DevDock

A lightweight desktop app for managing your local projects' dev scripts. Add a project folder, DevDock scans its runnable scripts (package.json, and more), and lets you start / stop / restart them, watch their live terminals, track status, and edit their .env files — all from one window.

macOS-first, built with Electron + React. Black / white / gray, keyboard-friendly, terminal-forward.

Features

• Project sidebar — add folders (button or drag-and-drop), rename, pin to top, drag to reorder, collapse to an icon rail. Each project shows a live "running" count.
• Script management — scans package.json scripts, groups them into services (long-running: dev / serve / preview …) and tasks (one-shot: build / test …), with monorepo workspace awareness. Start / stop / restart with status, PID, uptime, and the detected dev-server URL (clickable, incl. portless *.localhost).
• Real terminals — each running script gets a full xterm.js terminal (powered by node-pty); interactive input, search, and a unified tab strip shared with the env editor.
• Env editor — detects .env / .env.* files, edits them in an embedded CodeMirror editor (syntax highlight, save, reload-on-external-change). Project .env / .env.local are injected into the script's environment when you run it.
• Open with — detects installed editors & terminals (Cursor, VS Code, Zed, PyCharm, iTerm, Ghostty, Warp, …) and opens the project folder in your app of choice.
• portless integration — optional per-script toggle to launch a dev server through portless for clean https://<name>.localhost URLs. Detected at startup; gracefully falls back to a normal run when not installed.
• Auto-detect changes — watches package.json / workspace config / .env files and refreshes the script list (and prompts to restart a running script whose definition changed).
• Resizable, collapsible panels, light / dark / system theme, restored tabs across restarts, and confirm-before-quit that cleans up child processes.

Tech stack

Electron · electron-vite · React 19 · TypeScript · Tailwind CSS 4 · shadcn/ui · xterm.js · node-pty · CodeMirror 6 · Zustand · Vitest. Package manager: bun.

Getting started

Requires bun and Node.js 24+.

bun install
bun run dev      # launch the app in dev mode

First install: if the Electron binary doesn't download automatically, run bun pm trust electron && bun install.

Scripts

bun run dev      # dev (electron-vite)
bun run build    # production build → out/
bun run test     # unit tests (vitest)
bun run start    # preview a production build

Packaging

DevDock packages with electron-builder (config lives in package.json → build; the app icon is build/icon.png).

bun run dist:mac   # build + package a macOS .dmg and .zip → release/
bun run dist:dir   # build + an unpacked .app (fast, for local testing) → release/

node-pty is a native module: electron-builder rebuilds it for the bundled Electron and unpacks it from the asar automatically.

Unsigned local builds (no Apple Developer ID): prefix with CSC_IDENTITY_AUTO_DISCOVERY=false to skip signing. For a real release, set the signing/notarization env (CSC_LINK, CSC_KEY_PASSWORD, APPLE_ID, APPLE_APP_SPECIFIC_PASSWORD, APPLE_TEAM_ID) — Gatekeeper rejects unsigned, un-notarized apps. The publish config targets GitHub Releases, so electron-builder --publish always (with GH_TOKEN) uploads the artifacts and auto-update feed.

Project structure

src/
  main/        # main process: services (Scanner, ProcessManager, ProjectStore,
               #   FileWatcher, appLauncher), IPC, window
  preload/     # contextBridge → window.devdock
  renderer/    # React UI (Sidebar, ScriptList, RightPanel, Env editor, …)
  shared/      # types + IPC channel constants shared across processes

Contributing

Issues and PRs welcome. Before submitting:

bun run test
bunx tsc -p tsconfig.node.json --noEmit
bunx tsc -p tsconfig.web.json --noEmit
bun run build

Acknowledgements

DevDock stands on the shoulders of the open-source projects listed in Tech stack — Electron, React, xterm.js, node-pty, CodeMirror, Radix UI / shadcn/ui, Tailwind CSS, Zustand and more — plus the Geist and JetBrains Mono typefaces. Copyright of each library remains with its respective authors; thanks to all their maintainers.

Every bundled dependency uses a permissive license (MIT, ISC, BSD, Apache-2.0, OFL-1.1, …) — there is no copyleft (GPL / LGPL / AGPL) code in this project, so no special obligations beyond preserving the upstream copyright and license notices. When you distribute a packaged build, ship those third-party license texts alongside it; generate the manifest with:

bunx license-checker-rseidelsohn --production --out THIRD-PARTY-LICENSES.txt

License

MIT