Workbench

@artisansdk/workbench is a deterministic application shell for plugin-driven desktop and mobile interfaces.

It combines two layers:

• A core Workbench class that orchestrates plugin lifecycle, commands, modals, screens, and tools.
• A React shell that renders registered items into a shell.

The package is desgined to provide an 80% use case for applications yet allow you to modifiy it where needed.

• activity items for the icon bar
• screen components for the center panel
• tool components for primary or secondary sidebars
• modal components for overlays
• command entries for the command palette
• hotkey bindings
• event classes and listeners

If you only need a shell, use the React exports. If you need to integrate Workbench into another runtime, the core class can be used without React.

What Workbench gives you

A contribution is anything that gets registered to the workbench.

• Deterministic rendering of contributions with duplicate ID protection
• A plugin lifecycle with register() and boot() phases
• Built-in state for active screen, active modal, focused tools, and sidebar placement
• A bus-backed event system
• Global hotkey registration via tinykeys
• Optional React plugins like the command palette
• Component override hooks so the default shell can be customized without forking core behavior

Mental model

Treat Workbench as a host runtime:

1. Create a Workbench instance.
2. use() plugins onto it.
3. Call boot() once all plugins have been attached.
4. Render the shell with the same instance.

Each plugin contributes UI or behavior into shared registries. Workbench then turns those contributions into a coherent shell.

Your application specific components and code are left to you, workbench let’s you stop thinking of “how do I make a collapsing sidebar” and get to building your idea(s) faster.