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Slash, project context (start here)

Canonical context for Slash, EJ's personal AI-native browser. Read this first when starting a session on this project. Pair with DESIGN.md (visual system), BROWSER-UI.md (feature roadmap), and docs/research/ (the deep research EJ supplied).

What it is

A personal, local, open-source, modifiable, low-usage web browser with a built-in AI panel. Built as a custom Electron shell over Chromium (route "A": own the UI, rent the engine). NOT a Firefox/Chromium fork. The folder is Desktop\slash (codename was "Loom"); the product is named Slash.

Identity (locked, do not relitigate)

  • Name: Slash. Wordmark /slash (leading yellow slash) in Space Grotesk. The / is the mark AND a real feature (the slash-command key). On the hero it is a blinking yellow cursor.
  • Color: soft yellow #f1cb53, themeable at runtime (settings), dark text on the accent. Default lives in lib/settings.js.
  • Look: near-black chrome (#1c1c1f / titlebar #141416), system font for UI (Segoe UI), conventional Chrome/GX layout. No left rail.
  • App icon: yellow rounded tile + dark / (src/icon.png, regenerated from mockups/icon.html).
  • Rejected directions (do not revisit): Catppuccin dark, warm-clay light, warm-neutral "Claude" light, GX-red with a left sidebar. EJ has strong, specific taste; match real references, do not generate looks from adjectives.

How to run

cd Desktop\slash
npm start          # uses launch.js to strip ELECTRON_RUN_AS_NODE (see below)

Critical gotcha: ELECTRON_RUN_AS_NODE=1 is set globally on EJ's PC, which makes the Electron binary run as plain Node (app is undefined, electron --version prints the Node version). launch.js strips it. Always launch via npm start, never electron . directly.

Mockup-first workflow (how the design got built)

NO AI image generation for UI (EJ rejected it). Mockups are HTML/CSS in mockups/, rendered to PNG with headless Edge, then opened for EJ:

& msedge --headless=new --disable-gpu --hide-scrollbars --window-size=1280,840 \
  --screenshot="out.png" "file:///.../mockups/mockup.html"

mockups/mockup.html is the approved full-browser reference. The real app chrome matches it.

Architecture

Electron BaseWindow holding stacked WebContentsViews (main.js):

  • chromeView (index.html / chrome.js / styles.css): tab strip + toolbar + bookmarks bar. Trusted, preload.js -> window.slash.
  • heroView (hero.*): the /slash speed-dial start page. Shown for any tab that has not navigated. Trusted, hero-preload.js -> window.hero.
  • per-tab pageViews: live web content, untrusted, no preload. Tab model in main.js (Map of tabId -> view; only active visible).
  • aiView (ai.*): docked right AI panel. Trusted, ai-preload.js.
  • popoverView (overlay.*): top-right menu / profile / downloads / history layer (avoids clipping; sized per kind). Trusted, overlay-preload.
  • findView (find.*): find-in-page bar. Trusted, find-preload.js.

Runtime accent theming: main injects the user's accent into every chrome view via webContents.insertCSS (applyAccent / broadcastAccent).

AI integration

  • AI runs through Squire (@pythonluvr/squire, npm) which spawns the provider CLI as a subprocess on the user's subscription (no API cost), OR a direct BYOK API call (lib/api.js, SSE streaming).
  • Providers in main.js PROVIDERS: Claude (default), Gemini, ChatGPT. Each has a CLI variant and an API variant. CLI uses default permission mode (no bypass) so it answers conversationally with no autonomous tool powers.
  • Verified: Squire -> claude CLI streams. claude, gemini, codex CLIs all present on EJ's PC.
  • Hero "Ask AI" mode sends the prompt + chosen model into the panel (hero:ask-ai -> ai:prompt).

Data + settings (local, never in repo)

  • lib/settings.js -> userData/slash-settings.json: AI selection, BYOK API keys, model ids, accent. Reads the pre-rename loom-settings.json as a fallback so old installs keep their keys.
  • lib/store.js -> userData/slash-data.json: bookmarks + history.

Feature status

Done: tabs (model, strip, keyboard Ctrl+T/W/Shift+T/Tab/1-9), omnibox, hero speed-dial (engines one-click row, Google default, search suggestions via suggest:get, / slash-command flips to AI, AI model pills from providers:get), AI panel (CLI+API, themeable accent picker in settings), downloads (tracked), zoom, top-right cluster (menu/profile/downloads/history), bookmarks bar + star (Ctrl+D), find-in-page (Ctrl+F), history popover. Accessibility baseline (aria-labels, focus-visible, reduced-motion).

Also done (2026-06-04): right-click context menus (src/context.*); a privacy/safe layer (see PRIVACY.md): encrypted API keys (safeStorage), hardened shell (sandbox/CSP/nav-block), DoH, DuckDuckGo default, per-site permission prompts + site-info omnibox button/popover, HTTPS-only with a fallback interstitial.

Not done / next (see BROWSER-UI.md + PRIVACY.md): tracker/ad blocker (EasyList), third-party-cookie + referrer hardening, clear-data + private window, a real settings surface (to expose the privacy toggles), SQLite for history/bookmarks, session restore, real extensions, tab groups, F11 fullscreen, then OSS publish to PythonLuvr/slash.

The internal loom -> slash rename is done (bridge window.slash, slash-settings.json with legacy fallback, titles, system prompt, docs); the dead GX-red sidebar.* files were removed.

OSS discipline

Authored as public OSS: nothing hardcoded (no keys/paths/personal data), BYOK only, depends on the published @pythonluvr/squire from npm (not a local file: path). Has README.md + .gitignore. Fonts bundled (IBM Plex + Space Grotesk, OFL). Eventual repo: PythonLuvr/slash, MIT.

EJ working preferences that bit this project

  • No AI image gen for UI/mockups (HTML/CSS/SVG only).
  • No em dashes anywhere (a write hook enforces it).
  • Match real references; do not invent looks from adjectives.
  • Show pixels, iterate fast; he reacts to renders, not descriptions.