overlord/Overlord-Desktop

Overlord Desktop

A native desktop (fat) client for the Overlord server, built with Tauri 2 (Rust backend + system webview).

Features

• Native desktop window with a connection screen for the operator
• Remembers your last server address across launches
• TLS toggle for connecting to HTTPS or HTTP servers
• Accepts self-signed certificates (Windows / WebView2 via --ignore-certificate-errors)
• window.open from the web UI (audio, console, Backstage, etc.) opens native popup windows that inherit the parent's session
• Cross-platform (macOS, Windows, Linux)

Prerequisites

• Rust (stable toolchain)
• Bun (to run the Tauri CLI and vendor script)
• Platform deps for Tauri — see https://tauri.app/start/prerequisites/
  • Windows: Microsoft Edge WebView2 (preinstalled on Windows 11)
  • macOS: Xcode CLT
  • Linux: webkit2gtk-4.1, libayatana-appindicator3-dev, librsvg2-dev

Quick Start

cd Overlord-Desktop
bun install
bun run vendor         # copy Inter + Font Awesome into src/vendor/
bun run start          # tauri dev

The first start will compile the Rust backend (slow on first run; cached afterwards).

Building for Distribution

Before building, generate icons from a 1024x1024 PNG (only needed once):

bun run tauri icon path/to/icon.png

Then:

bun run build:win      # Windows NSIS installer
bun run build:mac      # macOS DMG
bun run build:linux    # Linux AppImage

Or from the repo root: ./scripts/build-desktop.sh (or scripts\build-desktop.bat on Windows) picks the right target for the current OS.

Output lands in src-tauri/target/release/bundle/. The GitLab mirror's CI workflow in .gitlab/ci/desktop-release.yml builds the Windows NSIS installer on every mirrored push to main that changes the desktop application or its build inputs, and publishes it as a GitLab Release tagged Overlord-Desktop-v<version>.

Configuration

On first connect, the app saves your connection to the Tauri config dir:

• Windows: %APPDATA%\com.overlord.desktop\connection.json
• macOS: ~/Library/Application Support/com.overlord.desktop/connection.json
• Linux: ~/.config/com.overlord.desktop/connection.json

Defaults: port 5173, TLS enabled.

Notes

• Self-signed certs: handled via WebView2's --ignore-certificate-errors flag (Windows). On macOS/Linux the system webview does not currently expose an equivalent flag through Tauri's config — issue a trusted cert (e.g. mkcert / Let's Encrypt) for production use on those platforms.
• Popups: window.open calls from the web UI (audio, console, Backstage, etc.) are caught by Tauri's on_new_window handler and turned into real WebView2 popups. This is intentional — it's the only way the popup webview inherits the parent's auth cookie (which is SameSite=Strict).
• Footprint: ~10 MB installer vs. ~80 MB for an Electron equivalent.

Project Layout

Overlord-Desktop/
├── package.json              # Tauri CLI + vendor deps
├── scripts/vendor.ts         # copies Inter + Font Awesome into src/vendor/
├── src/                      # frontend (HTML/CSS/JS) — the connect screen
│   ├── index.html
│   ├── style.css
│   └── renderer.js
└── src-tauri/                # Rust backend
    ├── Cargo.toml
    ├── tauri.conf.json
    ├── capabilities/default.json
    ├── permissions/app-commands.toml
    └── src/{main,lib}.rs     # IPC commands + on_new_window popup handler