Introduction to Tauri
Tauri is a cutting-edge framework designed for creating extremely lightweight and efficient applications compatible with all major desktop operating systems. It allows developers to use any front-end framework that can compile into HTML, JavaScript, and CSS to construct their application's user interface. The application's backend is a binary written in Rust, providing an API for the front-end to interact with.
Tauri apps use tao for managing windows across macOS, Windows, Linux, Android, and iOS. Rendering the application is handled by WRY, a library that provides a consistent interface to the system's webviews, including WKWebView on macOS and iOS, WebView2 on Windows, WebKitGTK on Linux, and Android System WebView on Android.
Getting Started
For those eager to develop a Tauri app, the documentation website offers a wealth of information. The fastest path to starting a new project is to install the necessary prerequisites for your system and create a new project using create-tauri-app. This can be done using npm as follows:
npm create tauri-app@latest
Features
Tauri offers a robust set of features which include, but are not limited to:
- An integrated app bundler capable of creating application bundles in various formats such as
.app,.dmg,.deb,.rpm,.AppImage, and Windows installers like.exeand.msi. - A built-in self-updater for desktop applications.
- Support for system tray icons.
- Native notification functionality.
- Operation without the need for a localhost server.
- A GitHub action for streamlined continuous integration.
- A dedicated VS Code extension.
Supported Platforms
Tauri currently supports development and distribution on the following platforms:
- Windows – Version 7 and above.
- macOS – Version 10.15 and later.
- Linux – Requires webkit2gtk 4.0 (for Tauri v1) or 4.1 (for Tauri v2) with examples like Ubuntu 18.04 and 22.04.
- iOS/iPadOS (beta) – Version 9 and newer.
- Android (beta) – Version 7 and later.
Contributing
For those interested in contributing to Tauri, it's recommended to first check for existing issues and consult with the team on Discord to confirm that no one else is already working on a similar task. Detailed contribution guidelines are available in the Contributing Guide. Huge thanks to everyone contributing to this innovative project!
Documentation
Documentation within Tauri, a polyglot system, focuses on inline documentation within Rust and JS source codes. More information can be found in the repository for the documentation site: https://github.com/tauri-apps/tauri-docs.
Partners and Sponsors
Tauri is supported by partners like CrabNebula. For a complete list of sponsors, please visit the Tauri website and their Open Collective.
Organization
Tauri is structured as a sustainable collective focused on principles that guide sustainable free and open-source software communities. It is part of the Commons Conservancy, and financial contributions can be made via Open Collective.
Licenses
The project's code is protected under the MIT or MIT/Apache 2.0 licenses where applicable. The logo is licensed under CC-BY-NC-ND, with original designs by Alve Larsson, Daniel Thompson-Yvetot, and Guillaume Chau.
Tauri stands out as a modern, efficient solution for developing cross-platform desktop applications, providing a powerful yet lightweight alternative for developers worldwide.