annessaia

A sandboxed WASM app runtime with its own UI toolkit — apps are compiled Rust, not HTML/JS, run by a native desktop host (annessaia) through a small widget/GPU API. Apps are hosted on nodes: lightweight servers (annessaia-server) that index, gossip, and serve apps to each other and to the desktop host, forming a small decentralized-ish app registry rather than depending on one central store.

┌─────────────┐   fetches .wasm   ┌──────────────────┐   gossips over WS   ┌──────────────────┐
│  annessaia   │ ────────────────▶│  annessaia-server │◀───────────────────▶│  annessaia-server │
│ (desktop app)│                  │      (a node)     │                      │   (another node)  │
└─────────────┘                  └──────────────────┘                      └──────────────────┘

Quickstart

Requires a recent Rust toolchain (rustup.rs).

git clone <this repo>
cd annessaia
./build.sh                       # builds every example WASM app into dist/

Then, in two terminals:

# Terminal 1 — run a node (serves apps, indexes/search, gossip)
cargo run -p annessaia-server

# Terminal 2 — run the desktop app
cargo run -p annessaia --release

The desktop app opens to a hosted public search/registry by default. Paste one of these into its address bar to try the bundled examples against your own local node instead:

http://localhost:3000/nova.wasm       NOVA — mouse-only survival game
http://localhost:3000/search.wasm     the app registry: search + submit
http://localhost:3000/admin.wasm      node admin: password-protected
http://localhost:3000/gpu.wasm        low-level GPU-primitive demo
http://localhost:3000/pixel.wasm      pixel-art paint tool
http://localhost:3000/widgets.wasm    live reference for every SDK widget

The first time annessaia or annessaia-server runs, it downloads a small on-device embedding model (~1.3GB) so search can rank by meaning, not just keywords. This is entirely optional:

• the desktop app asks once, on first launch, whether to enable it — change your mind later from the toggle in its nav bar
• a node operator controls it server-wide from the admin panel (see below), or by building with --no-default-features to drop the dependency (fastembed) entirely

Writing your own app

cargo run -p annessaia-cli -- new my-app
cd my-app
cargo run -p annessaia-cli -- build       # → my-app.wasmh

(Or install the CLI once with cargo install --path tools/annessaia and use annessaia new/annessaia build directly.)

An app is just a #[no_mangle] pub extern "C" fn render() (or render_gpu() / render_pixels(w, h) for lower-level drawing) built against annessaia_sdk:

use annessaia_sdk::prelude::*;

#[no_mangle]
pub extern "C" fn render() {
    heading("Hello, annessaia!");
    label("A WASM app written in Rust.");
    if button("Click me") {
        // ...
    }
}

apps/widgets is a live reference for every widget the SDK offers, each paired with the exact call that produced it — open it in the desktop app and read the source side by side. The other apps/* crates are worked examples at increasing complexity: apps/calculator (basic layout + state), apps/keys (the full input API), apps/gpu/apps/pixel (drawing below the widget layer), apps/nova (a small real-time game), apps/search and apps/admin (talking to a node's HTTP API).

Running your own node

cargo run -p annessaia-server

Configuration is via environment variables:

Variable	Meaning	Default
PORT	port to listen on	3000
ANNESSAIA_URL	this node's own public base URL	http://localhost:$PORT
ANNESSAIA_DATA	where to persist state	./data
ANNESSAIA_PEERS	comma-separated peer URLs to gossip with	(none)
ANNESSAIA_DIRECTORY	bootstrap directory, for discovering peers	the public bootstrap Worker

Open http://localhost:$PORT/admin.wasm in the desktop app to manage the node — apps, peers, and the public directory listing. The admin panel is password-protected: the first time you open it, it asks you to set a password (bcrypt-hashed on disk, never stored in plaintext); every launch after that asks you to log in, even if the server itself never restarted. From the dashboard you can also flip AI-powered search on or off for every user of that node.

Layout

annessaia/        desktop host — the WASM runtime + native UI (egui/wgpu)
sdk/               annessaia_sdk — the guest-side API apps are written against
apps/              example apps (see "Writing your own app" above)
server/            annessaia-server — a node: registry, search, gossip, admin API
tools/annessaia    CLI: scaffold a new app, build a .wasm/.wasmh
directory/         the public bootstrap directory (Cloudflare Worker), for
                   nodes to discover their first peer