Desktop Runtime

Native desktop runtime: Rust host (tao + wry), React UI, single binary. OS WebView only — no Chromium, no Node at runtime.

Quick Start

cd core && cargo build --release

The build script runs npm install and npm run build in ui/ if ui/dist/index.html is missing. Ensure Node.js and npm are installed.

Binary: core/target/release/desktop-runtime-core.exe (Windows) or equivalent on macOS/Linux.

From repo root: cargo run --manifest-path core/Cargo.toml --release

Architecture

Layer	Tech
Window/event loop	tao
WebView	wry (OS-provided)
UI	React + Vite, built to static assets
IPC	Typed commands over app:// protocol

UI assets are embedded at compile time (include_dir). IPC is a typed command enum; no eval, no dynamic dispatch. Blocking commands (file dialogs, updates, OpenUrl) run on a rayon worker pool; backpressure capped at 256 pending responses. Window is shown after first page load (with a short timeout fallback); position and size persist to config.json on close. System tray icon with Show/Quit menu. Right-click context menu (Save/Print) is disabled.

See docs/ARCHITECTURE.md and docs/BUILD.md.

Environment

Variable	Effect
DESKTOP_RUNTIME_DEVTOOLS=1	Enable WebView DevTools (off by default to avoid event-loop warnings).
DESKTOP_RUNTIME_GITHUB_REPO	Build-time: owner/repo for update checks. Defaults from CARGO_PKG_REPOSITORY or klevert-ope/desktop-runtime.

Design Constraints

• Idle RAM: < 70 MB
• Binary size: Windows ≤ 15 MB, macOS ≤ 20 MB, Linux ≤ 12 MB
• No background threads without explicit owners
• unsafe forbidden in core

Prerequisites

• Rust — stable (see rust-toolchain.toml)
• Node.js + npm — build-time only; required if ui/dist/ is missing (build script will run npm).

Build Notes

1. UI: Build script ensures ui/dist/ exists before linking. If missing, it runs npm install and npm run build in ui/; failures fail the build.
2. Release: opt-level = "z", LTO, strip = true.
3. Platforms: Windows, macOS, Linux. wry uses the OS WebView (WebView2, WKWebView, WebKitGTK).

Tooling

Task	Command
Dependency audit	cargo deny check (repo root)
Security audit	cargo audit
Size analysis	cargo bloat --release -n 30 (from core/)

Installation (Release Builds)

Platform	Format
Windows	.msi wizard
macOS	.pkg or .app tarball
Linux	AppImage + install-desktop-runtime.sh

License

Apache-2.0 . See LICENSE.