pude

Why pude

pude opens a folder and gets out of your way. It starts fast, stays light and keeps everything on your machine: no account, no cloud sync, no telemetry and no background indexing. Features load only when you use them.

pude vs VS Code

Measured side by side with Visual Studio Code on the same Mac, opening the same folder.

	pude 0.1.2	VS Code 1.140.0
Installer download · macOS Apple Silicon	5.1 MB	317.9 MB	62× smaller
Installer download · Windows x64	3.9 MB	244.4 MB	63× smaller
Size on disk (macOS)	10.5 MB	911.6 MB	87× smaller
Launch until ready	0.60 s	1.11 s	1.8× faster
Memory with a folder open	103 MB	1,074 MB	10× less
Processes with a folder open	6	12

Measured on 2026-10-15 on an Apple M5 Max with 64 GB of memory and macOS 27.0.1. Both editors open this repository; VS Code uses a fresh profile with no extensions added. Installer sizes are the official downloads. Launch time runs from launch until the window stops changing, and memory is the physical footprint of the app and all of its helper processes 15 seconds after launch, each the median of 7 runs. Quit pude, then reproduce the launch and memory numbers on your Mac with node scripts/benchmark/compare-vscode.mjs (the terminal needs the Screen Recording permission).

Features

• Project tabs — open several folders in one window. Each project keeps its own files, unsaved edits, undo history, Git view and terminals.
• Workspaces — show several folders in one project tab with File > Add folder to workspace…, and save them as a .pdw workspace file to reopen later. A new tab lists recent folders and recent workspaces separately; right-click pude in the macOS Dock or the Windows taskbar for a new window or a recent item, which opens as a new tab in the window you used last.
• Editor — CodeMirror 6 with syntax highlighting including .env / .env.*, find and replace with a match count, bracket matching, auto-closing brackets, code folding, multiple selections, pinned tabs, Save As and a wide, readable Markdown source/preview toggle. Optional trim-trailing-whitespace and final-newline on save. .env files also open as a table of names and values with copy buttons for a name, a value or a whole line.
• Command palette — ⌘⇧P / Ctrl+Shift+P lists 40+ commands with their shortcuts, such as sort lines, change case, toggle word wrap and go to file (⌘P / Ctrl+P), with recently used commands first.
• Readable interface — bundled open-source Inter and JetBrains Mono fonts, larger interface text and high-contrast labels in both dark and light themes, in English or Traditional Chinese (Settings > Language, follows the system by default).
• Explorer and project search — EXPLORER / GIT / SEARCH sidebar tabs, optional Git-ignored grouping, file operations and on-demand text or file-path search with ⌘⇧F / Ctrl+Shift+F. Search reads saved files, respects Git ignores by default and supports match case. Text results center and highlight the match. Replace changes every match in the project or in one file, skipping files with unsaved edits.
• Safe saves — atomic writes, preserved LF/CRLF line endings, external change detection and crash recovery for unsaved work.
• Git — status, staging, commits, branches, stash, push/pull, a commit graph that loads older commits as you scroll and refreshes after every Git change, a stash list with apply, pop, drop and diffs, and full-file diffs, using the Git already installed on your system.
• Terminals — multiple on-demand terminal sessions per project that keep running while you switch projects. Right-click a file or folder in Explorer and choose Open in Integrated Terminal to start a new tab in that folder or the file's parent directory. Drag the panel's top edge to resize it; the height is remembered. Ctrl+C interrupts the running program, such as a dev server, and returns to the prompt in the same shell, as in the operating system's own terminal. Windows uses PowerShell 7 when installed, otherwise Windows PowerShell.

pude deliberately leaves out project-wide indexing, a debugger, AI services, a plugin marketplace and silent automatic updates.

Install

Download the installer for your platform from GitHub Releases:

Platform	File
macOS 14+ (Apple Silicon)	pude-macos-arm64.dmg
Windows 11 x64	pude-windows-x64-setup.exe (unsigned)

Each release includes SHA256SUMS.txt so you can verify your download. pude never installs an update by itself. When an update is available, click Update [version] beside the branch name at the lower left to download it, then Restart and update. The About dialog also provides update controls and release notes, or install the newer version manually. Linux builds are planned — until then you can build from source.

The website download section recommends an installer using the OS, version and CPU details your browser provides. If those details are hidden, confirm the system requirements before installing. Both platform downloads are always available manually; Intel Macs, Windows ARM and mobile devices have no native installer in this release.

Build from source

You need Node.js 22.12+ (24 recommended) with npm 10.9+, Rust stable, Git on your PATH, and the Tauri prerequisites for your OS.

git clone https://github.com/MajajaX/pude.git
cd pude
npm ci
npm run tauri:dev

Command	What it does
npm run tauri:dev	Run the desktop app in development mode
npm run tauri:build	Build an installer for the current platform
npm run dev	Run the UI in a browser with an in-memory demo workspace
npm run web:dev	Run the project website
npm run check	Run tests, type checks and production builds

See CONTRIBUTING.md for platform notes and the full workflow.

Project layout

apps/desktop/src/          SolidJS UI, editor and frontend logic
apps/desktop/src-tauri/    Rust backend: filesystem, Git, terminal, plugins
apps/web/                  Project website
examples/plugins/          Example plugins
docs/                      Product specification, plugin API and release guides
scripts/                   Build and release tooling

Privacy and security

Your files stay where they are. Settings, sessions and recovery data are stored locally. pude itself only goes online to look for updates: once shortly after startup (turn it off in Settings) and when you click Check for updates in the About dialog. Updates are downloaded from GitHub Releases, verified against a signature, and installed only after you choose Restart and update. Git, terminal commands and plugins you grant network access can reach the network on their own.

The terminal and plugins run with your user account's permissions, so install only plugins you trust. Please report vulnerabilities privately as described in SECURITY.md.

Contributing

Bug reports, ideas and pull requests are welcome. Read CONTRIBUTING.md before you start.

License

pude is released under the MIT License. Third-party licenses are listed in THIRD_PARTY_NOTICES.md and THIRD_PARTY_LICENSES.md.