Freeter is a free, open-source desktop workspace organizer, licensed under GPL-3.0 and written in TypeScript, for people who work on their computer and need to gather everything required for a project into one place.
What it is
Freeter is a desktop application that collects the tools, links, files, and notes a person needs for work into a single window, organized by projects and workflows. Instead of keeping a browser window, an editor, a terminal, and a task list spread across the screen, a user assembles them into named workflows and flips between those workflows as the work changes. The project is distributed as installers for Linux, Windows, and macOS, with the source code available for anyone who wants to build it themselves.
The concrete problem it solves is context-switching. When a person juggles several projects in the same day, the cost is not the work itself but the repeated rebuilding of the working environment: reopening the same pages, the same folders, the same references. Freeter replaces that manual reassembly with a saved, switchable setup that can be summoned at any moment. It targets the desktop operating system directly rather than living inside a browser tab, so the organizing layer sits above the whole machine rather than inside one application.
Key capabilities
- Gathers everything needed for work into one place, organized by projects and workflows.
- Opens on demand with the global shortcut
Ctrl+Shift+F on Windows and Linux, and Cmd+Shift+F on macOS.
- Provides a tray icon as a second way to reach the app without leaving whatever is currently on screen.
- Switches between workflows so that only the current project's setup is in view.
- Runs on Linux (most distros, Intel 64-bit), Windows 10 and later (Intel 64-bit), and macOS 10.15 and later (Intel and Apple Silicon).
- Builds from source with NodeJS through three commands:
npm install, npm run prod, and npm run package.
- Places the built package in the
./dist folder.
Who uses it and how
- Developers and other computer-based workers who run several projects at once and want each project's references collected in one switchable view.
- Desktop users on Linux, Windows, and macOS who need the same organizing layer across all three platforms, since installers exist for each.
- People who prefer ready-to-use binaries, who take installers from the download page rather than building anything.
- Contributors and self-builders who take the source from the download page or the GitHub releases page and compile it locally with NodeJS.
- Users who want to shape the tool's direction, since the project maintains a public community forum with a roadmap, a feature request category, and a bug report category.
Getting started
Download the latest ready-to-use installer for Linux, Windows, or macOS from the download page at freeter.io/download. To build from source instead, download or unpack the code, then run npm install, npm run prod, and npm run package with NodeJS installed.
How it compares
The registry lists no paid products that Freeter replaces, and the facts name no similar tools, so it stands alone here as a GPL-3.0 desktop workspace organizer with no equivalent on this page. Anyone evaluating it has to judge it against general-purpose launchers and note-taking tools on their own, since no direct comparison is documented in the repository.
When to use it — and when not to
Pick Freeter if a single desktop user wants a personal, offline organizer under a free software licence and is comfortable installing a native app or running a NodeJS build. Building from source requires the NodeJS toolchain and produces a package in ./dist, so anyone without a Node environment should take an installer instead. The repository's README is thin: it covers supported systems, build commands, and licence, but gives no detail on data storage, sync, or collaboration, and the introduction is a link to a homepage blog post, so anyone needing multi-device sync or team features must check the homepage and community forum before committing.
