I Finally Stopped Designing and Started Building MaxOS

A few weeks ago I started sharing my idea for MaxOS, an AI-first workspace that puts AI at the center of the desktop experience instead of treating it like another app.

Since then, I've spent a lot of time thinking about the architecture, generating UI concepts, and planning how everything should work.

At some point I realized I had a problem.

I was spending way more time designing than actually writing code.

So I decided to stop chasing the perfect UI and start building the real application.

Turning mockups into a real app

I used Google Stitch to generate a lot of interface ideas. It was honestly a great way to explore layouts and workflows.

The HTML it generates isn't something I'd want to maintain though.

Instead of trying to clean it up, I used the screens as references and rebuilt everything with React, TypeScript, Tailwind CSS, and reusable components.

That turned out to be a much better approach.

Where the project is now

Right now MaxOS has the basic structure it needs to grow.

So far I've built:

A reusable design system
The application shell
Dashboard
Projects page
Code editor interface
AI chat interface
Command palette
Memory page
Agent manager
Settings
Zustand state management
Routing

Most of it still runs on mock data, and that's completely intentional.

I'd rather spend time building a solid foundation than rush into features I'll have to rewrite later.

What's next

Now comes the part I've been looking forward to the most.

The next milestones are things like:

Local filesystem access
Monaco Editor
Terminal integration
Git integration
AI providers
Context engine
Memory engine

This is where MaxOS starts becoming more than just a nice interface.

Building in public

I'm still a software development student, so I'm figuring out a lot of this as I go.

That's also why I'm sharing everything publicly.

I'll probably make mistakes, change my mind, and rewrite parts of the project. That's all part of the process.

If you've built Electron apps or AI tools before, I'd love to hear your advice.

Thanks for following along.