Core

This directory contains application-level infrastructure that is independent of business logic.

Core services are things the app needs to function as an Electron application — regardless of what the app actually does. If you swapped out all the business features tomorrow, these modules would still be necessary.

What belongs here

Lifecycle management (service registration, bootstrap, shutdown)
Logging infrastructure
Configuration management
IPC communication framework
Security primitives (IPC sender source trust)
Plugin/extension system plumbing
Platform abstraction utilities

What does NOT belong here

Anything tied to what Cherry Studio specifically does (AI, conversations, models, topics, assistants, knowledge bases, MCP, etc.)
Business data schemas, repositories, or services
UI-specific logic
Feature-specific utilities

Rule of thumb: If removing a module would break the app regardless of its features, it belongs in core/. If removing it would only break a specific feature, it belongs elsewhere (e.g., services/, data/).

Startup phases

The v2 main process has three startup phases. This is the preferred terminology across the codebase.

Phase	Owned by	Description
preboot	`core/preboot/`	Synchronous setup that must complete before `application.bootstrap()` is called. BootConfig load, logger init, userData resolution, command-line switches, top-level Electron APIs. No DI, no lifecycle services.
bootstrap	`core/application/` + `core/lifecycle/`	The `application.bootstrap()` orchestration function. Freezes the path registry, builds the IoC container, runs the lifecycle stages (Background / BeforeReady / WhenReady). NestJS/Spring-style terminology — this is the only meaning of "bootstrap" in this codebase.
running	(no explicit owner)	Steady state after `application.bootstrap()` returns. All services ready, main window visible, IPC and user events flowing normally.

The lifecycle stages (Background / BeforeReady / WhenReady) run inside the bootstrap phase, not as separate top-level phases.

The legacy file src/main/bootstrap.ts predates this vocabulary and is no longer imported anywhere. It will be removed in a follow-up cleanup PR.

Current modules

Module	Description	Reference Docs
`application/`	Application singleton, service registry, bootstrap orchestration	Lifecycle Reference
`concurrency/`	`createLatestReconciler` — general latest-wins async side-effect reconciler (single-flight, level-triggered)	concurrency/README.md
`diagnostics.ts`	Opt-in performance instrumentation (CPU profile, event-loop lag, service spans), gated by `CS_DIAGNOSTICS`	diagnostics.md
`lifecycle/`	IoC container, service lifecycle management, phased bootstrap	Lifecycle Reference
`logger/`	Winston-based logging service (preboot singleton, consumed via `@logger` alias)	logging.md
`paths/`	Path registry: single source of truth for all main-process filesystem paths	paths/README.md
`preboot/`	Pre-bootstrap synchronous setup (userData resolution, etc.)	preboot/README.md