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Elisa

A kid-friendly IDE where children orchestrate AI agent teams to build real software and hardware.

Elisa is a visual programming tool inspired by Scratch. Kids snap together blocks to describe what they want to build — goals, features, style, agent teams, and deployment targets. Behind the scenes, those blocks drive AI agents (powered by Claude) that plan tasks, write code, run tests, and deploy the result. The output is real, working software: a website they can share, or code flashed to an ESP32 microcontroller.

Elisa is simultaneously a teaching tool and a doing tool. At every step, it explains engineering concepts — source control, testing, decomposition, code review — in kid-friendly language, woven into the act of building.

Key Features

• Visual Block Editor — Drag-and-drop blocks (Blockly) to compose project specs. 14 block categories: Goals, Requirements, Tests, Style, Skills, Rules, Portals, Knowledge, Minions, Team, Flow, System, Composition, Deploy.
• AI Agent Teams — Configure builder, tester, reviewer, and custom "minion" agents with personalities. Up to 3 agents work in parallel.
• Real-time Mission Control — Watch agents plan tasks, write code, and deploy in real time. Interactive task DAG, narrator feed, and minion status cards.
• Skills & Rules — Create reusable prompt snippets (skills) and guardrails (rules) that shape agent behavior. Composite skills chain multiple steps with a visual flow editor.
• Portals — Connect to external tools and hardware via MCP servers, CLI tools, or serial/USB devices.
• Hardware Integration — Detect, flash, and monitor ESP32 boards over USB. MicroPython compilation and serial monitor built in.
• Teaching Layer — Contextual learning moments explain concepts like git commits, testing, and decomposition as they happen.
• Save & Share — Auto-save to browser, save to folder, or export as .elisa nugget files. Bundled example projects to get started.

Quick Start

git clone https://github.com/zoidbergclawd/elisa.git
cd elisa
npm install
npm run dev:electron

See the Getting Started guide for full setup instructions.

User Guide

Page	Description
Getting Started	Prerequisites, install, first launch, first build
Workspace Editor	Canvas, toolbox, sidebar, tabs
Block Reference	All 14 block categories with fields and behaviors
Building a Nugget	GO button, build phases, Mission Control, human gates
Skills	Creating, editing, composite skills, templates, context vars
Rules	Creating, triggers, templates
Portals	MCP/CLI/Serial, templates, capabilities
Hardware Integration	ESP32 setup, detection, flash, serial monitor
Saving and Loading	Auto-save, .elisa files, workspace save/load, examples
Troubleshooting	Readiness badge, API key, connection, build errors

Developer Guide

Page	Description
Architecture	System topology, monorepo layout, data flow, state machine
API Reference	REST endpoints, WebSocket events, NuggetSpec schema
Development Guide	Dev setup, npm scripts, testing, how to add endpoints/blocks/agents
Agent System	Agent roles, prompts, execution model, context chain, permissions

Tech Stack

Layer	Technologies
Desktop	Electron 35, electron-builder, electron-store + safeStorage
Frontend	React 19, Vite 7, TypeScript 5.9, Tailwind CSS 4, Blockly 12
Backend	Express 5, TypeScript 5.9, ws 8, Zod 4, Claude Agent SDK
Hardware	MicroPython on ESP32 via serialport + mpremote
Testing	Vitest + Testing Library

Links

• GitHub Repository
• Product Requirements Document