Skip to main content
The Kombai desktop app is a standalone workspace for design, code generation, visual editing, and testing.
The concepts on this page (the sidebar, right panel, and Projects) are specific to the desktop app. In the IDE extension, Kombai runs inside your IDE, so it uses the IDE’s own file explorer, editor tabs, and workspace folder instead.

​
Layout

The Kombai desktop app’s interface is organized into three main parts:
  • Left sidebar: Where you start new chats, search, and manage your Design Systems, Projects, referral link, and account.
  • Center: Where you do your actual work. It features your home screen, active chat panel, and the top bar.
  • Right panel: Where you access Canvas Gallery, Inspirations, Browse Files, Changes, and Settings. Turn this panel on or off using the top bar.
The sidebar holds your navigation, from top to bottom:
  • New chat (): Start a fresh conversation.
  • Design Systems: Open your Design Systems library. The page has Public design systems and My design systems tabs, and a Create button.
  • Search: Search across your chats.
  • Active chats: Chats you currently have open.
  • Projects: Your opened folders, each grouping its own chats. See Projects.
  • Share Kombai: Your referral link. You earn credits for each paid referral.
  • Account: Your avatar, email, and plan. Opens the account menu.

​
Projects

A Project is a folder you’ve opened in Kombai. Each project keeps its own chats grouped together, so work on different codebases stays separate. Chats are listed under their project with a relative timestamp (e.g. 1d, 2d). Each project row gives you two quick options:
  • Plus (+) icon: Set this project as active for your next chat.
  • More options (⋮) menu: Open a dropdown to take these actions:
    • Open with: Launch the project folder in an installed IDE, your file manager, or the terminal.
    • Open project settings: Jump right into this project’s Settings.
    • Remove from recents: Remove the row from the sidebar without deleting files. (Disabled for the active project.)

​
Account menu

Click your account details at the bottom of the sidebar to access:
  • Your plan: View your current subscription details and plan credits.
  • Usage remaining: Expand to check your credit balance and next refill date without opening the billing page. Your balance automatically updates every time you open this menu.
  • Credit Logs: Review the full history of how your credits have been used.
  • Generated assets: Access all images and videos Kombai has created for you.
  • Documentation: Jump directly to Get Started, the Product Docs, and What’s new.
  • Support: Contact our support team.
  • Log out: Sign out of your account.

​
Center

The center is where you work. It holds the home screen and your active chat panel, with a top bar above the chat.

​
Top bar

The top bar is located at the top of the center screen. It shows your active chat name and project on the left, with quick-access controls on the right:
“Open” launches your project in a separate app on your computer. If you want to view and edit files inside Kombai, use Browse Files in your right panel.

​
Home screen

The chat input is located near the bottom of the center screen, with a row of controls built directly inside it:
  • Plus (+) icon: Open a menu to switch modes, attach context, or select skills. (You can also type @ in the input to add context, or / to insert skills.)
  • Model: Choose a Model or Model Router.
  • Mode: Click to toggle between your selected mode (such as Design, Plan, Ask, or Debug) and the default Agent.
  • Design System () icon: Attach a Design System to guide UI generation.
  • Variations and passes () icon: Set how many design variations to generate and how many refinement passes each design gets. See Design Settings.
  • Send: Submit your prompt.
Below the chat input, you can switch your active project folder and access key tools:
  • Project switcher (folder menu): Switch your active project folder.
  • Designs: Open your Canvas Gallery.
  • Inspirations: Open the Inspirations library.
  • Globe icon: Launch the Kombai Browser.
Click the gear in the top bar to open the Project Settings for the active project.

​
Switching projects

Use the project switcher (the folder menu below the chat input) to change your active folder or start a chat without a project:
  • Your recent projects: Switch to any recently opened folder. Temporary no-project chats also appear here, marked with a icon.
  • Don’t work in a project: Start a standalone chat without choosing a project folder.
  • Open folder…: Select any folder from your computer to set it as your active project.

​
Chats without a project

Choose Don’t work in a project when you want to experiment or try something out without opening an actual repository. Kombai automatically creates a folder for that chat under ~/Kombai/projects/. Every new chat created this way gets its own fresh folder, so your previous work is never overwritten. Afterward, these folders act like regular projects. They show up in your recents, sidebar, and project switcher so you can reopen them anytime. Kombai marks them with a icon and never auto-selects them for future chats.
No-project chats take up slots in your recents list. If a temporary chat pushes a real project off your list, simply use Open folder… to re-open it from your disk.

​
Right panel

Toggle the right panel from the top bar. It opens a launcher for five pages, and each one opens as a tab, so you can keep several open at once and add more with +.

​
Browse files

Browse Files provides a dedicated workspace view featuring a file tree on the left and the active file on the right. The top header displays the file’s breadcrumb path alongside controls to refresh or collapse the sidebar for full-width viewing and open the project in your IDEs.

​
File actions

Right-clicking a file in the explorer or within a chat message exposes several quick actions:
  • Open in: Opens the file in your operating system’s default application (e.g., Open in Preview).
  • Open with: Opens the file or folder using an installed IDE, file manager, or terminal.
  • Copy path / Copy relative path: Copies absolute or relative file paths directly to your clipboard.
  • Add to chat: Attaches the file to the chat as context.
If a file no longer exists, only the path copying options remain available.
The Open button in the Files header offers the same set of apps for the file you have open, falling back to the project root when nothing is open.

​
Command palette

The command palette is the keyboard-first way to move around the app: jump straight to an open chat or run a common action without reaching for the sidebar or the menu bar. Press ⌘K (Ctrl + K on Windows and Linux) to open it, then start typing to filter both sections at once:
  • Open chats: The chats you currently have open, each labelled with its project. Select one to switch to it.
  • Actions: App-level actions, each showing its own shortcut:

​
Keyboard shortcuts

Press ⌘ / (Ctrl + / on Windows and Linux) to check the full list of shortcuts, or navigate to View > Keyboard Shortcuts.

​
Chats and tabs

​
Chat

​
Application

​
Design canvas