Moqira

A focused desktop app for quickly turning ideas into wireframes.

Moqira is a local-first wireframing app for sketching interfaces without putting a design tool between you and the idea. Build projects from a large catalogue of familiar controls, arrange them across multiple wireframes, and keep the result as a portable JSON file on your computer.

Note

Moqira is early-stage software. macOS is the primary development platform; Windows builds are configured but have not been tested yet.

Why Moqira?

• Quick to start — drag controls onto a canvas and shape a wireframe in minutes.
• Local first — projects live on your computer, not behind a cloud account.
• Multi-wireframe projects — keep related flows and interface states together.
• Portable files — projects use a readable JSON-based format.
• Focused by design — the tools you need for wireframing, without a full design suite.

Features

• A searchable control catalogue covering forms, navigation, data, charts, markup, media, and iOS patterns
• Drag, resize, multi-select, duplicate, lock, align, and reorder canvas nodes
• Editable text, colors, typography, borders, opacity, and control-specific properties
• Links between wireframes, external URLs, and back actions
• Undo and redo support
• Light and dark themes with customizable accent color and typography
• Multiple wireframes in each project
• Recent-project shortcuts and native open, save, and reveal actions
• .dsmockup and .json project files

Built With

• Tauri 2 and Rust for the native desktop application and filesystem layer
• React and TypeScript for the interface
• Vite for frontend tooling
• Vitest for testing

Install from Source

Moqira does not currently publish signed release binaries, so the app is built from source.

macOS

Prerequisites:

• Node.js and npm
• Rust
• Xcode Command Line Tools (xcode-select --install)

Clone the repository, install dependencies, then build and install Moqira:

git clone https://github.com/downcastsystems/moqira.git
cd moqira
npm install
npm run install:app

This creates a release build and installs Moqira.app in /Applications.

Because the app is not currently signed or notarized, macOS may require you to approve it in System Settings → Privacy & Security the first time it opens.

Windows (experimental and untested)

Warning

Moqira has not been tested on Windows. The project includes Windows packaging configuration, but installation and runtime behavior may have platform-specific issues. Bug reports and contributions are welcome.

Prerequisites:

• Node.js and npm
• Rust using the MSVC toolchain
• Microsoft C++ Build Tools and WebView2, as described in the Tauri Windows prerequisites

In PowerShell:

git clone https://github.com/downcastsystems/moqira.git
cd moqira
npm install
npm run tauri -- build

When the build completes, run either the generated .msi installer from:

src-tauri\target\release\bundle\msi\

or the generated NSIS .exe installer from:

src-tauri\target\release\bundle\nsis\

Development

Install dependencies and start the native desktop app:

npm install
npm run tauri -- dev

To run only the browser-based development version:

npm run dev

Vite prints the local URL when the development server starts. Browser mode uses local storage in place of the native filesystem APIs.

Quality Checks

npm run lint
npm test
npm run build

Project Files

A Moqira project is a JSON document containing the project settings, active wireframe, and ordered canvas nodes for every wireframe:

{
  "schemaVersion": 1,
  "name": "New Project",
  "activeWireframeId": "wireframe-id",
  "appearance": {},
  "wireframes": [
    {
      "id": "wireframe-id",
      "name": "Wireframe 1",
      "nodes": []
    }
  ]
}

Canvas node order is the layer order, so later nodes render above earlier nodes.

Contributing

Moqira is young, and contributions are welcome—especially testing and fixes for Windows. If you find a bug or have an idea that fits the project's focused, local-first direction, open an issue or pull request.