#Architecture

#High-level model

Sero combines three major layers:

• Electron desktop shell
• workspace/runtime orchestration
• Pi-based agent intelligence

At a high level:

• the Electron app provides the shell and UI
• workspaces define project scope and runtime mode
• Pi powers the agent sessions, tools, commands, and plugin extensions

#Shell model

The shell has:

• a main sidebar for apps and workspace/session context
• an active app area
• a chat panel for the focused agent session
• a status bar for current state

┌──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┐
│ Title bar: window controls, back/forward, app context,        │
│ pinned shortcuts, command menu, shell actions                 │
├──────────────┬──────────────────────────────┬────────────────┤
│ Main sidebar │ Active app area              │ Global chat    │
│              │                              │ panel          │
│ Apps         │ Dashboard / Agent Board /    │ Pi-backed      │
│ Workspaces   │ Explorer / Plugin UI         │ session        │
│ Sessions     │                              │                │
├──────────────┴──────────────────────────────┴────────────────┤
│ Status bar: workspace/runtime/session state, zoom control     │
└──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┘

App zoom changes the active app area. It does not change the title bar or status bar.

#Workspaces

Workspaces are the main organizing unit. Each workspace has:

• a root directory on disk
• its own runtime mode
• its own sessions and context
• a .sero-workspace.json configuration surface

#Runtime modes

#Container-backed (explicit choices)

Use Apple Container or Docker / Podman-backed workspaces when you want:

• better isolation
• containerized tooling
• browser automation from the runtime image
• better Linux parity

#Host mode (default on supported platforms)

Host keeps core workflows available on supported platforms, but it is not feature-equivalent to container runtimes. Expect limits around browser automation, containerized tooling, and some managed preview/runtime behavior. See Support Scope for the canonical platform matrix and Containers and Host Mode for runtime-specific guidance.

#Plugins

Sero supports plugin-provided UI, Pi extensions, runtime behavior, and provider metadata. Built-in plugins ship in-repo; external plugins can be installed from trusted sources.

#Contributor architecture

Repository-wide implementation boundaries are in ARCHITECTURE.md.