Cowork Local is the internal AI cowork desktop platform. It provides a local-first desktop runtime, multi-turn conversational agents, workspace isolation, task scheduling, MCP connectors, security guardrails, and model routing.

🏛️ 4-Tier Clean Architecture

The codebase strictly adheres to Clean Architecture with unidirectional inward dependencies:

presentation/ (PySide6 UI, Shell, NavRail, Chat, Scheduling, Settings, Dashboard)
      │
      ▼
application/ (Pure Python Orchestration: Conversations, Scheduling, Workspaces, Monitoring, Routing)
      │
      ▼
domain/ (Pure Python: Entities, Immutable Execution Requests, Agent Events, Descriptors)
      ▲
      │
infrastructure/ (Adapters, LLM Providers, Atomic Persistence, Keyring SecretStore, MCP)

Domain & Application Layers: 100% Pure Python (zero Qt/UI imports).
Single Responsibility: Every production module is strictly <= 400 LOC.
Security & Durability: API keys stored in OS Keyring; atomic JSON disk persistence.

🚀 Quick Start

1. Windows — two double-clicks

install.bat      once, to install the Python dependencies
run.bat          every time, to start the app

install.bat builds an isolated virtualenv under %LOCALAPPDATA%\CoworkLocal (deliberately outside the repo — the quality gates walk the whole directory tree, so a .venv in here would turn every vendored module into a Gate O violation). Add --dev to also install the test dependencies, or --system to skip the virtualenv and install into the Python already on PATH.

Both scripts also make the source importable under its package name. That step is not optional: python -m cowork_local only resolves when the checkout directory is literally named cowork_local, and the MS365 MCP server is launched as a subprocess with python -m cowork_local.mcp_servers.ms365_server, so a differently-named checkout breaks the app and its subprocesses. The scripts create a junction instead of forcing anyone to rename their folder.

2. Any platform — run from source

From the parent of a checkout directory named cowork_local:

python -m cowork_local

3. Run Automated Tests

python -m pip install -r requirements.txt
pytest -q

There is one requirements file, not a runtime/test pair. A separate test file would hold only pytest: 64 of the 108 test modules build real widgets, and 20 of them import PySide6 unguarded at module scope, so it would have to pull in almost the whole runtime list anyway — two files for one near-identical list is just a second place for the pins to drift.

🛡️ CASAN Quality Gate & Verification

Before submitting any Pull Request, run the unified CASAN Quality Gate:

# Run all 4 quality gates (Clean Arch, Secrets, LOC, and Pytest Suite)
python scripts/run_quality_gate.py

# Run static and architectural guards only (fast check)
python scripts/run_quality_gate.py --skip-tests

Individual guard scripts:

Clean Architecture Import Guard: python scripts/check_imports.py
Secrets & Plaintext Audit: python scripts/audit_security.py
Single Responsibility LOC Guard: python scripts/check_loc.py --max-lines 400
Release E2E Smoke Test: pytest tests/e2e/test_smoke.py -v

🤝 Contributing & Recipes

Quick Start Guide: See START_CONTRIBUTING.md.
Contributor Recipes: See docs/governance/contributor-recipes.md for step-by-step recipes to:
1. Add a new AI Model Provider.
2. Add a new Built-in Tool / MCP Server.
3. Add a new Screen / Tab / Widget.
Security Policy: See SECURITY.md.