ILX Launcher – a developer cockpit for Python apps (hot reload, crash capture)

ILX Studio released ILX Launcher, a developer cockpit for Python desktop apps that provides hot reload, crash capture, and a local-LLM coding assistant in a single persistent window. The tool eliminates the need for multiple terminal windows by managing interpreters, dependencies, testing, and builds, and is available as an open-source project on GitHub.

A developer cockpit for running, hot-reloading, testing, and shipping Python desktop apps. Point it at any project with a main.py . It runs your app as a child process, watches source files, hot-patches live edits, captures crashes, manages interpreters and dependencies, builds an EXE, and gives you a local-LLM coding assistant — all from one window that stays open while you work. One window. Start, reload, test, debug, build, ship — without ever touching a terminal. Running a Python desktop app while you develop usually means: - A terminal you keep switching to and from - A manual restart on every edit even a one-liner - Separate windows for pip, tests, profiling, and builds - Tracebacks in one of five terminal windows — you're not sure which - No safety net when a memory leak or infinite loop runs away with your machine The ILX Launcher folds all of that into one persistent window. git clone https://github.com/ilxstudio/ILX-Launcher cd ILX-Launcher python main.py No install step. No third-party dependencies. Just Python 3.11+ with tkinter. Windows EXE— build a standalone launcher.exe from inside the launcher Build EXE button , or: pip install pyinstaller pyinstaller --onefile --windowed --name launcher main.py | Feature | What it does | |---|---| Start / Restart / Refresh | Run main.py as a child process; restart or hot-reload on save | Hot patch | Live function reload via | Coder LLM Interpreters .venv , bundled CPython on demand Dependencies Tests Build EXE Logs Crash history Profiler Quality Git Automation Watchdog Live REPL running app to inspect live state| Coder LLM workspace | Crash history | |---|---| | Logs + Procfile | Git | |---|---| - Python 3.11+ with tkinter ships with python.org installer on Windows/macOS; sudo apt install python3-tk on some Linux - No third-party runtime dependencies in the launcher itself — pure stdlib + tkinter - Optional tools hot patch, builds, lint, profiling, LLM install into the target project's interpreter on demand - LLM features need a local Ollama https://ollama.com server optional main.py entry point ~50 lines, dispatches to ui/ version.py VERSION = "1.1.0" core/ state.py all shared globals config.py load/save settings interpreter.py Python resolution; fork-bomb guard process.py child process, watchdog, crash DB, hot-patch build.py PyInstaller + Inno Setup coder.py LLM edit/chat/review engine automation.py tests, quality, scaffold, SQLite, matrix ollama.py streaming Ollama client repl.py live REPL socket notifications.py Windows tray balloon diagnostics.py screenshot, py-spy ui/ main window.py launcher main window + tick loop coder window.py Coder window config window.py Configuration window tool windows.py Deps, Quality, Git, Profile, Logs, Crashes, Automation, RunConfigs theme.py fonts, styles, syntax highlighting, shared widgets assets/ docs/ LAUNCHER MANUAL.md full user manual with screenshots whitepaper.md technical narrative: why we built this img/ manual screenshots .github/ workflows/ci.yml smoke-test on push ISSUE TEMPLATE/ bug report + feature request templates PULL REQUEST TEMPLATE.md CONTRIBUTING.md CHANGELOG.md requirements.txt OPTIONAL tools the launcher drives not imported by it Settings persist to ~/.ilx launcher.json — recent projects, per-project interpreters, run configs, watchdog thresholds, all options. Configuration → Save writes it live. Per-machine runtime files .launcher crashes.db , .launcher session.log , .window geometry.json are git-ignored. Fork-bomb safe when frozen : tool python never returns the launcher EXE itself; callers skip rather than spawn. Zero third-party imports in the launcher : psutil , jurigged , requests , etc. run inside the target project's interpreter , not the launcher's. Permissive licenses only : MIT / BSD / Apache / PSF / OFL. No GPL/LGPL/copyleft — the launcher is part of a sold product. ASCII-only : em-dashes and ellipsis crash Windows cp1252 in frozen builds. print See docs/whitepaper.md /ilxstudio/ILX-Launcher/blob/main/docs/whitepaper.md for the full technical narrative, and CONTRIBUTING.md /ilxstudio/ILX-Launcher/blob/main/CONTRIBUTING.md for the code rules. MIT /ilxstudio/ILX-Launcher/blob/main/LICENSE c 2026 ILX Studio, LLC