Frame

Frame started as a lightweight terminal-first IDE. It's evolving into a full platform for developing and managing larger projects with AI agents — bringing structure, context, and organization to the way you work with Claude Code, Codex CLI, and Gemini CLI.

https://github.com/user-attachments/assets/6fe108d1-70c8-441e-a913-b34583c803b0

The Problem

As projects grow with AI agents, things fall apart fast:

• Context loss — every new session starts from scratch, you re-explain the same things over and over
• No project memory — AI doesn't know your architecture, past decisions, or pending tasks
• No standard — every developer structures their AI projects differently, making collaboration and onboarding painful
• Sessions bleed into each other — working on multiple projects means context gets mixed up
• Terminal chaos — multiple windows, scattered sessions, no organization
• Tool fragmentation — Claude, Codex, and Gemini each work differently

These problems are manageable on small projects. On larger ones, they become blockers.

Frame solves all of this.

How Frame Works

One Standard, Every Project, Every AI Tool

Frame brings a consistent structure to every project you work on. When you initialize Frame in a project, it creates:

| File | Purpose | |------|---------| | AGENTS.md | Project rules and instructions — AI reads this automatically | | STRUCTURE.json | Module map with intentIndex for fast file lookup | | PROJECT_NOTES.md | Architectural decisions and context that persist across sessions | | tasks.json | Task tracking with status, context, and acceptance criteria |

Every project gets its own isolated session — its own context, its own task list, its own notes. Switching projects in Frame means switching to a completely fresh, project-specific AI context. No bleed-over, no confusion.

This standard works with any AI tool. Claude Code and Gemini CLI read these files natively. For Codex CLI, Frame injects them automatically via a wrapper script — no manual setup needed.

The result: any developer (or AI agent) who opens a Frame project immediately knows where everything is and what's been decided. Onboarding a new AI session to a large project takes seconds, not minutes.

Git Commit as the Context Anchor

One of the hardest problems in agentic development is knowing when to capture context. Session boundaries are fuzzy — you might stay in the same session for hours. Task completion is ambiguous — agents don't always signal clearly when something is done. Trying to detect "important moments" mid-session is unreliable.

Frame's approach: use git commits as the single reliable boundary.

When you commit, something real happened. It's intentional, it's deterministic, and it's a natural checkpoint you're already making. Frame builds its entire context system around this moment:

• STRUCTURE.json — auto-updated via pre-commit hook, always reflects the current architecture
• tasks.json — task state syncs at commit time
• PROJECT_NOTES.md — the right moment to capture what changed and why

When the next session starts, these files are read automatically. The agent picks up exactly where things left off — not from a vague session transcript, but from structured, up-to-date context written at the one moment you can be certain something real was completed.

The practical implication: commit often. Small, intentional commits aren't just good git hygiene — in Frame, they're how context stays accurate and agents stay oriented.

Spec-Driven Development

For features that won't fit in one session, Frame ships a built-in spec workflow. Each spec is four markdown files on disk:

.frame/specs/<slug>/
  spec.md      what we're building
  plan.md      how we'll build it
  tasks.md     broken-down work
  outcome.md   what actually shipped

Describe what you want and the AI drafts the spec. /spec.plan produces an implementation plan. /spec.tasks breaks the plan into discrete tasks that import into tasks.json (tagged with source: "spec:<slug>:T<n>"). /spec.implement walks them one by one — and after each task, the agent appends 2-3 sentences to outcome.md: what shipped, what diverged from the plan, what to follow up on.

That last file is the move that makes the rest worth doing. Plans tell you intent. Code tells you reality. outcome.md tells you the story between them, written while the agent's memory was fresh — the kind of context that's normally lost the moment a session ends.

Two principles shaped this:

• Files over databases. Markdown is canonical. Any AI tool can read it without Frame, any teammate can grep it, git versions it, PRs review it.
• Optional, never forced. Spec-driven dev isn't every project's shape. Frame asks once when you open the Specs panel; you opt in or skip. Existing tasks.json workflows are untouched.

Fast File Lookup

Instead of scanning the entire codebase, Frame's intentIndex maps concepts to files:

node scripts/find-module.js github    # → githubManager.js + githubPanel.js
node scripts/find-module.js terminal  # → all terminal-related files
node scripts/find-module.js --list    # → all features and their files

This means AI agents spend zero time searching — they go directly to the right file.

Multi-AI Support

Switch between AI tools without leaving Frame:

• Claude Code — reads CLAUDE.md natively (symlink to AGENTS.md)
• Codex CLI — wrapper script at .frame/bin/codex injects AGENTS.md as initial prompt
• Gemini CLI — reads GEMINI.md natively

Features

Terminal

• Up to 9 terminals in a single window — tab view or 2x1, 2x2, 3x1, 3x2, 3x3 grid
• Real PTY via node-pty — not a fake terminal, full VT100/ANSI support
• Project-aware sessions — terminal starts in your selected project directory
• Resizable grid — drag borders to adjust layout

Project Management

• Task Panel — visual task tracking with filters, status management, and "Send to Claude" integration
• Specs Panel — spec-driven workflow with phase lifecycle (spec → plan → tasks → outcome) and slash-command handoff to your AI tool
• GitHub Panel — issues, PRs, branches, and labels directly in the sidebar
• Git Branches — view, switch, create, and manage branches and worktrees
• Plugins Panel — browse, enable/disable, and install Claude Code plugins

Context & Architecture

• STRUCTURE.json — auto-updated on every commit via pre-commit hooks
• Overview Panel — visual structure map of your project's modules
• Session Notes — automatic prompts to save important decisions to PROJECT_NOTES.md
• Prompt History — all terminal input logged with timestamps

Multi-AI

• AI Tool Selector — switch between Claude Code, Codex CLI, and Gemini CLI
• Automatic context injection — every AI tool gets your project context on startup
• Tool-specific commands — menu adapts to the active AI tool

Under the Hood

• 115+ IPC channels powering real-time bidirectional communication between renderer and main process
• 40+ modules across main and renderer processes
• Pre-commit hooks for automatic STRUCTURE.json updates
• Transport layer abstraction — architecture designed for Electron IPC → WebSocket migration (web platform coming)

Tech Stack

| Component | Technology | |-----------|-----------| | Desktop Framework | Electron | | Terminal Emulator | xterm.js | | PTY | node-pty | | Bundler | esbuild | | UI | HTML/CSS/JS |

Installation

Prerequisites

• Node.js 16+
• npm
• At least one AI CLI tool: Claude Code, Codex CLI, or Gemini CLI

Steps

git clone https://github.com/kaanozhan/Frame.git
cd Frame
npm install
npm run dev

Download

Pre-built binaries available on the releases page for macOS, Windows, and Linux.

Usage

Basic Workflow

1. Select a project — click "Select Project Folder" or choose from recent projects
2. Initialize Frame — click "Initialize Frame Project" to create AGENTS.md, STRUCTURE.json, PROJECT_NOTES.md, and tasks.json
3. Start an AI session — click "Start Claude Code" (or your chosen tool) — it launches in your project directory with full context
4. Work — tasks are tracked, decisions are saved, context persists

Keyboard Shortcuts

| Shortcut | Action | |----------|--------| | Ctrl+K | Start AI session | | Ctrl+Shift+T | New terminal | | Ctrl+Shift+W | Close terminal | | Ctrl+Tab | Next terminal | | Ctrl+Shift+G | Toggle grid view | | `Ctrl+1-