Workspace Modes

The flat button in the top bar (left of the search box) cycles the workspace through three modes. The label always shows the current mode.

flowchart LR
    A[ASSISTANT] -- click --> D[DEVELOPER]
    D -- click --> G[DESIGN]
    G -- click --> A

The selected mode is saved per workspace (in the encrypted vault) and restored when you reopen that workspace. No workspace loaded? Assistant is the default.

ASSISTANT (default)

The chat-first experience:

• The Axion AI Assistant tab is permanent — it cannot be closed.
• File tabs open beside it; picking a file shows the editor, picking the Assistant tab returns to the chat.
• The composer at the bottom sends, or queues while the agent is busy.
• The Plan & Tasks tab shows the live plan with LED status per step.

DEVELOPER

Coding-focused. Switching closes the AI Assistant completely:

• The editor takes the full center area (empty state if no file is open).
• The Project Explorer sidebar is surfaced automatically.
• The Assistant tab chip disappears from the tab strip.
• Built for the Developer toolkit: Developer Tools for toolchains, LSP/debugging groundwork, and the Source Control panel.

Switch back by clicking the mode button until it reads ASSISTANT.

DESIGN

The visual UI builder. Drop widgets from the palette, arrange them in the design tree, edit their settings in the property inspector, and export the result as Avalonia XAML, HTML, or React. See Design Mode for the full guide.

Sidebars in every mode

The left navigation strip and the right sidebar (Project Explorer + diagnostics tabs) are available in all modes — modes change the center area and the assistant, never the sidebars.

The navigation strip

The left strip is grouped and labelled, so related tools sit together:

Group	Entries
WORK	Create, Context, Search
AI	Agents, Routing, Activity
BUILD	Tools, Run, Containers, Workflows
EXTEND	Extensions
REPO	Git
(pinned)	Settings, Profile, Collapse

Entries that own more than one page are split buttons: the icon opens the main page, and a caret on the right opens a menu of the others.

Entry	Opens	Caret menu
Create	Editor + AI chat	Session History
Routing	Cloud fallback rules	Auto-Continue Loop
Activity	Usage analytics	System Logs, Session History
Run	Debugger	Test Runner
Extensions	Marketplace	MCP Servers

Collapsing the strip

Click Collapse at the bottom of the strip to shrink it from the labelled layout (150px) to icons only (54px) — handy on a narrow screen. The group headers hide too, since they would be unreadable at that width.

The choice is remembered per workspace, so it survives a restart.