drift — download manager

A fast, modern download manager built with Tauri 2, React 19 and TypeScript. Segmented multi-connection downloads, pause/resume, speed limits, clipboard URL detection, dark/light themes and English/Persian (RTL) interface.

Development

bun install
bun run tauri dev      # or: bun run dev for the web UI only

The frontend runs on http://localhost:1420 (Vite). The Rust backend lives in src-tauri/.

Features

• Segmented downloads (up to 8 parallel connections for files > 16 MB, with automatic fallback for servers without range support)
• Pause / resume / cancel, with state restored on restart
• Per-download and global speed limits
• Auto-retry with exponential backoff
• Clipboard URL detection, batch downloads (one URL per line), drift:// deep links
• Native notifications, tray support (close-to-tray), queue reordering
• Browser extension (Chrome + Firefox) — drift companion hands downloads to drift automatically when drift is installed, or downloads in the browser with a subtle install suggestion when it isn't (see extension/).
• English and Persian (فارسی) UI — switch in Settings → Appearance → Language. Persian mode enables RTL layout, the Vazirmatn font and Persian digits.
• In-app updates — Settings → Updates, plus a silent check on launch.

Browser extension (extension/)

A single Manifest V3 codebase for Chrome and Firefox that behaves like IDM's extension. See extension/README.md for details.

How it works:

1. On first run, drift registers a native messaging host (drift-host, a tiny relay) with Chrome and Firefox — Settings → Browser integration shows the status. Firefox is allowed automatically; Chrome needs your extension ID pasted once (open chrome://extensions, copy the ID, paste it into drift's settings, restart the browser).
2. The extension pings the host to detect drift. If drift is installed, every http(s) download is handed over automatically (the browser copy is cancelled once drift picks it up); right-click → Download link/page with drift also works.
3. If drift isn't installed, browser downloads proceed untouched and the extension only shows a small toolbar badge + an install button in its popup, at most once a day.

Development:

bun extension/icons/generate.mjs   # one-time icon generation
# Chrome: chrome://extensions → Load unpacked → extension/
# Firefox: about:debugging → Load Temporary Add-on → extension/manifest.json

Releasing a new version (in-app updates)

Users update drift from inside the app (Settings → Updates) — no uninstall/reinstall.

One-time setup

1. Signing keys (already generated in .keys/):
   • .keys/drift.key — your private key. Back it up, never commit it.
   • .keys/drift.key.pub — the public key, already embedded in src-tauri/tauri.conf.json → plugins.updater.pubkey.
2. GitHub repo: already configured — the app fetches updates from https://github.com/sajjadbzrn/drift/releases/latest/download/latest.json (make sure the repo stays public; private repos can't serve update files to users without authentication).
3. Secret: add your private key as a repo secret named TAURI_SIGNING_PRIVATE_KEY.
   • Web UI: GitHub → repo → Settings → Secrets and variables → Actions → New repository secret → name TAURI_SIGNING_PRIVATE_KEY, value = the whole contents of .keys/drift.key.
   • Or CLI: gh secret set TAURI_SIGNING_PRIVATE_KEY < .keys/drift.key

Every release

bun scripts/bump-version.mjs 0.2.0   # bumps package.json, tauri.conf.json, Cargo.toml
git add -A && git commit -m "Release v0.2.0"
git tag v0.2.0 && git push && git push --tags

The GitHub Actions workflow (.github/workflows/release.yml) then builds the native messaging host (bun scripts/build-host.mjs), builds the NSIS installer, signs it, generates latest.json and uploads everything to the release. Users see "Update v0.2.0 is available" and update in place.

Manual release (no GitHub Actions)

bun scripts/build-host.mjs                   # build + place drift-host for the bundle
bun run tauri build --bundles nsis            # needs TAURI_SIGNING_PRIVATE_KEY set
bun scripts/make-update-json.mjs --version 0.2.0 --owner <owner> --repo <repo>

Then upload *-setup.exe, *.exe.sig and latest.json to a GitHub Release (or any host matching the endpoint URL in tauri.conf.json).

Note: the updater is only active in release builds — in tauri dev the update check is skipped. NSIS installs with installMode: currentUser, so updates replace the app in place and preserve your settings/downloads.