ex Desktop

Native desktop wrapper for ex — a self-hosted team chat application.

Built with Tauri v2 (Rust) and a small local bootstrap UI. The desktop app stores a workspace URL, then loads the server-hosted ex web interface inside the main webview.

Features

• Mattermost-style wrapper around the existing ex web UI
• Local first-run setup screen for selecting a workspace URL
• Multi-server support (switch between self-hosted ex instances)
• System tray, global shortcut, auto-updater, and window-state persistence
• Narrow native bridge by default: the remote server UI is not granted local Tauri permissions

Prerequisites

You need a running ex server. The desktop app is a client only — it does not bundle the server.

Build dependencies

Platform	Required packages
macOS	Xcode Command Line Tools
Windows	WebView2 (pre-installed on Windows 11), Build Tools for VS
Linux (Debian/Ubuntu)	libwebkit2gtk-4.1-dev libappindicator3-dev librsvg2-dev patchelf
Linux (Fedora)	webkit2gtk4.1-devel libappindicator-gtk3-devel librsvg2-devel

• Rust stable (≥ 1.77)
• Node.js ≥ 20

Getting started

# Clone
git clone https://github.com/DigitalTolk/ex-desktop.git
cd ex-desktop

# Install dependencies and launch in dev mode
# (starts the local bootstrap UI + Tauri shell)
make dev

On first launch the app asks for your workspace URL (for example https://chat.yourcompany.com) and then hands the main window off to that server-hosted UI.

Available make targets

Command	Description
make setup	Install frontend npm dependencies
make dev	Launch dev build (hot reload)
make build	Produce a production installer
make check	Run Rust clippy + frontend lint

Manual commands

# Local bootstrap UI only
npm --prefix frontend install
npm --prefix frontend run dev

# Rust check
cargo check --manifest-path src-tauri/Cargo.toml

# Full Tauri dev
cargo tauri dev

# Full Tauri production build
cargo tauri build

Project structure

ex-desktop/
├── frontend/          Local bootstrap/setup UI used before loading the remote server
├── src-tauri/
│   ├── src/
│   │   ├── lib.rs     App entry point, tray, startup handoff to remote UI
│   │   ├── main.rs    Binary entry point
│   │   └── commands.rs Small local command surface for setup + window handoff
│   ├── capabilities/
│   │   └── default.json  Permission declarations
│   └── tauri.conf.json   App config (identifier, window, bundle)
├── docs/
│   ├── API.md         ex server REST + WebSocket API reference
│   ├── DESKTOP_PLAN.md  Phased development plan
│   └── STACK_ANALYSIS.md Stack comparison + project future
├── .github/
│   └── workflows/
│       ├── ci.yml     Build on push / PR (3 platforms)
│       └── release.yml Publish installers on tag
└── Makefile

Development

Connecting to the ex server

Start the ex server locally with:

# In the ex repository
docker compose up

Then launch make dev, enter the server URL into the local setup screen, and the shell will navigate the main webview to that remote UI.

Local Commands

Commands live in src-tauri/src/commands.rs. They are intentionally limited to local setup tasks such as storing the selected server URL and telling the main window to load it.

#[tauri::command]
pub fn save_server_url_and_load(app: AppHandle, url: String) -> Result<String, String> {
    // validate, persist, and navigate the main window
    Ok(url)
}

Call from TypeScript:

import { invoke } from '@tauri-apps/api/core'
const result = await invoke<string>('save_server_url_and_load', { url: 'https://chat.example.com' })

Releasing

Releases are created automatically by pushing a semver tag:

git tag v0.2.0
git push origin v0.2.0

GitHub Actions builds macOS (.dmg), Windows (.msi + .exe), and Linux (.AppImage + .deb + .rpm) installers and creates a draft release. Edit the release notes and publish when ready.

For code signing see docs/DESKTOP_PLAN.md.

Contributing

See CONTRIBUTING.md.

Security

See SECURITY.md for the vulnerability disclosure policy.

License

MIT — see LICENSE.