Interface overview

Three-column layout, top-level navigation, and separate windows

Three-column layout

Starcat’s main window uses the familiar macOS three-column structure:

┌────────────┬─────────────────────┬──────────────────────┐
│  Sidebar   │  List + toolbar     │  Detail panel        │
│            │  Repo / Activity    │  README · metadata   │
└────────────┴─────────────────────┴──────────────────────┘

Column	Role	Docs
Left	Switch Manage / Discover / Activity; sub-entries for tags, collections, and more	Sidebar
Center	Repos or activity for the current category; page toolbar on top	Repository list, Toolbar
Right	README, tags, notes, AI, Health, and more for the selection	Repository detail

As the window narrows, the detail column may collapse or the list may take priority (actual behavior follows adaptive layout).

Three top-level sidebar areas

Area	What it solves
Manage	Organize Stars you already follow / knowledge base / tags / collections / Release timeline
Discover	Find projects not yet in your library (Trending, Weekly, Hot, and more)
Activity	Feed, announcements, subscribed Release stream, and related

Discover modes: Discover overview.

Separate windows

Some capabilities work better pulled out beside the main window:

Window	How to open (common)	Docs
Repo AI	Detail overlay → separate window; default ⇧⌘A	AI chat
RAG workspace	Toolbar / default ⇧⌘K	RAG workspace
Agent workspace	Dedicated entry	Agent (Beta)

Appearance and density

In General settings you can adjust:

• UI language (Chinese / English)
• Theme (System / Light / Dark)
• Font scale, list density
• Reduce motion

Related

• Quickstart
• Repo Health

Next steps

• First time: follow Quickstart for sync and triage
• Daily triage: start from Sidebar Smart Collections / Untagged
• For AI: begin with AI overview