Cross-platform shells
One product, three desktops, with windowing, menus, and tray behavior that match each OS where the difference is visible.
Desktop applications
Tauri
Desktop software with a web interface and a Rust core — for work that belongs on the machine, not in a browser tab.
Tauri fits products that open files, talk to local hardware, run offline, or sit in the menu bar. The interface is web technology. The privileged work — filesystem, processes, secrets, native dialogs — stays in Rust, behind an explicit command boundary.
Installers stay small because the app uses the system web view instead of shipping a private copy of Chromium. That is a trade. We test on current macOS, Windows, and Linux rather than assuming one machine represents all three.
Tauri
What the work covers
OS integration
File dialogs, drag and drop, protocol handlers, and the other moments a website cannot fake.
Secure IPC
A narrow command surface between the interface and Rust, so the web view is not handed the whole machine.
Offline work
Local data and a sync story for when the network comes back, if the product needs one.
Updates
A release path that can ship a fix without asking every customer to hunt down an installer.
Shared cores
Rust logic that the desktop app and a server can both use, when the rules must not drift.
Delivery
What you leave with
- Installable builds for the desktops you support
- A command boundary between UI and native code
- Signing and update notes for the release you asked us to cut
- A list of OS behavior we tested, and the versions we did not
Fit
Choose this when
- People do the work on a computer, with local files or devices.
- A browser tab would drop the OS features the product depends on.
- You want a smaller desktop runtime than an Electron bundle.
Neighbors
When another practice fits better
These are the switches we recommend in scoping, not a disclaimer.
TypeScript
A URL is the product, and desktop install is not.
Expo
The same job needs to happen on a phone.
Native apps
You need a first-party mobile client more than a desktop shell.
Continue
Related practices
- RustServices, tools, and cores where correctness, speed, and a small memory footprint are the product.
- TypeScriptWeb platforms, APIs, and product UI in one typed language from the database boundary to the browser.
- Flutter & DartOne Dart codebase for mobile, and desktop when the product should match, with an interface that does not borrow system widgets.
Have a product in mind? Let’s scope it.
Get in touch
Tauri is a starting point. Bring the constraint that matters more.
Start an engineering conversation
Tell us what you are building, what already exists, and which surface matters first. We will reply with a point of view.