---
title: Surfaces and navigation
description: The desktop app's nav tabs, URL-only routes, and where each lives in code.
sidebar:
  order: 2
---

# Surfaces and navigation

The desktop app is a broad evidence workbench with **six product surfaces**
(defined in `apps/desktop/src/components/sidebar.tsx`) plus an integrated
Settings utility and a set of **URL-only surfaces** that are reachable but
intentionally absent from the fixed navigation rail.

## Verification-centered path

The surfaces remain independently useful, but they are not equal steps in the
primary workflow. The persistent **Check a change** action starts one coherent
path:

1. Use Repo Unpack when repository structure, history, or ownership is needed.
2. Use Review to select the exact branch or pull request, capture task intent,
   and identify findings and evidence gaps. Model findings are leads, not proof.
3. Use Testing for executable runtime and browser evidence, receipts, failures,
   and explicit limitations.
4. Make a shipping decision from the combined evidence: ship candidate, hold,
   or no confidence.

Usage, Work, and Board remain part of the broader workbench. They do not replace
executable verification and must not imply that an unrun check passed.

## Product pillars

Source: `navItems` in `apps/desktop/src/components/sidebar.tsx`.

| Tab | Route | Page (via `persistent-routes.tsx`) | What it does |
|---|---|---|---|
| Usage | `/` | `apps/desktop/src/pages/Home.tsx` | Verified Codex token evidence, explicit coverage/pricing diagnostics, separately labelled legacy estimates, recovery/import controls, session history, and acceptance-rate strip. |
| Repo Unpack | `/unpack` | `apps/desktop/src/pages/RepoPage.tsx` | Whole-repo evidence-backed system brief. Tab `match`es `/unpack` and `/intel`. Scanner in `src-tauri/src/commands/unpack*.rs`; persisted to `repo_unpacked_reports`. See [architecture/repo-unpacked.md](../architecture/repo-unpacked.md). |
| Work | `/agents` | `apps/desktop/src/pages/AgentPanel.tsx` | Outcome-first Codex/Claude conversations in expandable repository-project groups with visible operational state. Indexed history appears only when its local working directory still exists, and resumes only through an explicit action. PTY execution stays behind the conversation and activity interface. |
| Board | `/board` | `apps/desktop/src/pages/AgentPanel.tsx` | Persistent Plan/Build/Review/Verify/Done orchestration with handoffs to Work, Review, Testing, and Repo Unpack. Shares one mounted workspace instance with Work so live provider state survives navigation. |
| Review | `/review` | `apps/desktop/src/pages/QuickReview.tsx` | First change-checking stage: select an exact change, inspect source-qualified findings and coverage gaps, attach evidence, and export a local Agent PR X-Ray. Findings remain leads until executable evidence supports the decision. |
| Testing | `/trex` | `apps/desktop/src/pages/TRex.tsx` | Runtime-evidence stage: direct PR or commit-range verification against an existing preview, plus changed-capability verification, receipts, scenarios, and PR watchers. See [trex-change-preview.md](./trex-change-preview.md). |

Settings (`/settings`) is a labelled utility separated at the bottom of the
same fixed rail, not a seventh product surface. It hosts preferences, Ops,
Memories, Rubrics, Agent MCP, usage, and About through `?section=`.

The Repo surface (`apps/desktop/src/pages/RepoPage.tsx`) consolidates Unpack,
Activity, Graph, Inventory, Analysis, Handoff, and past snapshots.
`RepoUnpacked.tsx` is a child view within it, not the `/unpack` page itself.

Keyboard navigation uses `g` followed by the surface shortcut, including `g b`
for Board, plus `g i` → `/unpack?section=activity`. The command palette is the
canonical shortcut reference.

## URL-only surfaces

| Route | Behavior | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| `/rubrics` | Redirects to `/settings?section=rubrics` (`App.tsx`). | Standards pack authoring, prompt preview, per-pack usage stats, cloning. |
| `/ops` | Redirects to `/settings?section=ops` (`App.tsx`). | Operations panel. |
| `/agent-memories` | Redirects to `/settings?section=memories` (`App.tsx`). | Agent memories: copy-as-markdown, regex line filter, git-diff-vs-HEAD with secret redaction. |
| `/intel` | Redirects to `/unpack` (`RedirectIntelToRepo` in `App.tsx`). | Tool breakdown + intel now lives inside the Repo surface. |

## Redirected / removed surfaces (do not resurrect)

- `/intel` → `/unpack`, `/fleet` → `/`, `/workbench` → `/` (redirects in
  `App.tsx`). SaaS Maker fleet linking is backed by `commands/saas_maker.rs`
  but no longer has its own top-level tab.
- `/rubrics`, `/ops`, `/agent-memories` → `/settings?section=…` (redirects
  in `App.tsx`).
- `/intent-debugger` and `/qa-replay` — their functionality (commit-intent
  reporting, synthetic-QA loops) lives in the Review screen (`/review`).
- The old Ask / Personas tabs and their Rust backend — removed in v1.1.87.
- Standalone Roadmap/resources top-level nav — consolidated into Repo.
- `LiveAgentRunner` / `SaasMakerTasksPanel` — orphaned by earlier page
  removals, reaped in the 2026-07-11 desloppification sweep.

## Routing

`react-router-dom` v7. Entry: `apps/desktop/src/main.tsx` → `App.tsx`.
Top-level redirects (`/intel`, `/fleet`, `/rubrics`, `/ops`,
`/agent-memories`, `/workbench`) are declared as explicit `<Route>`s in
`App.tsx`; everything else falls through to
`apps/desktop/src/components/persistent-routes.tsx` so state survives
navigation.