Yeah, that’s basically the mental model I’m aiming for.
Not “replace the desktop”, but one pane of glass for a specific project/workflow. Some people prefer strict OS-level windows, others seem to think better when the project is laid out spatially and persists between sessions.
That’s a fair question but I can think of one big advantage of going this way and that’s to do with distraction-free workspaces.
To use a comparison, have you ever picked up your phone to enter an TOTP / one time auth code and then accidentally found yourself texting a friend, or some other non-work activity. It’s particularly easy to get distracted if you have an open notification you didn’t see until you went to use that one time code on your phone.
Having a desktop app for your workspace helps hide Slack and other distracting items while context switching between different productivity apps.
I conceptually agree that managing windows should be the task of... the window manager, but at the same time it's easier and lower friction to both develop inside of an app and get some user to test new features
Exactly. I agree that the OS/window manager is the “proper” layer in theory.
In practice, building it as an app makes experimentation much easier: cross-platform, lower friction to try, no need to replace your current WM, and we can iterate on workspace-specific features like terminals, browser panels, agents, Cmd+K search, worktrees, docking/tabs/splits, etc.
I get that. A native WM version would be interesting, especially for performance and deeper OS integration.
For now Cate is intentionally an app because it is easier to try, cross-platform, and focused on project-level workflow rather than managing the entire desktop. But I agree the boundary between spatial workspace and window manager is a real discussion.
Because native virtual desktops still mostly preserve app windows, not project context.
Cate is more scoped: one workspace per project/folder with terminals, browser previews, editors, notes, agents, worktrees, docked tabs/splits, and restored panel positions. It’s not meant to replace GNOME/KDE/macOS/i3 globally, more to keep the messy project-specific layer in one persistent place.