Ideas & development

emOS Studio

Building a workspace
for product exploration

Meng Li · Edge Mobile · September 2026

emOS recap

Edge Mobile,
modeled on the web

emOS is an interactive web model of Edge Mobile, with connected pages and interactions.

PMs and designers can try an idea in product context before native implementation begins.

The ambition: approach the native experience while keeping the speed of web iteration.

Static emOS Theme Hub reference for the PDF and offline view
Live emOS · Tap, scroll, exploreemOS · Static reference
Open emOS ↗
The original plan

The original emOS plan

The plan had three parts: fidelity, accessibility, and evaluation.

01

Fidelity

Keep emOS aligned with the native product so ideas start from a realistic baseline.

The model people build upon
02

Accessibility

Help PMs and designers explore with agents, design context, and guided workflows.

emOS Studio supports this workflow
03

Evaluation

Develop ways to assess concepts through scenarios, flows, and interaction comparison.

Evidence to support product judgment

Studio turns the model into a workspace for product exploration.

emOS Studio

A workspace for
product exploration

A focused workspace for native product exploration,
powered by the agent and tools on your computer.

DescribeTry & compareSave & continue
emOS

The product model

emOS Studio

The workspace for exploring ideas

Console & Playground

The Studio workspace

Direct the agent in the Console. Experience the result in the Playground.

ConsoleGuide and manage the project
PlaygroundTry the product and compare

Console

Current projectNew  /  Save  /  Activity
Conversation & design context

Describe the change

Describe the change and attach Figma context.

Agent activity and approvals stay here.
Describe a change…

Playground

View controls
Baseline
emOSPinned starting
experience
Current project
Your experimentProposed
experience

High-level schematic · Activity spans all projects · The Playground shows one source or a side-by-side comparison

Studio in use

The baseline and experiment, together

Actual emOS Studio Real Clock project: conversation on the left, pinned baseline at 12:15 in the center, current clock in the experiment on the right
Actual Studio session · Real Clock project · September 10, 2026
Console

The question and
the conversation

Baseline

A stable point
of comparison

Current project

The change
you can try

Baseline & exploration

One source of truth,
many explorations

Improve the baseline

Keep the model
close to production

Reflect the latest native experience.
Review fixes and reusable improvements.
Maintain a trusted starting point.

A durable source of truth for emOS
Explore an idea

Let many temporary
ideas diverge

Pin a known baseline revision.
Give each project its own branch and worktree.
Keep or share the ideas worth revisiting.

Independent work, with no automatic baseline merge
The tension

The baseline must evolve. Existing experiments need a stable reference.

Studio makes baseline updates explicit. Experiments stay separate from reviewed baseline contributions.

Engineering foundations

The tools beneath
the Studio workflow

Studio conceptUnderlying toolStudio’s role
Agent conversationCoding-agent CLIsConnect context, runs, and approvals
Independent projectGit branch + worktreeIsolate each idea and pin its baseline
Saved revisionGit commit + durable referenceRecord an exact checkpoint
Design contextFigma API + local snapshotAttach the design inputs to the work
Submit & feedbackGitHub branch + Issue or draft PRReview and coordinate sharing
Studio owns the tooling shell

The UI directs and presents the work. SQLite preserves local workflow state.

Case study & demo

The Real Clock experiment

“Change clock on the top left to a real clock”
Initial request

Replace the static time with a live clock.

Reported issue

The clock appeared static after reopening.

Agent follow-up

Investigate startup and resume behavior.

Open the Real Clock project
Actual Real Clock conversation: agent describes a startup dependency and a change to refresh the clock independently when the browser resumes
Actual project and follow-up conversation
Development

How emOS Studio was built

The first editing loop grew into a persistent workspace around existing tools.

June

The first working loop

Chat drives an agent.
Changes appear in the preview.

Studio becomes its own repository.
emOS becomes its reference project.
Early September

Work that survives a session

Independent projects.
Saved revisions and recovery.

Explicit approvals and sharing.
Separate experiment and contribution workflows.
September 7–9

A clearer everyday workflow

Concurrent runs and comparison.
Figma context and focused tabs.

Chat, Review, Submit, Settings.
More room for the Playground.

The shell grew around the work: context, comparison, revisions, and recovery.

Product point of view

Studio’s product point of view

01

A lightweight shell around a system agent

Studio owns the workflow and presentation. The agent uses existing tools and skills to do the work.

02

Deep focus on one scenario

Optimize for native product exploration on emOS, with its product context and review loop.

03

One place to work

Keep intent, progress, results, and refinement in the Console and Playground.

Design assumption

Abundant tokens. An always-available agent.

New capabilities can come through agent tools and skills while Studio stays focused on the workflow.
The ideal workflow

The ideal complete workflow

Studio’s workflow would connect exploration with implementation and verification.

Product explorationProduction delivery
  1. Product exploration01

    Explore

    emOS + Studio

    Try ideas in context.
    Compare and refine.

    Figma, worktrees, GitHub
  2. 02

    Define

    Evaluation and agreed intent

    Assess the result.
    Agree acceptance criteria.

    Dedicated eval system TBD
  3. Production delivery03

    Implement

    Dragon (Edge-agents)

    Build the chosen behavior
    in Edge codebases.

    ADO, Chromium, Edge skills
  4. 04

    Verify

    FSQ

    Check native Edge against
    the approved behavior.

    Production test automation

Production changes feed back into the emOS baseline for the next experiment.

Target workflow · Experiment evaluation is unvalidated. The production handoff and baseline feedback loop remain open.

Current gaps

Workflows still to connect

Studio should connect agents and dedicated systems to a clear workflow.

WorkflowProposed external executionStudio workflow to build
EvaluationNo validated system yetDedicated system TBD.
FSQ is an unvalidated candidate.
Choose the revision and criteria. Present evaluation evidence.
Keep the baseline currentInspect production drift and propose updates.Schedule checks and review proposed baseline updates.
Precise UI refinementApply a focused change to a selected element.Select the target and present the change for review.
Production handoffImplement with Dragon.
Verify with FSQ.
Package approved intent and track delivery.
Demo productionValue-add workflowRecord and edit a journey with media tools.Choose a revision and review the resulting video.

Studio provides the controls and review surfaces around the agent’s work.

Top learnings

What building Studio taught us

Power can stay behind
the interface

Like the circuitry inside a device, powerful agent capabilities can sit behind a simple user experience.

Building the tool
clarifies the work

It forces a deeper understanding of the workflow, its abstractions, and its information architecture.

A specific workflow
is easier to build

A concrete scenario makes the goals and gaps easier to identify.

How to generalize beyond it remains uncertain.

AI is not a tool, AI is a workflow

Discussion

Where do you agree
or disagree?

Which Studio POVs would you keep, change, or reject?

What real scenario supports or challenges those POVs?

Which evaluation systems have you used that Studio could build on?

Speaker notes

25 minutes + 5 minutes discussion

The story

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