howcode

Howcode is a desktop app for coding with Pi.

It gives you:

• threaded Pi chats tied to your projects
• a built-in terminal
• project and inbox sidebars
• git and diff workflows in the app, with some early-release actions still partial
• local desktop performance instead of a browser tab

Install / run

npx howcode
# or
npm i -g howcode
howcode

This npm package is a small launcher.

On first run, it downloads the matching desktop app for your platform from GitHub Releases and caches it locally. After the first successful download, it can fall back to the cached app if release metadata is temporarily unavailable.

On Windows, the first successful run also creates a Start Menu shortcut for howcode, so you do not need to find the cached executable or add the cache directory to PATH.

What you actually get

• macOS, Linux, and Windows desktop builds
• Windows installer artifacts in GitHub Releases
• Linux AppImage artifacts for direct installs
• local cached installs after first download
• desktop builds that bundle Electron/Chromium for a more consistent renderer

Project

• App repo: https://github.com/IgorWarzocha/howcode
• Issues: https://github.com/IgorWarzocha/howcode/issues

Renderer note

Release builds now bundle Electron/Chromium on macOS, Linux, and Windows. The launcher no longer needs to inject the old Linux WEBKIT_DISABLE_DMABUF_RENDERER workaround.

Expect downloads to be larger than the native-webview builds in exchange for more consistent rendering behavior.

Cache location

• macOS: ~/Library/Caches/howcode
• Linux: $XDG_CACHE_HOME/howcode or ~/.cache/howcode
• Windows: %LOCALAPPDATA%\howcode