# Panel

> An open-source research workspace where an AI agent works beside you with chat, files, PDFs, and notebooks in one configurable dock.

Panel is an open-source, self-hosted research workspace built by greentfrapp (SK) that puts an AI agent alongside your files, PDFs, Jupyter notebooks, and chat sessions in a single configurable interface. It is an early-stage build released for testers, with the project noting that rough edges should be expected and issues are welcome.

## What It Is

Panel is a local-first research environment designed for researchers who frequently context-switch between different types of files and tasks. Rather than a standalone chat interface, it provides a multi-pane dock where the agent and the human share the same workspace — reading, writing, and editing files together. The agent is powered by Claude Code and can optionally use the OpenAI API for chat and tools.

## How the Workspace Is Organized

The UI is built around configurable windows called **Panes**, each of which can display a different type of content:

- **File panes** for reading and writing files
- **PDF panes** for viewing documents
- **Markdown panes** for formatted text
- **Jupyter notebook panes** that run against a real kernel — both the user and the agent can edit the same notebook simultaneously
- **Custom panes** that the agent can generate on demand (e.g., a PDB viewer or SQLite visualizer)

Workspaces are folders the agent works in, each with its own chat history and saved layout. Conversations and agent activity are stored in `~/Panel/panel.db`, and workspaces live in `~/Panel/workspaces` — both outside the repo so re-cloning doesn't lose data.

## Module Protocol and Architecture

Panel introduces a **Module Protocol** that extends the concept of agent skills with typed definitions for Inputs, Outputs, and Intermediates. Intermediates provide observability into long-running or multi-stage processes — such as chain-of-thought scratchpads or progress updates — making agentic workflows more transparent. A **Data Abstraction Layer (DAL)** bridges in-memory and filesystem objects, letting modules work with a URI regardless of whether it points to an in-memory store or a local file.

## Current Capabilities and Limitations

The README lists what currently works and what does not:

**Working:**
- Agent chat with file read/write, with tool-use confirmation before execution
- Long-running background commands with live monitoring and stop controls
- Literature review: ask the chat to run one, then open the result from the tool card
- Agent-generated custom panes for visualizations not covered by built-ins

**Not yet working:**
- Full support is limited to Claude Code; OpenAI API support for modules is incomplete
- Modules can only be launched via chat — no UI button exists yet
- Hypothesis modules lack their own view, making results harder to read
- Literature review and hypothesis modules require Claude Code's web search capability

## Setup Path

Panel requires Node 22.18+ (or 24.12+), pnpm, uv (which fetches Python 3.12+ automatically), and Claude Code installed and signed in. After cloning, `pnpm install && uv sync && pnpm start` builds and launches the app at `http://localhost:4173`. An optional OpenAI API key can be added via a `.env` file to enable the OpenAI agent picker for chat and tools.

## Current Status

The repository was created in September 2026 and last updated shortly after, with 78 stars and 7 forks at the time of indexing. The project is explicitly described as an early build for testers. It is released under the MIT License.

## Features
- Multi-pane configurable workspace UI
- AI agent chat with file read/write
- PDF viewer pane
- Jupyter notebook pane with shared editing
- Markdown pane
- Agent-generated custom panes
- Literature review via Claude Code
- Long-running background command monitoring
- Workspace folders with saved layouts
- Module Protocol with typed Inputs/Outputs/Intermediates
- Data Abstraction Layer (DAL)
- Optional OpenAI API agent support
- Local SQLite conversation storage

## Integrations
Claude Code, OpenAI API, Jupyter kernels, Python (via uv), Node.js, pnpm

## Platforms
WINDOWS, WEB, API, CLI

## Pricing
Open Source

## Links
- Website: https://github.com/greentfrapp/panel
- Repository: https://github.com/greentfrapp/panel
- EveryDev.ai: https://www.everydev.ai/tools/panel-research-workspace