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Windows prototype

Status: implemented in the current Windows baseline

Date: 2026-07-21

Installer

The current internal prototype installer is generated at:

E:\YuNotebooks\01_Development\source\Rho\target\release\bundle\nsis\Rho_0.2.0-dev.11_x64-setup.exe

It is an unsigned 64-bit NSIS installer. Windows SmartScreen may therefore show an unrecognized-publisher warning. Code signing is deferred until the prototype workflow and publisher identity are stable.

The installer places Rho below %LOCALAPPDATA%\Rho, creates a Start Menu shortcut, and includes:

  • rho-desktop.exe;
  • Ark 0.1.252 and its license/notice;
  • WebView2Loader.dll required by the GNU Windows build;
  • the HTML, CSS and JavaScript workbench frontend embedded in the executable.

Prerequisites

  • Windows 10 or Windows 11 x64 with the Microsoft Edge WebView2 runtime;
  • R 4.4 or later, available through PATH or installed below C:\Program Files\R;
  • aisdk for Agent turns; provider metadata is managed in Rho and credentials come from the effective user .Renviron.

The editor, Console, Environment and Plots work without a model credential. Only the Agent panel requires aisdk plus at least one valid configured model. Python, Jupyter Server and JupyterLab are not installed or used.

RHO_RSCRIPT may be set to an explicit Rscript.exe path when R is installed in a nonstandard location.

Startup recovery

Rho creates its application shell before probing R. Missing R, unsupported R versions and failed base-runtime probes therefore open a recovery view instead of terminating the desktop process. The recovery view supports Retry, native Rscript.exe selection, copying bounded diagnostics and opening the log at:

%LOCALAPPDATA%\org.yulab.rho\logs\startup.jsonl

The required base-R probe, effective user-profile .libPaths() probe and optional aisdk probe run in separate bounded processes. Rho passes successful profile-derived library paths to Ark through R_LIBS and explicitly loads the user ~/.Rprofile and ~/.Renviron in Workspace R only when those files exist. An absent file is not exported as a placeholder path; its startup channel is disabled so a project file cannot silently take its place. Site profile code remains disabled. Values in an existing user .Renviron, including credentials, are consequently visible to Workspace R. If only aisdk fails, the workbench remains available and the Agent panel reports Unavailable with an independent Retry Agent action.

All desktop-owned R probes, including Agent configuration and connection checks, run from temporary UTF-8 .R files rather than multiline Rscript -e arguments. The temporary file remains available until its R process exits.

Implemented workflow

  1. Rho discovers the local R installation and writes a controlled kernelspec in its application-data directory.
  2. The bundled Ark binary starts one persistent authoritative Workspace R.
  3. The source editor and Console execute against that same session.
  4. Structured output populates Console, Problems, Plots and Environment.
  5. Horizontal and vertical dividers resize the execution, Files and context panels; sizes restore per project and the execution panel has expand/restore.
  6. Ask and Plan are read-only Agent modes. Act may approve run_r calls.
  7. Agent R uses YuLab-SMU/aisdk and broker tools against the same Workspace R.
  8. The broker persists execution and agent events in its SQLite store.
  9. Native project selection restores the last opened project, open documents, cursor positions and panel sizes from the app-local data directory.
  10. Missing project roots surface an explicit unavailable-project state instead of silently falling back to another directory.
  11. External file changes refresh the tree and do not silently overwrite dirty editor content.
  12. Monaco now provides the main R editing surface with syntax-aware highlighting, bracket matching and safe textarea fallback.
  13. The editor can execute a selection, the current line or the whole source file while keeping execution in the same authoritative Workspace R.
  14. User, agent and system executions now persist as durable run records with explicit lifecycle states in the broker-owned SQLite store.
  15. Problems are now backed by structured execution records that retain execution ID, source path, retry linkage and recovery semantics.
  16. Incomplete runs are marked on restart, active runs can be cancelled through bounded interrupt, and the Runs panel now reflects durable run history.
  17. Ask and Plan mutations are rejected by broker policy. Act approvals are single-use and bound to the exact code and workspace revision shown in UI.
  18. Agent turns and approval outcomes persist independently from Workspace R; restart interrupts orphaned turns and approvals explicitly.
  19. Environment reports R, library paths, renv, Bioconductor, attached packages and optional render capabilities from bounded Workspace probes.
  20. Data-frame, matrix, vector and list previews cap rows, columns, items and individual value size before JSON serialization.
  21. Plot history links images to run, source path, document version and workspace revision, marking incomplete provenance explicitly.
  22. .Rmd and .qmd rendering is restricted to the active project root and reports missing tooling or render failures through structured runs.
  23. The Agent composer now exposes a compact model selector for the next turn and disables Act automatically for models without confirmed tool support.
  24. Manage LLMs... provides global provider/model configuration, effective user .Renviron opening, credential refresh and bounded connection tests without storing API keys in Rho-owned files.

The installed build was verified to launch Ark from:

%LOCALAPPDATA%\Rho\resources\runtime\ark.exe

Prototype verification

target\debug\rho-desktop.exe --smoke-test
target\debug\rho-desktop.exe --smoke-agent

The repository does not track the 23 MB Ark executable. Run the Phase 0 Ark bootstrap before scripts/build-windows-installer.ps1; the build script copies the pinned, checksum-verified binary into the temporary desktop resource tree.

The desktop smoke test creates a data frame, receives a real plot, and finds the object in the Environment snapshot. The Agent smoke test additionally runs a real configured Agent model turn against that live workspace.

Browser-mode UI verification covers 1280 by 720 and the minimum 1024 by 680 window size. Run, Plots, Environment, the Agent model selector and the Manage LLMs dialog were exercised without incoherent overlap. Resizer keyboard controls, persisted sizes, execution-panel expansion, minimum-window clamping and Monaco frontend loading are also covered.

Deliberately deferred

  • bounded local completion and richer R language features;
  • persistent multi-turn ChatSession context beyond durable turn history;
  • paged full-table viewers and standalone HTML artifact viewers;
  • richer job management beyond the current bounded cancellation/restart model;
  • automatic R/aisdk installation and operating-system credential vault integration;
  • installer signing, auto-update and external distribution hardening;
  • macOS and Linux packaging.

These are productization items, not blockers for evaluating the Windows workbench shape and the shared Workspace R/Agent R architecture.

Panel interaction

The execution dock is separated from the editor by a draggable horizontal divider. Drag it upward to inspect a larger Plot or Problems surface; drag it downward to return more space to the editor. Double-click the divider restores the default height. The Files and Agent/Environment columns have equivalent vertical dividers. All three sizes persist locally, support keyboard arrow adjustment when focused, and the execution dock has an expand/restore button.