How Patchwerk works
The moving pieces behind a Patchwerk session: the desktop app, the live audio engine, your project folder, the AI assistant, and your account on the website.
Plugin makers who want to understand what is actually running while they build.
The pieces you are actually using
When you build a plugin in Patchwerk, you are touching five things. Most days you only think about the first one.
| Piece | What it does for you |
|---|---|
| Desktop app | The editor: graph, design canvas, AI chat, script editor |
| Audio engine | Compiles your patch and plays it live as you edit |
| Project folder | Your plugin on disk — plain files you own |
| AI assistant | Reads and writes your project files on request |
| Website + account | Login, credits, downloads, and this wiki |
The desktop app is where you work. Everything else exists to make that session sound right, save right, and stay yours.
Your patch is compiled, not simulated
The graph you wire up is not a mock-up of a plugin — it is the plugin. Every time you change the graph, Patchwerk translates it into Cmajor (a language built for real-time audio), compiles it, and hot-swaps it into the running audio engine.
That has two practical consequences:
- What you hear while editing is the same DSP your exported plugin runs. There is no "render" step that sounds different.
- A short compile pause after big graph changes is normal — you are rebuilding a real signal processor, not refreshing a preview image.
Note Sound itself never runs inside the editor window. A native audio engine owns the speakers, your audio interface, and MIDI. The editor just tells it what to compile and which knobs moved.
Three things run while you edit
A Patchwerk session is really three programs working together:
Patchwerk desktop app
├─ the editor graph, canvas, chat — what you see
├─ the audio engine your compiled patch, making sound
└─ the UI preview your plugin's interface, running live
Your plugin's interface is not a picture inside the editor — it is your plugin's actual UI code, running as its own small live app embedded in the design canvas.
This explains some behavior that otherwise looks odd:
- The UI preview can reload on its own without interrupting audio. Different program.
- Audio can recompile without your interface flickering. Same reason, reversed.
- A bug in your plugin's UI code shows up in the preview, not in the editor around it.
Tip If something misbehaves, ask which of the three owns it. No sound? Audio engine. Interface looks wrong? UI preview. Graph won't connect? Editor.
Your project lives on disk, not in the app
Everything you build is written into one folder of ordinary files: JSON for the graph and settings, Svelte source code for the interface, Cmajor for custom blocks. Patchwerk reads that folder when a project opens and saves into it as you work.
There is no hidden database and no proprietary container. You can keep projects in git, back them up, open them in a text editor, or move them between machines. Delete the app and your plugins are still sitting there intact. The next page walks through every file.
The assistant works on the same files you do
The AI assistant is not a separate magic layer — it edits the same project folder. Ask it to reshape the graph and it modifies the graph file; ask for a UI change and it edits your interface source. The notes file in your project (CLAUDE.md) is how it remembers what your plugin is about between sessions.
That means everything the assistant does is inspectable and reversible with the same tools you would use for your own edits — including git.
What needs the internet (and what doesn't)
Editing, compiling, and hearing your plugin all happen locally. Your Patchwerk account on the website handles the rest:
- Login and credits — the AI assistant runs through your account's credits.
- Downloads — app releases and updates.
- This wiki — guides and the under-the-hood pages you are reading.
If you are offline, you lose the assistant and the website. Your editor, your audio, and your files keep working.