Getting Started

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Getting Started

Building and running Player Club Private VPN from source. This mirrors the README's Quick Start — this page adds prerequisites, troubleshooting, and a first-run walkthrough. For how to actually use the app once it's running, see the User Manual.

Prerequisites

• Rust (stable) — install via rustup
• Node.js 20+ and pnpm 10+
• Windows — MSVC toolchain, Visual Studio C++ Build Tools 2022, WebView2 Runtime (preinstalled on Windows 11)
• Linux — libwebkit2gtk-4.1-dev, libgtk-3-dev, libayatana-appindicator3-dev, librsvg2-dev, patchelf, build-essential (see the apt packages the CI workflow installs, in .github/workflows/release.yml)
• macOS — Xcode Command Line Tools

The app builds and runs on Windows, Linux, and macOS. The real virtual adapter only works on Windows today, though — the TUN/TAP code is #[cfg(windows)]-only, so Linux/macOS builds are UI-only previews with no working tunnel yet. See PLATFORM-SUPPORT.md for detail.

Install and run

pnpm install
pnpm tauri dev

This starts the Vite dev server and launches the Tauri window with hot reload.

Building a release

pnpm tauri build

Produces installers (.msi, NSIS .exe) under src-tauri/target/release/. Official builds are also produced by CI on every v* tag push — see .github/workflows/release.yml — and published as a draft GitHub Release for review before publishing.

Using the app

Once it's running, see the User Manual for a complete walkthrough — first launch, Basic/Expert mode, enabling the real adapter, connecting to a peer, hosting a Virtual Network, and every settings page.

Troubleshooting

• "Needs Admin" in Expert mode — click the relaunch prompt; adapter creation requires elevation on Windows.
• Build fails linking on Windows — confirm the MSVC Build Tools (not just MinGW) are installed; Rust on Windows needs the -msvc toolchain.
• cargo update broke the build — Cargo.lock pins alloc-stdlib (0.2.2) and brotli-decompressor (5.0.1) so the dependency graph stays on alloc-no-stdlib 2.0.x. Avoid an unscoped cargo update of these: alloc-no-stdlib 3.0.0 is incompatible with brotli 8.0.3 (Rust error E0277). If you hit this, revert the lockfile change for those crates rather than trying to resolve it forward.
• App-usage question, not a build issue — check the User Manual or FAQ first.

Still stuck? Ask in Discussions or check existing issues.