ZUKU Studio#

ZUKU Studio is a desktop workspace for making games with the same local Agent Core that zuku and zukujs use. It isn't a second product. It has no separate CLI, agent or Node.js runtime. Studio is a native window around the renderer that ships inside the CLI package.

How Studio relates to the CLI#

Studio and the CLI are two front ends to one installation:

The native shell starts the Studio host from the installed CLI with the managed runtime. It never runs shell commands, and it never takes file paths from the UI, a game or a link. As a result:

• A provider you add with zuku provider add appears in Studio, and the other way round.
• A session started in Studio can be inspected from the CLI, and closing the window doesn't cancel running Core work.
• Signing out with zuku auth logout or zuku account logout applies everywhere.

Inside Studio you open a project with your operating system's folder picker. Approvals for web connections and provider sign-in appear in separate native dialogs, and they default to deny. Experimental sign-in methods are marked (exp!). Game previews show a fixed snapshot from Agent Core in an isolated view that can't reach the native bridge or sign-in dialogs.

The workspace has a project and session list, a game stage with Build, Test, Run, Stop and Preview, tabs for source, changes, logs and providers, and a chat panel for the agent.

Platform status#

Studio's native shell is compiled for six targets:

Native builds and self-tests passing doesn't mean the GUI has been checked on every system:

• Linux: the real window has been run as a normal desktop user, including folder picking, sessions, events and game preview, with the browser sandbox enabled.
• macOS and Windows: full GUI verification hasn't been completed. The macOS build has only an ad-hoc development signature. It isn't Developer ID signed or notarized. The Windows build still needs real-world GUI checks, including systems without .NET and the different WebView2 availability cases.

Linux requires a graphical desktop session and the GTK 3 and WebKitGTK 4.1 system libraries. The x64 build also requires glibc 2.34 or later. The installer doesn't install system packages or ask for administrator rights.

Getting Studio#

Studio is delivered through the official installer, not as a separate download, and not through npm. Install the CLI as described in Installation. For releases that include Studio, the installer:

1. installs the managed Node.js 22.22.3 runtime (in these releases, --no-node / -NoNode is an error),
2. downloads the native Studio asset for your platform and checks its SHA-256 against the pinned release values,
3. confirms that Studio matches the installed CLI's version and protocol, and
4. stops before installing if no verified asset exists for your platform.

Your existing CLI and both command names are kept or restored if any step fails.

Using the CLI with a browser instead#

zuku studio doesn't open the desktop window. It starts a local browser adapter on 127.0.0.1 for the official local browser frontend at https://ai.zuzunza.com, backed by the same Agent Core:

# Start the local adapter; approve pairing requests in this terminal
zuku studio

# Use a different port
zuku studio --port 43200

Pairing, session resume and sign-in requests must be approved in the terminal. Press Ctrl+C to stop the adapter. Running sessions are not cancelled. Hosted web AI access is currently closed. For everyday work, the CLI commands in the command reference remain the primary, fully supported path.

Related#

• ZUKU CLI overview
• Game agent
• Providers and Authentication