hmbown--codewhale/docs/WORKROOM_ARCHITECTURE.md

Workroom Architecture

Purpose

Workrooms are CodeWhale's chat-native abstraction for durable, addressable threads of agent work. They sit between the Runtime API's transient thread model and the user-facing surfaces (TUI, mobile, chat bridges).

This is a draft v0.9 architecture note. In v0.8.62, only the protocol data types and link parser are present. Runtime endpoints, persistent state, mobile rendering, and model-visible link resolution are planned follow-ups.

Component map

┌─────────────────────────────────────────────────────┐
│ User surfaces                                        │
│  ┌──────┐  ┌─────────┐  ┌──────────┐               │
│  │ TUI  │  │ Mobile  │  │ Bridges  │               │
│  └──┬───┘  └────┬────┘  └────┬─────┘               │
│     │           │            │                       │
│     └───────────┼────────────┘                       │
│                 │  future HTTP + workroom links      │
├─────────────────┼───────────────────────────────────┤
│ Runtime API     │                                    │
│  ┌──────────────┴──────────────┐                    │
│  │ Planned workroom endpoints  │                    │
│  │  GET /workrooms             │                    │
│  │  GET /workroom/:id/threads  │                    │
│  │  GET /workroom/resolve      │                    │
│  └──────────────┬─────────────┘                    │
│                 │                                    │
│  ┌──────────────┴─────────────┐                    │
│  │ Existing endpoints         │                    │
│  │  /thread /app /prompt ...  │                    │
│  └────────────────────────────┘                    │
└─────────────────────────────────────────────────────┘

Data flow

1. Creation. A future workroom is created when a thread is started with a workroom context (title, workspace, external refs). The workroom id is stable and can be shared as a codewhale://workroom/... link.

2. Event publication. Each agent action (tool call, approval, failure) is recorded as a WorkroomEvent in the workroom's event log. Events carry AgentAttribution metadata tracing which provider, model, and agent produced them.

3. Link resolution. When a codewhale://workroom/... link appears in a chat surface, a future resolve_workroom_link tool (or API endpoint) parses it and returns scoped context: thread metadata, external refs, and recent event summaries. The calling model can then decide whether to read the full thread transcript.

4. Listing. A future /workrooms endpoint returns a summary of all visible workrooms (id, title, updated_at, active thread count). Surfaces consume this for inbox/recent-activity views.

State store

Persisted workroom state should live alongside existing CodeWhale state:

~/.codewhale/
├── workrooms/
│   ├── wr_abc123.json     # Workroom metadata + event log
│   └── wr_def456.json
├── threads/               # Existing thread state (unchanged)
├── checkpoints/
├── config.toml
└── ...

Each .json file would contain the workroom metadata (Workroom struct), a list of WorkroomThread descriptors, and a bounded set of recent WorkroomEvent records. This state store is not implemented yet.

Crate responsibilities

Crate	Responsibility
codewhale-protocol	Types: Workroom, WorkroomId, WorkroomThread, WorkroomEvent, WorkroomLink, ExternalThreadRef, AgentAttribution
codewhale-app-server	Future endpoints: GET /workrooms, GET /workroom/:id/threads, GET /workroom/resolve
codewhale-tui	Future model-facing link resolution and optional sidebar inbox
codewhale-state	Future: persistent workroom store (Phase 2)

Phase status

Phase	Feature	Status
1	RFC design doc	✅ Complete
1	Protocol data types	✅ Complete (with tests)
1	App-server workroom endpoints	⏳ Not started
1	resolve_workroom_link tool	⏳ Not started
1	Security model docs	✅ Complete
1	Architecture docs	✅ Complete
2	Persistent workroom state store	⏳ Not started
2	Mobile page workroom inbox	⏳ Not started
2	Chat bridge event integration	⏳ Not started
2	TUI sidebar inbox	⏳ Not started