Proposal: official desktop app (Electron) — embedded engine + official Web UI

Summary

I built a working desktop application for Kimi Code — kimi-desktop — and I'd like to propose contributing it upstream as apps/kimi-desktop in this monorepo.

Kimi Code today ships a CLI/TUI, a VS Code extension, and a local web UI (kimi web). There is no desktop app. This project fills that gap without forking anything: the app embeds agent-core-v2 + kap-server in-process and serves the official dist-web bundle, so the UI and the engine stay 100% official and update with the monorepo.

What it is

An Electron shell (same architectural recipe as other agent desktop apps) whose main process:

• boots startServer() from @moonshot-ai/kap-server in-process (127.0.0.1, stable port 58627 with adoption of an already-running compatible server)
• serves the official dist-web assets (via symlinks — byte-identical UI to kimi web)
• loads the UI in a BrowserWindow with native macOS chrome (hiddenInset, theme-following, drag regions)

Because the engine is the real one, everything under ~/.kimi-code is honored natively: permissions, hooks, MCP servers, plugins, custom agents, skills, SYSTEM.md — verified item by item against a live instance.

What it adds beyond kimi web

Maintenance model

The entire contribution is one self-contained directory (apps/kimi-desktop/, ~2.5k lines): no changes to existing packages, no forked code, no vendored UI. Upgrading = rebuild with the workspace. The only coupling points are documented: startServer options, the #token= auth fragment, the window.kimiDesktop native-shell contract the bundle already exposes, and CSS class names used for chrome injection (flagged as fragile-by-nature).

Status

• Working on macOS (dev mode): streaming, subagent progress, session list live updates all verified
• Committed on a feature branch, Conventional Commits, zero changes outside apps/kimi-desktop/
• Not yet done: packaging (dmg + notarization + auto-update), Windows/Linux testing, tests

Questions for maintainers

1. Is a desktop app in scope for this repo, and is apps/kimi-desktop the right home?
2. The Web UI source lives in a separate repo (code-app); our native settings tabs are injected into dist-web. Would you rather see these contributed to the Web UI itself (vue-i18n en/zh exist — a French catalog + real tabs would be cleaner)?
3. The bundle's window.kimiDesktop contract already expects a native shell (onMenuAction, update status…). Was a desktop shell already planned? Happy to align with it rather than duplicate.
4. Any hard requirements (signing/notarization, tests, CI) before a PR would be considered?

Screenshots

Screenshots (main window, Settings modal with the 4 native tabs, Hooks editor, MCP tab, AGENTS.md tab) will be attached in a comment below.

Start by reviewing the proposed apps/kimi-desktop directory and its integration points with startServer(), dist-web, and the window.kimiDesktop contract. Confirm the maintainers’ scope and requirements before proceeding, then assess packaging, Windows/Linux testing, and tests. Done means the desktop app’s acceptance criteria, packaging, and validation requirements are agreed and met.