Getting started (desktop)

Contents

1. Requirements
2. Run in development mode
3. Generate installers and bundles
4. Debug with VS Code

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Requirements

Desktop mode requires these tools in addition to normal server/web development requirements:

• .NET 9 SDK
• Node.js 20+ and Yarn
• Rust toolchain (rustup + cargo)

Platform prerequisites:

• Windows: Microsoft Edge WebView2 runtime (usually preinstalled)
• macOS: Xcode Command Line Tools
• Linux: libwebkit2gtk-4.1-dev, libgtk-3-dev, libayatana-appindicator3-dev, librsvg2-dev

If you just installed Rust and still see cargo not found, restart your terminal (or VS Code) so PATH is refreshed.

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Run in development mode

From repository root:

yarn --cwd desktop-tauri install
yarn --cwd desktop-tauri dev

This starts the Tauri desktop shell and the frontend development server.

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Generate installers and bundles

From repository root:

yarn --cwd desktop-tauri build

This build pipeline does the following:

1. Builds the frontend assets.
2. Publishes the backend sidecar binary for the current platform target.
3. Builds desktop artifacts through Tauri for your current OS.

In VS Code you can run the desktop-tauri: publish task for the same flow.

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Debug with VS Code

Use these launch profiles from Run and Debug:

• Backend: Desktop Mode
• Desktop: Tauri Dev
• Desktop: Backend + Tauri Shell (compound)

Use these tasks from Terminal -> Run Task:

• desktop-tauri: install
• desktop-tauri: publish