Layout overview
A Hive is your workspace for one project: a folder, a panel layout, the local Worker CLIs you run, and the Queen state that orchestrates them. Everything you do on a project happens inside its Hive, and the layout is what brings the moving parts into a single view.
The dockable panels
The Hive surface is built from dockable panels, each with a stable id so the app can save and restore its place reliably. A standard Hive shows:
- Spec and editor — the spec you submit and the source files Workers touch.
- Worker terminals — one local terminal per active Worker, streaming output live.
- Queen plan and timeline — the orchestrator’s decomposition of your spec into tasks, plus their progress over time.
- Drone review pane — the audit results the Drones produce after a task. See ReviewPane via Drones.
- SwarmMemory — the local-first knowledge graph for this Hive.
The default MVP layout
The MVP ships a single fixed default layout. We chose a locked arrangement deliberately: it keeps the experience stable and predictable while the product matures, and it means every Hive you open looks the same.
┌─────────────┬───────────────────────────┬──────────────┐
│ Spec │ Editor / Worker terminals │ Queen plan │
│ SwarmMemory │ │ Drone review │
└─────────────┴───────────────────────────┴──────────────┘Because every panel is already a dockable widget with a stable id, the foundation for customization is in place from day one.
Drag-to-rearrange is gated behind the layout.customizable feature flag in the MVP. The plumbing exists, but the default layout stays locked until the flag is enabled in a later release.
Why panels have stable ids
Stable ids let the app persist your layout per Hive, restore panels exactly where they were, and route new content (a freshly spawned Worker terminal, a new Drone report) to the correct slot without guesswork. It is also the contract that future drag-and-drop customization relies on.
To learn what runs inside those terminal panels, read CLI Workers.