Snow App

[!WARNING] > macOS Users: If the app shows "damaged" or "cannot be opened" after installation, run the following command in Terminal:

>

> sudo xattr -rd com.apple.quarantine /Applications/Snow\ App.app

> You will be prompted to enter your login password to remove the quarantine attribute.

High-performance cross-platform desktop application powered by Electron, React, TypeScript, and Rust.

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Overview

Snow App is a developer-focused desktop application that integrates AI-powered chat, terminal emulation, SSH remote management, Git tooling, and a built-in browser panel into a single unified workspace. It leverages a Rust native module for performance-critical operations such as SQLite storage, AI streaming, file watching, and HTTP requests.

Features

• AI Chat - Streaming AI assistant with markdown rendering, syntax highlighting, and configurable system prompts
• Integrated Terminal - Full PTY-based terminal emulation powered by node-pty and xterm.js
• SSH Management - Connect to and manage remote servers via SSH with credential persistence
• Git Panel - Visual Git diff viewer and repository management
• Browser Panel - Built-in browser with proxy support, network inspection, login-state management, and AI-driven automation
• MCP Support - Model Context Protocol integration for extensible AI tooling
• AI Image Generation - Built-in text-to-image / image editing (OpenAI / Gemini multi-channel); generated images are persisted into an image library
• Skills System - Install / enable / manage AI skills (SKILL.md) that dynamically extend the agent
• Hooks - Lifecycle hooks that run custom commands or prompts before/after events like requests and compression
• Sub-Agents - Independent AI execution loops for parallel, complex multi-step tasks
• Codebase Semantic Search - Embedding-index-based code search plus multi-language code symbol location (codelens)
• Plan / Goal Modes - Plan-first and autonomous long-running task execution modes
• Interactive Terminal Sessions - The AI can drive persistent PTY sessions for long-running and interactive commands
• Codebase Explorer - Project file tree with workspace directory management
• i18n - Multi-language support with a locale system
• Settings Management - Granular configuration for API keys, custom headers, proxy, sensitive commands, and more
• Mobile Remote Control - Continue conversations, switch workspaces and models, approve tools, answer questions, and send images/files from a phone over LAN or a self-hosted public tunnel
• Cross-Platform - Runs on macOS, Windows, and Linux

Mobile Remote Control

Pair a phone from Settings → Mobile Remote Control and control the current Snow session from a mobile browser. LAN pairing works without a cloud service; optional public access uses a self-hosted, authenticated TLS tunnel and supports one-time pairing, session revocation, permission prompts, and sensitive-output redaction. See the setup guide.

The initial version of Mobile Remote Control was contributed by zerio1 through PR #130, then integrated and refined by Snow App.

| Conversation and streaming | Actions, modes, and approvals | | ----------------------------------------------------------------------- | ------------------------------------------------------------- | | !Snow mobile remote conversation | !Snow mobile remote actions |

Tech Stack

| Layer | Technology | | --------- | ------------------------------------------------------------- | | Shell | Electron 37 | | Frontend | React 19, TypeScript 5.9 | | Bundler | electron-vite 4 (Vite 7) | | Native | Rust 2021 Edition (napi-rs 3) | | Packaging | electron-builder 26 | | Terminal | node-pty, xterm.js 6 | | SSH | ssh2 | | Storage | rusqlite (SQLite, bundled) | | AI/HTTP | reqwest (multi-provider protocol adapters and streaming HTTP) | | Markdown | markdown-it, streaming-markdown, highlight.js | | Icons | lucide-react |

Project Structure

snow-app/
├── src/
│   ├── main/            # Electron main process
│   │   ├── app/         # Application bootstrap & window management
│   │   ├── ipc/         # IPC handler registration
│   │   ├── native/      # Rust native bridge (storageReady gate)
│   │   ├── notification/ # System notifications
│   │   ├── pty/         # PTY & terminal management
│   │   ├── settings/    # Configuration stores
│   │   ├── snowCli/     # CLI path & profile management
│   │   ├── ssh/         # SSH connection management
│   │   ├── types/       # Shared types
│   │   ├── updater/     # App updates
│   │   └── utils/       # Shared utilities
│   ├── preload/         # Electron preload script (window.snow.* allowlist)
│   ├── renderer/        # React frontend
│   │   ├── components/  # UI components (sidebar, main content, right panel)
│   │   ├── hooks/       # Custom React hooks
│   │   ├── i18n/        # Internationalization
│   │   └── utils/       # Frontend utilities
│   └── shared/          # Code shared between main & renderer
├── native/              # Rust native module
│   └── src/
│       ├── api/         # AI API integration
│       ├── exports/     # napi-rs export bindings
│       ├── hooks/       # Lifecycle hook execution
│       ├── mcp/         # MCP protocol implementation (built-in servers + external client)
│       ├── prompt/      # System prompt handling (incl. Plan/Goal modes)
│       └── storage/     # SQLite persistence
├── scripts/             # Build & utility scripts
├── resources/           # App icons & static assets
└── electron.vite.config.ts

Prerequisites

• Node.js >= 18
• Rust (stable toolchain) - required for building the native module
• Cargo - comes with Rust

Platform-Specific

• macOS: Xcode Command Line Tools
• Windows: Visual Studio Build Tools (C++ workload)
• Linux: build-essential, pkg-config, and system SQLite (or use bundled)

Getting Started

Installation

npm install

Development

npm run dev

This starts the Electron app in development mode with hot module replacement.

Build

npm run build

This compiles the Rust native module and bundles the Electron application via electron-vite.

Package

npm run build:app

This builds the app and produces a distributable package via electron-builder. Output is written to release/.

Type Checking

npm run check

Runs both TypeScript type checking (tsc --noEmit) and Rust checking (cargo check).

Available Scripts

| Script | Description | | -------------------- | -------------------------------------- | | npm run dev | Start development server with HMR | | npm run build | Build Rust native module + Vite bundle | | npm run build:app | Build + create distributable package | | npm run build:rust | Build only the Rust native module | | npm run check | TypeScript + Rust type checking | | npm run check:ts | TypeScript type checking only | | npm run preview | Preview the production build |

Native Module

The Rust native module (snow_native) is compiled to a Node addon (.node) via napi-rs. It provides:

• AI API streaming - Async streaming via reqwest and provider adapters for OpenAI Chat/Responses, Anthropic, and Gemini protocols
• SQLite storage - Embedded database via rusqlite for settings and chat history
• File watching - File system monitoring via the notify crate
• HTTP client - Full-featured HTTP client via reqwest with compression support
• MCP protocol - Model Context Protocol implementation

License

MIT - Copyright (c) 2026 MayMay