regatta

Regatta

Regatta is a macOS desktop app I built with Electron, React, TypeScript, and node-pty to run multiple terminal sessions and git worktrees side by side without losing track of which pane needs input or accidentally clobbering uncommitted git work.

Regatta running three terminal panes with live status and Fleet sidebar

Download and Try It

Download macOS Release (v0.1.0 DMG & ZIP): https://github.com/draarivpatel-ui/regatta/releases/tag/v0.1.0
Video Walkthrough: https://aariv.me/regatta/docs/demo-720p.mp4

Opening the Downloaded App on macOS

Because I built and packaged this as a student without a paid $99/year Apple Developer ID account, the .dmg and .zip builds in the GitHub Release are ad-hoc signed (codesign -s -). The first time you open Regatta.app after downloading it, macOS Gatekeeper will block it because of the download quarantine flag.

To open it:

Drag Regatta.app to /Applications.
Run this in Terminal to clear the quarantine attribute:
```
xattr -cr /Applications/Regatta.app
```
(Or right-click Regatta.app in Finder and click Open.)

Platform	Architecture	Status
macOS 13+	Apple Silicon (`arm64`)	Supported and tested (`.dmg` and `.zip` on Releases page)
macOS 13+	Intel (`x64`)	Build from source (`npm run dev`)
Windows / Linux	`x64` / `arm64`	Not supported yet (worktree safety checks use macOS `lsof` and APFS clonefile)

Why I Built This

Whenever I had three or four terminal tabs open on different git branches or worktrees, I kept running into two problems:

I couldn’t tell at a glance which terminal was still compiling/running tests versus waiting at a prompt for a y/n confirmation.
Cleaning up temporary git worktree folders when switching branches is surprisingly easy to mess up. If you delete a worktree directory before checking whether it has unmerged commits or staged files, or while a background process is still writing to it, you can lose work.

So I built Regatta around two main ideas: a live multi-pane terminal grid that tracks process state per pane, and a worktree runner (“Heats”) that isolates parallel runs in separate git worktrees and moves finished worktrees to a recoverable trash folder instead of deleting them.

Regatta Heats view after running two isolated git worktree lanes and running checks

What Is Inside

Multi-pane terminal grid (1 to 16 panes): Real PTY terminals (@lydell/node-pty + @xterm/xterm) with a layout picker, a Fleet sidebar that sorts panes by urgency (Needs you, Working, Failed, Ready), and a cross-project Inbox.
Worktree Heats and Checkpoints: Spin up 2 to 4 isolated git worktrees to test different approaches on the same task, run your project’s test/lint commands against each lane, and only fast-forward merge when your branch hasn’t moved and checks pass.
Non-destructive Worktree Trash (.regatta-trash): Instead of running rm -rf on finished worktrees, Regatta saves unmerged commits under refs/regatta/discarded/*, checks lsof so it never moves or empties a directory with an open process, and keeps trashed worktrees in Settings > Storage until you explicitly empty them.
Built-in Git, Files, Find, and Preview panels: Inspect diffs, search files, and preview a local dev server beside your terminal panes. The Git panel runs sandboxed git commands (-c core.hooksPath=/dev/null) so background status checks never trigger unexpected hooks or contact remotes.
Workspace Snapshot Exporter (src/shared/session-export.ts): Exports your active panes, branches, and worktree check results as a Markdown table or TSV log.

Regatta layout menu and pane controls

Building and Running from Source

You need macOS (Apple Silicon), Node.js 20+, and git.

git clone https://github.com/draarivpatel-ui/regatta.git
cd regatta
npm ci
npm run dev

Other scripts in package.json:

npm test        # run unit tests with Vitest
npm run check   # run TypeScript typecheck + unit tests
npm run e2e     # build and run the Playwright Electron end-to-end test suite
npm run dist    # package dist/Regatta-0.1.0-arm64.dmg and .zip via electron-builder

Repository Layout

src/main/ - Electron main process: PTY manager, git worktree engine (heats/), checkpoint journal, storage & trash safety checks, local MCP server, and IPC handlers.
src/preload/ - Context-isolated preload bridge exposing typed IPC methods to the renderer.
src/renderer/ - React 19 + Tailwind CSS + Zustand UI (pane grid, Fleet sidebar, Heats view, Git diff viewer, Settings).
src/shared/ - Shared TypeScript types, theme contrast calculations, and session Markdown/TSV export helpers.
scripts/e2e/ - Playwright end-to-end tests that launch the built Electron app in an isolated temp home folder.
docs/ - Design notes on the repository safety rules (docs/design/safety.md) and packaging (docs/PACKAGING.md).

License

MIT License. See LICENSE.

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