Desktopr

Easily build and sign lightweight desktop applications using web stacks, with Desktopr GitHub actions and a straightforward Node API.

Desktopr turns a web application into a native desktop app for Linux, Windows and macOS. It is built on Tauri 2 and gives your web code a typed JavaScript bridge to native features: files and dialogs, windows, menus and context menus, tray, clipboard, notifications, global shortcuts, deep links, autostart, diagnostics, networking and sandboxed WebAssembly plugins.

Desktopr is self-contained. It needs no account, backend or hosted service: you build it from this repository, on your machine or with GitHub Actions, and you ship the result yourself.

Repository layout

Path	Contents
src-tauri/	Rust/Tauri runtime and native commands
src-ts/	TypeScript bridge injected into the app, and the SDK source
sdk/	The desktopr npm package for your web application (README)
wasm/	WASI plugin template and example modules (README)
conf-templates/, scripts/	Configuration generation for dev and production builds
.github/workflows/build.yml	Cross-platform build, optional signing and releases
.github/workflows/companion-release.yml	Signed Desktopr Companion release
apps/companion/	Desktopr Companion, a desktop app for trying the runtime and the bridge API
docs/	Documentation site (VitePress) published at desktopr.dev

Requirements

• Node.js 22 and npm
• Rust stable (rustup), plus rustup target add wasm32-wasip1 for WASM plugins
• Tauri CLI 2.11: cargo install tauri-cli --version 2.11.1 --locked
• jq
• Platform prerequisites from the Tauri guide. On Debian/Ubuntu: libwebkit2gtk-4.1-dev libgtk-3-dev libayatana-appindicator3-dev librsvg2-dev libssl-dev libxdo-dev build-essential

Development

npm ci
npm run dev

npm run dev bundles the bridge, generates the dev configuration and starts cargo tauri dev. By default the window shows the bundled page in src-tauri/standalone/. To wrap your own web app, set its URL:

APP_URL=http://localhost:5173 npm run dev

Only the origin of APP_URL is granted access to the native bridge.

Production builds

Locally

APP_URL=https://app.example.com \
APP_VERSION=1.0.0 \
APP_IDENTIFIER=com.example.app \
MAIN_WINDOW_TITLE="Example" \
npm run build

Bundles are written to src-tauri/target/release/bundle/. Other options (window size, deep link scheme, updater) are read from environment variables in scripts/prod-conf.sh.

With GitHub Actions

Run the build workflow from the Actions tab, or call it from another workflow with uses: <owner>/<repo>/.github/workflows/build.yml@<ref>. It builds the selected platforms, launches each app briefly as a smoke test, and uploads the installers as workflow artifacts:

Platform	Outputs
Linux	AppImage, .deb, .rpm
Windows	NSIS installer, optional MSIX
macOS	DMG

Set release: true (with app_version) to also create a draft GitHub Release. Nothing is uploaded anywhere else.

Signing is optional and uses only your repository secrets. Without them the build is unsigned; if a set is incomplete, the workflow fails before building.

Purpose	Secrets
Windows code signing	WINDOWS_CERTIFICATE (base64 .pfx), WINDOWS_CERTIFICATE_PASSWORD
macOS code signing	APPLE_CERTIFICATE (base64 .p12), APPLE_CERTIFICATE_PASSWORD, APPLE_SIGNING_IDENTITY
macOS notarization	APPLE_ID, APPLE_PASSWORD (app-specific password), APPLE_TEAM_ID
Updater signatures	TAURI_SIGNING_PRIVATE_KEY, TAURI_SIGNING_PRIVATE_KEY_PASSWORD

For the Microsoft Store or sideloading, provide the four msix_* identity inputs from Partner Center to add an MSIX package to the Windows build.

Unsigned macOS builds

Without Apple certificates the app is ad-hoc signed and not notarized, so Gatekeeper blocks it on first launch. Users can open System Settings → Privacy & Security and choose Open Anyway, or run:

xattr -dr com.apple.quarantine "/Applications/Your App.app"

Updates

The updater is off by default and is not compiled in. To enable it, host your own update manifest and provide both an HTTPS update endpoint and the updater public key; the configuration step then adds the updater config, artifacts and permissions.

• GitHub Actions: set the update_endpoint and updater_public_key inputs and the TAURI_SIGNING_PRIVATE_KEY secret. The workflow builds with the updater Cargo feature.
• Locally: set UPDATE_ENDPOINT and ED25519_PUBKEY for npm run prodconf, then build with cargo tauri build --features updater from src-tauri/, with TAURI_SIGNING_PRIVATE_KEY in the environment.

See Tauri's updater guide for generating keys and the manifest format.

Documentation

The full documentation lives in docs/ and is published at desktopr.dev. Run it locally with npm run docs:dev, or build the static site with npm run docs:build.

Desktopr Companion

apps/companion/ is a SvelteKit app bundled into a Desktopr build with frontend=companion (APP_FRONTEND=companion for npm run prodconf). It loads any web app URL in the main window with the full bridge, and includes a bridge playground. Releases are published by companion-release.yml with the notes in apps/companion/RELEASE_NOTES.md, which include the first-launch steps for each platform.

Checks

.github/workflows/ci.yml runs these on every push to main and every pull request (Rust on Linux, Windows and macOS):

npm run typecheck             # runtime and SDK TypeScript
npm run check:standalone      # no hosted services, safe defaults, launchable entitlements
npm run check:private-deps    # no private packages or credentials in manifests
npm run check:menu-contract   # SDK menu schema matches the runtime
npm run check:bridge-permissions  # bridge commands are registered and allowed; companion subset is intact
npm run test:bridge           # bridge initialization, IPC argument names and SDK fallback
npm run test:config           # generated configuration and capabilities for each scenario
npm run companion:check       # companion svelte-check
npm run lint:rust             # rustfmt and clippy with warnings as errors
npm run test:rust             # Rust tests, including WASM modules run in the runtime host

Contributing and security

See CONTRIBUTING.md. Please report vulnerabilities privately as described in SECURITY.md.

License

Licensed under the Apache License, Version 2.0.