During my internship at Nife Labs, I worked on the Nife Sandbox, a web-based development environment designed to integrate IDE-style coding workflows with AI-assisted development, GitHub repository integration, and multi-panel developer tooling. My work primarily focused on functional stability, UX consistency for workflows, and feature extensions across the workspace, AI panel, and Git pipelines,

Platform Architecture and Technology Stack

The platform is built with React and Vite on the frontend, using Monaco Editor as the core editor and shadcn components for UI standardization. State is managed through React context patterns, and GitHub OAuth APIs are used for authentication and repository access. API key storage in the browser is encrypted using crypto-js for secure reuse within AI workflows.

Landing interface of the Nife Sandbox platform that the workspace, editor, and AI-assisted development features operate within.

My work aligned with this architecture and focused on improving reliability, developer usability, and integration between subsystems instead of isolated feature shipping.

Nife Sandbox workspace with Monaco editor, preview pane, terminal, and AI Assistant integrated within a stabilized multi-panel layout.

Modernizing the Workspace and Multi-Panel Layout

One of the first problem areas I addressed was instability across the platform’s multi-panel interface. Rendering issues, layout drift, and inconsistent theme propagation created friction in developer workflows. I refactored panel rendering logic, standardized theme behavior across light and dark variants, and replaced ad-hoc UI elements with shadcn components to improve visual hierarchy and interaction consistency. The result was a more predictable and stable editor environment suited for continuous usage in development sessions.

Stabilized multi-panel workspace showing the editor surface, preview pane, terminal, and AI panel operating as independent panels within a unified layout after panel-rendering and state-management refinements.

Improving Navigation, File Operations, and Workspace Management

A major usability enhancement involved restructuring the sidebar and file explorer. I introduced collapsible navigation for better editor focus, added breadcrumb support, implemented file operation utilities such as rename, delete, and new file creation, and enabled safe workspace switching across local and imported projects. I also extended repository workflows to allow users to fetch and open GitHub repositories directly into the workspace, improving continuity between remote code and local editing contexts.

File-operation utilities added to the workspace for safe edit, rename, and delete workflows.

Extending the Monaco-Based IDE Experience

To enhance the developer experience inside the Monaco editor, I added theme support inspired by VS Code environments and implemented contextual AI actions such as Explain Code with AI. These capabilities enabled structured AI-assisted refactoring and comprehension workflows rather than simple text generation. I also contributed to the activity status bar, which surfaces runtime indicators such as Git branch state, connectivity, compile errors, and file metrics, helping users maintain operational awareness while working inside the IDE.

AI explanation request generated from an editor selection, routed into the AI panel for structured analysis.

AI Assistant Panel and Secure Automation Workflows

A significant part of my contribution was strengthening the AI Assistant Panel. I implemented secure encrypted API key storage and designed response actions that allow users to copy outputs, replace files, insert content at cursor, or generate new files programmatically. This shifted the panel from being a passive assistant to an actionable development utility integrated directly into editing operations. I also worked on the early foundation of the agentic AI panel, laying the groundwork for future autonomous workflow execution inside the sandbox.

Encrypted API key storage and reusable workflow support

GitHub OAuth and Integrated Git Workflows

I implemented GitHub OAuth authentication, repository retrieval, and workspace import flows using a dedicated OAuth application. To extend version control visibility, I also contributed to the Git panel, which exposes commit history, branch lists, and commit execution directly from the IDE. This helped position the sandbox as a repository-centric development environment instead of a standalone editor.

GitHub OAuth authorization screen for the Nife Sandbox integration.

Deployment, Configuration, and Environment Reliability

Beyond UI and features, I worked on configuration stability across environments. This included aligning OAuth redirect URIs, backend and frontend route coordination, workspace path consistency across operating systems, and CORS alignment for deployed environments. These refinements reduced integration failures during deployment and improved resilience during environment transitions.

Outcome and Engineering Lessons

This internship helped me deepen my experience in platform-level frontend engineering, state management design, Git-integrated development tooling, and secure AI workflow implementation. More importantly, it reinforced practices such as UI reliability over feature velocity, modular panel design, and developer-focused interaction patterns.

Going forward, I intend to continue working on systems that combine developer experience, AI-assisted tooling, and scalable workspace infrastructure.