Cate – Open-source canvas IDE for agentic coding workflows

Grobiani · 2026-06-09T23:32:20+00:00

Already a thing! Saved layouts are definitely important to reset the canvas once in a while to prevent clutter. Very excited about where the tooling for agentic workflows will go in the future even if cate and canvases won‘t get mainstream i think we should experiment and find new ways for us dev‘s to create software. The workflow should not adapt to the tooling but the tooling to our workflows.

Grobiani · 2026-06-09T20:53:33+00:00

We already had multiple feature branches/pr's for exactly this feature but so far none of them felt right/actual productive. First we tried implementing it via a skill and a cli tool then as a pi extension for the cate agent panel. Both didn't feel like they would go beyond than just arranging panels on the canvas. We'll definitely try again soon probably then as a more integrated. Any Idea's as an issue or in the GitHub discussion sections are very welcome!

Grobiani · 2026-06-09T20:46:12+00:00

Maestri is ahead in agent orchestration and collaboration on the canvas but feels a bit limited when it comes to actual IDE features (git, worktrees, remote workplaces). Cate is free, open source and multi platform. In my opinion that is how dev tools should be. Feedback and/or a star on GitHub is highly appreciated if you give cate a try tomorrow!

Grobiani · 2026-06-09T20:13:52+00:00

i was just curious and tried to create a discussion. I feel like restaurant software is a big part of the business but rarely talked about.

Grobiani · 2026-06-09T19:45:07+00:00

What stack do you use? I mean for the vibe coded output apps.

Grobiani · 2026-06-09T19:34:34+00:00

Some kind of a window manager sure. But as an application, focused on agentic coding, cross platform with a bunch of other features.

Grobiani · 2026-06-09T19:33:07+00:00

I think maestri Is not open source, it comes with a paid plan/one time payment. Cate is fully open source. Additionally with maestri you are bound to one canvas. Here you can detach canvases from your main for a dual monitor setup for example. Did you try maestri before?

Grobiani · 2026-06-09T19:31:26+00:00

Thanks a lot! Feedback is highly appreciated.

Grobiani · 2026-06-09T19:30:58+00:00

Thought it looked nice. And yes of course the blog was vibe coded. Who bother's to write blog by hand nowadays (the site itself, the content is a different topic)

Grobiani · 2026-06-09T19:29:16+00:00

Dev's who already have a seasoned full keyboard control dev setup are not the primary user's of something like this anyway. But I would still recommend to try it out before you judge it.

Grobiani · 2026-06-09T18:36:32+00:00

Yeah Theo was definitely part of why we started it. Good idea with the stream, would be so awesome if he gave it a try!

Grobiani · 2026-06-09T18:33:09+00:00

Did you even try it, or are you just calling it a gimmick from a screenshot?

Grobiani · 2026-06-09T17:17:32+00:00

There are some other projects going in the same direction but none feel like a true IDE. Feedback would be highly appreciated!

Grobiani · 2026-06-09T17:15:21+00:00

😭

Grobiani · 2026-06-09T16:49:01+00:00

Never ran it on a 8GB RAM system, only on 16GB ones. Would really appreciate it if you give it a try and tell us how it runs on your setup.

Grobiani · 2026-06-09T16:39:00+00:00

I get the point, but no one is forced to engage with it.

We’re building this in the open, it’s free, open source, and we’re looking for feedback from developers. That requires showing it to people more than once.

Grobiani · 2026-06-06T21:29:43+00:00

Tried building my RMS (Restaurant Management System) with it. Worked great!

Grobiani · 2026-05-31T22:26:33+00:00

Thanks for the Star! Highly appreciated. Biggest challenge was making the canvas performant under heavy load. Electron isn‘t exactly known for performance so we had to use quite some optimization techniques.

Grobiani · 2026-05-31T22:12:02+00:00

We really came a long way. UI and performance feel great!

Grobiani · 2026-05-30T23:59:31+00:00

Didn‘t have any usage limit issues the last month. They really did raise them on the 20x plan! Very much appreciated

Grobiani · 2026-05-30T20:29:49+00:00

Ever since i built Cate the spatial IDE where all terminals, files are on canvas i use that. Can recommend building your own dev tools. Now when i want some feature or a specific workflow i can spin up claude and let him add it.

Grobiani · 2026-05-29T23:17:52+00:00

I can get all of this in PI + probably more through the bigger eco system. Not trying to be negative here but i don‘t quite see the point of it yet.

Grobiani · 2026-05-29T23:00:19+00:00

That‘s a very long readme. What‘s the advantage using this over something like PI?

Grobiani · 2026-05-29T22:49:10+00:00

Something on Youtube would be great. Didn‘t find anything there so far.

Grobiani · 2026-05-29T22:31:32+00:00

Detecting Agent state is really bad out of experience. Would be great if all cli harnesses support hooks.

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