulting design favors explicit approval, filesystem identity rather than lexical trust, append-only provenance, and fail-closed behavior.

Accomplishments

• A deterministic offline judge demo available in the first minute.
• Durable project knowledge with zero-view restart recovery.
• Strict project/global browser partition isolation.
• Read-only, source-approved Ask Project through Codex and GPT-5.6.
• Import/export, relocation, lifecycle, and deep-link boundaries.
• One per-user installer and one portable Windows artifact with pinned bundled runtimes, hashes, content scans, and clean-machine instructions.

Next steps

After Build Week, the next task is to evaluate trusted Windows code signing and distribution operations without weakening the existing local security model.

Built With

• codex-sdk
• electron
• git-for-windows
• gpt-5.6
• openai-codex
• react
• sqlite
• typescript