Cate is an open-source agent harness and orchestrator developed by 0-AI-UG. Built on TypeScript, Vite, and Electron, it provides an orchestration runtime for coding agents to execute development skills, manage workspace tasks, and interact directly with terminal environments. In daily operations, Cate manages agent execution sessions with integrated terminal handling and a configurable skill architecture. Developers configure agent capabilities and behaviors using workspace skill definitions and agent configuration files (such as AGENTS.md and CLAUDE.md), enabling agents to inspect codebases, execute terminal commands, run tests, and manage remote terminal connections. What differentiates Cate is its dual nature as an Electron-packaged desktop harness backed by modular skill registries and terminal orchestration. Rather than functioning solely as a terminal REPL, it packages agent control, skill integration, and resilient terminal lifecycle management (including remote session reconnects) into a unified application. Cate is open-source under a standard open repository license, self-hosted, and free to use. Model usage and execution costs depend on the upstream provider APIs configured for your underlying agent setup.
Electron and Vite Orchestration Harness — Provides an integrated desktop application runtime for managing AI coding agent workflows and terminal instances. - Extensible Skill System — Supports modular skill definitions and registry extensions to expand agent toolsets for specialized tasks. - Resilient Terminal Management — Executes local and remote shell sessions with reconnection handling for robust command and script execution. - Repository-Level Agent Configs — Natively supports structured agent instruction files (AGENTS.md, CLAUDE.md) for defining execution boundaries. - Multi-Platform Desktop Packaging — Packaged via Electron Builder for cross-platform distribution and consistent local execution.
Use cases
Use Case: Automated Skill-Based Development Workflows A developer defines custom repository skills in Cate to automate routine multi-step engineering tasks, such as generating boilerplate, refactoring packages, and running localized linters.
Use Case: Persistent Terminal Session Management An engineer runs long-running builds, test suites, or remote container tasks through Cate, utilizing its remote terminal reconnect capabilities to maintain agent context across unstable connections.
Use Case: Standardized Agent Orchestration across Repositories A team uses Cate to standardize how AI agents interact with terminal tooling and workspace files by sharing version-controlled skill configurations and agent boundary files.
Who it is for
Cate is aimed at developers and engineering teams who want a GUI/Electron-backed agent orchestrator with structured skill registries and terminal management. It is less suitable for users looking for a minimal, headless single-binary CLI agent designed exclusively for raw terminal multiplexers.
Install guide
Installation Cate is distributed as an Electron-based application built from source. Ensure you have Node.js installed: bash git clone https://github.com/0-AI-UG/cate.git cd cate npm install To build and launch the application in development mode: bash npm run dev To build distributable application packages: bash npm run build
First Run 1. Launch the Cate desktop application. 2. Open your repository workspace in Cate. 3. Configure your LLM provider credentials in the application settings or environment variables. 4. Define or load skill configurations in your workspace directory (e.g., under .codex/skills or skills/).
Example Session Once Cate is running and connected to your repository: text Cate > Analyze test coverage in ./src and run the failed test suite using the persistent terminal.
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