ProjectHub

ProjectHub is a cross-platform desktop application for organizing local software projects from a single workspace view. It is built with .NET, Avalonia UI, and SQLite, and focuses on reducing context switching between scattered folders and tools. The application is designed as practical personal infrastructure for day-to-day development workflows.

Motivation

Most engineering projects end up distributed across many root directories, experiments, archived repos, client workspaces, and language-specific structures. Finder and Explorer are excellent general-purpose file browsers, but they are not optimized for developer-centric tasks like project-type awareness, language filtering, or fast launch into coding tools.

ProjectHub exists to provide a local development hub that understands project structure and helps answer simple operational questions quickly: what projects exist, where they live, what stack they use, and how to open them immediately.

Core Features

Root folder import to discover and register multiple projects in one action
Automatic project discovery using marker files and directory heuristics
Project type detection for .NET, PlatformIO, Node, Python, Swift, Unity, Unreal, and more
.ini marker support, including platformio.ini as a strong embedded-project signal
Language detection via extension scanning with bounded depth and file limits
Search and filtering by project metadata, language, and source root folder
Cross-platform desktop behavior for macOS and Windows
Open in VS Code and open in OS file manager actions per project
Project Details window with Git status, file-change actions, commit/push/pull, branch switching, and 30-day commit activity
Local SQLite persistence with migration-safe schema updates

Architecture Overview

ProjectHub follows an Avalonia MVVM architecture:

Presentation layer: Avalonia views (.axaml) bound to view models using CommunityToolkit.Mvvm
Application layer: orchestration in MainWindowViewModel for scanning, filtering, importing, and launching
Discovery layer: ProjectDiscoveryService traverses selected root folders, applies marker rules, and returns normalized discovered project records
Persistence layer: SQLite-backed repository handles initialization, migration, upsert, and query operations
Platform integration layer: PlatformLauncher encapsulates OS-specific process launching for Finder/Explorer and VS Code

Data is modeled around two related entities:

RootFolders: imported source roots tracked by name/path and scan timestamps
Projects: discovered project records with unique path, optional project type, language metadata, and optional RootFolderId

This relationship allows repeated rescans to upsert existing projects, add new ones, and preserve grouping context.

Project Detection Rules

Project roots are detected from marker files and directory signals, with preference rules where needed:

.NET: *.sln or *.csproj (solution preferred over individual project file)
PlatformIO / embedded: platformio.ini
Additional embedded fallback: root-level *.ini markers
C/C++: CMakeLists.txt, Makefile
Node: package.json
Python: pyproject.toml, requirements.txt
Swift: Package.swift, *.xcodeproj
Unity: ProjectSettings/ProjectSettings.asset
Unreal: *.uproject
Optional fallback: .git/ as a generic project root signal

Scan constraints are intentionally bounded to stay responsive:

Maximum traversal depth: 6
Heavy folders are skipped (for example bin, obj, .git, node_modules, .vs, dist, build)
Nested dependency trees are avoided to reduce false positives and improve scan speed

Cross-Platform Support

ProjectHub targets .NET desktop deployment with Avalonia and can be published per runtime identifier for distribution:

macOS Apple Silicon: osx-arm64
Windows 64-bit: win-x64

Typical release output uses dotnet publish with self-contained mode when desired, so end users do not need a preinstalled .NET runtime. On macOS, no Xcode setup is required to run the published desktop app.

Releases

v1.0.2

V1.0.1

V1.0.0

Recent Changes

v1.0.2

Default dark theme

v1.0.1

Added full Git Actions in Project Details:
- Stage/unstage per file and stage/unstage all
- Commit with optional stage-all
- Push and Pull actions with upstream-aware enablement and hints
- Local/remote branch lists with safe branch switching (blocked when dirty)
- Added open Terminal button
Fixed Project Details activity chart rendering:
- Filled all days in the selected window with zero-count defaults
- Correct inclusive date range (today - (days - 1) through today)
- Added top 5 non-zero activity-day diagnostics and total commit count
Fixed open VS Code to open root folder instead of marker file

Future Ideas

Flexible tagging system for domains, priorities, or lifecycle state
Recent activity timeline (last opened, recently modified, recently imported)
CLI companion tool for scripted imports, rescans, and launch actions

Technical Stack

.NET
Avalonia UI
SQLite
CommunityToolkit.Mvvm

Notes

This is a personal tooling project built to improve practical development workflow quality. The focus is local-first reliability, clarity, and speed over feature breadth. It is not positioned as a commercial product at this stage.