Dispatch

Dispatch is a local GitHub review workstation built with Electron. It pulls together pull request triage, review, workflow inspection, release tracking, merge-queue awareness, and repo-level review tooling in one desktop app.

It runs entirely on your machine and talks to GitHub through the gh CLI plus your local git install. There is no backend service and no separate SaaS dependency. Local state is cached in SQLite, and optional analytics are forwarded from the app to PostHog only when enabled in settings.

What the app does today

• Review inbox for pull requests across configured workspaces
• Repository onboarding by GitHub search or by linking a local folder
• PR detail view with diff navigation, inline comments, side panels, and review actions
• Review round tracking so you can focus on changes since your last pass
• AI-assisted review surfaces for summaries, triage, explanations, comment suggestions, and rewrite helpers
• Workflow dashboard with run history, run detail, reruns, cancellation, and run comparison
• Release management with release history and in-app release creation
• Metrics view for cycle time, review load, throughput, and PR size distribution
• Merge queue view for repositories that use GitHub merge queues
• Notification center for review requests, CI failures, approvals, and merges
• System tray integration with live review counts and quick-open actions
• Multi-account GitHub support with per-repo account memory
• Multi-workspace support with workspace switching in the app shell
• Settings for theme, code theme, keybindings, merge defaults, bot handling, privacy, and AI provider configuration

How it works

Dispatch is split across Electron's standard runtime boundaries:

• src/main: privileged Electron and Node code for gh, git, SQLite, filesystem access, notifications, and OS integration
• src/preload: typed contextBridge surface exposed to the renderer
• src/renderer: the React app
• src/shared: shared contracts and pure utilities

Key architectural details live in ARCHITECTURE.md.

Stack

Layer	Tool
Runtime	Electron 41
App tooling	Vite Plus + vite-plugin-electron
UI	React 19
Component base	Owned src/components/ui wrappers around @base-ui/react
Styling	Tailwind CSS 4
State/data	TanStack Query 5, Zustand 5
Persistence	SQLite via better-sqlite3
Language	TypeScript 5.9
Testing	vp test (Vitest-compatible)
Quality	vp check, vp lint, vp fmt
Package manager	Bun

Requirements

• Bun
• Git
• GitHub CLI (gh) installed and available on your PATH
• GitHub CLI authentication completed with gh auth login

Dispatch depends on the GitHub CLI for GitHub access. The app will not work unless gh is installed and you are already signed in locally.

You can verify your setup with:

gh --version
gh auth status

Local repository folders are optional, but linking a local clone enables git-backed features and better local context. You can also add remote-only repositories from inside the app.

Getting started

gh auth login
bun install
bun run dev

User guides

• Review Page Keyboard Navigation

On first launch, Dispatch checks for git, gh, and GitHub CLI authentication. If gh is missing or not logged in, GitHub-powered features will stay unavailable until that is fixed. If no workspaces are configured yet, the app walks you through adding a repository.

Scripts

Command	Purpose
bun run check	Run the consolidated Vite Plus project checks
bun run check:fix	Run checks with auto-fixes where supported
bun run dev	Start the Vite Plus dev server and launch Electron
bun run build	Build the renderer and Electron bundles
bun run build:app	Package the app for distribution
bun run build:app:dir	Build an unpacked distribution directory
bun run build:app:dmg	Build a macOS DMG and ZIP
bun run preview	Preview the Vite build
bun run test	Run tests once
bun run test:watch	Run tests in watch mode
bun run lint	Run vp lint
bun run lint:fix	Run vp lint --fix
bun run format	Run vp fmt --write .
bun run format:check	Run vp fmt --check .
bun run typecheck	Run TypeScript type checking

Packaging

Packaged builds are produced with Electron Builder and written to release/.

Current configured targets:

• macOS: zip by default, plus dmg via bun run build:app:dmg
• Windows: nsis
• Linux: AppImage, deb

Project structure

src/
  main/                  Electron main process
    db/                  SQLite schema, migrations, and persistence helpers
    ipc-handlers/        Domain IPC handler modules
    services/            Main-process services, including GitHub CLI adapters
  preload/               Typed Electron bridge
  renderer/              React application
    components/          Feature-grouped UI
    hooks/               Renderer hooks grouped by domain
    lib/                 Renderer utilities grouped by responsibility
  shared/                Shared types and pure utilities
  components/ui/         Owned UI primitives
scripts/                 Packaging, notarization, and release/version helpers
resources/               App and tray assets

Renderer feature areas currently include:

• shell
• setup
• settings
• inbox
• review
• workflows
• shared

Development notes

• Use Bun for install and script execution
• Keep renderer code in feature folders rather than flat shared buckets
• Add cross-process features by defining the shared contract first, then main handler, preload exposure, and renderer usage
• UI work should follow the design system in DISPATCH-DESIGN-SYSTEM.md