IX Chat Architecture

IX Chat uses a dual-process architecture to separate UI concerns from AI provider communication.

Process Model

flowchart LR
    classDef ui fill:#BAE6FD,stroke:#0369A1,color:#082F49,stroke-width:2px;
    classDef host fill:#DDD6FE,stroke:#5B21B6,color:#2E1065,stroke-width:2px;
    UI["UI Process<br/>(WinUI 3)<br/><br/>- Window management<br/>- Tray icon<br/>- WebView2 chat"]
    HOST["Host Process<br/>(Console App)<br/><br/>- AI providers<br/>- Tool execution<br/>- Thread storage"]
    UI <-->|"Named pipe (JSON-RPC)"| HOST

    class UI ui;
    class HOST host;

UI Process

The UI process is a WinUI 3 application responsible for:

Window Management -- Show/hide chat window, minimize to tray
Tray Icon -- System tray integration via H.NotifyIcon
Chat Rendering -- WebView2 hosts an embedded HTML/CSS/JS chat interface
User Input -- Captures messages and forwards to host via named pipe

The UI process has no direct dependency on AI providers or network access.

Host Process

The host process is a console application that handles:

Provider Communication -- Connects to ChatGPT or Copilot via IntelligenceX library
Tool Execution -- Manages the tool registry and executes tool calls
Thread Storage -- Persists conversation threads to local JSON files
Authentication -- Handles OAuth flows and credential storage

Named Pipe IPC

The two processes communicate via a named pipe:

Pipe name: IntelligenceX.Chat.{ProcessId}
Protocol: JSON-RPC 2.0 messages
Direction: Bidirectional (request/response and notifications)

Message Types

Type	Direction	Purpose
`chat.send`	UI -> Host	Send a user message
`chat.response`	Host -> UI	Stream AI response chunks
`chat.toolCall`	Host -> UI	Notify about tool execution
`auth.status`	Host -> UI	Authentication state changes
`thread.list`	UI -> Host	Request conversation list

Tool Registry

Tools are registered at startup from installed tool packs:

Host scans for IntelligenceX.Tools.* assemblies
Each tool pack registers its tools with the tool registry
When the AI requests a tool call, the host executes it locally
Results are sent back to the AI provider for the next response

Storage Paths

Data	Location
Conversations	`%APPDATA%/IntelligenceX/threads/`
Configuration	`%APPDATA%/IntelligenceX/config.json`
Auth tokens	`%APPDATA%/IntelligenceX/auth/`
Logs	`%APPDATA%/IntelligenceX/logs/`

IX Chat Overview -- Feature summary
Quickstart -- Install and run
Tool Packs -- Available tool packs