Building from Source

Building from Source

Prerequisites

Follow the Tauri prerequisites guide for your platform.

At minimum you need:

• Node.js 22+
• Rust (latest stable)
• Platform-specific build tools (Xcode CLI on macOS, Visual Studio Build Tools on Windows, etc.)

Quick Build

git clone https://github.com/pacmano1/launcher.git
cd launcher
npm install
npm run tauri build

The built application will be at:

• macOS: src-tauri/target/release/bundle/macos/Launcher.app
• Windows: src-tauri/target/release/bundle/msi/
• Linux: src-tauri/target/release/bundle/deb/

Development Mode

npm install
npm run tauri dev

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

Rust Only

To check or test just the Rust backend without building the frontend:

cargo check --manifest-path src-tauri/Cargo.toml
cargo test --manifest-path src-tauri/Cargo.toml

Windows-Specific Setup

OpenSSL is required. Install it and set these environment variables in PowerShell:

$env:OPENSSL_DIR='C:\Program Files\OpenSSL-Win64\'
$env:OPENSSL_INCLUDE_DIR='C:\Program Files\OpenSSL-Win64\include'
$env:OPENSSL_LIB_DIR='C:\Program Files\OpenSSL-Win64\lib'
$env:OPENSSL_NO_VENDOR=1

CI/CD

The GitHub Actions workflow at .github/workflows/build-ballista.yml builds for macOS, Windows, and Linux on every push. Draft releases are created on pushes to master.

DMG Bundling (macOS)

To create a .dmg installer on macOS, you need create-dmg:

brew install create-dmg

Without it, the .app still builds successfully — only the DMG step fails.