Cate v1.0 is out: The Infinite canvas workspace for developers

https://news.ycombinator.com/rss Hits: 3
Summary

A spatial desktop IDE with an infinite canvas for code, terminals, browsers, documents, AI agents, and git. Current source version: v1.0.3 Cate is an Electron desktop app for arranging development tools in freeform space. Mix floating canvas panels with docked tabs and splits, detach panels into standalone windows, and keep multiple workspaces synced across sessions. Open any folder to create a workspace — Cate restores your canvas layout, panel positions, and open terminals every time you come back. Right-click the canvas to add panels, press Cmd+K for the command palette, or drag panels onto the dock to create tabs and splits. No configuration files, no project setup — just point Cate at a directory and start working. Alt-tab works fine — until you have 12 terminals, 6 files open, docs in another window, and notes scattered across desktops. At that point switching windows becomes the actual bottleneck. Cate replaces that pile of windows with one persistent canvas per project. Terminals, editors, browsers, and notes sit where you put them, grouped how you think about them, and they're still there when you come back the next day. Cate is not a window manager replacement. Tiling/scrolling WMs (Hyprland, Niri, GlazeWM, KDE) are great if you mainly want to arrange OS windows. Cate is a spatial canvas around a single project's tools — closer to Figma's infinite canvas than to a WM. Infinite canvas — zoom, pan, and arrange panels anywhere in freeform space. Pan with two-finger drag or right-click drag; zoom with Cmd+scroll or the canvas controls. Dock system — drag floating panels onto the dock to create tabs and splits. Each dock zone (center, left, right, bottom) can hold multiple tabs with type-colored icons. Detached windows — pull panels or full dock layouts into separate OS windows. Saved layouts — name, save, load, and delete canvas arrangements (nodes and regions) from an in-app modal (Cmd+K → "Saved Layouts…"). Multi-workspace sessions — keep several projects op...

First seen: 2026-05-27 07:45

Last seen: 2026-05-27 09:48