Platform · desktopComing soon

Desktop

Windows, macOS and Linux in an Electron shell. Chromium ships with the app, so it looks and behaves the same on every machine.

Windows
macOS
Linux

Not on npm yet. @kitr/desktop is held back from the first release while it gets the same polish as the rest. It works from the repository today, and this page describes how it will ship.

Read the desktop guide What works here

Built onelectron-viteelectron-builder

// platforms/app/ipc.ts
export type Ipc = {
  'app.version': () => string
  'dialog.openFile': () => string | null
}

// app/ipc.ts
import { createIpcClient } from 'kitr/desktop/client'
export const ipc = createIpcClient<Ipc>()

const version = await ipc.invoke('app.version')

Your app, in a window

The same app/ folder runs in the shell. The main and preload processes live in platforms/app/, and electron-builder packages the installers.

Typed IPC

One schema in platforms/app/ipc.ts: handleIpc() implements it in main and createIpcClient() calls it from your components, typed both ways.

Storage that lives on disk

Storage items write to kitr-storage.json in the app data folder instead of localStorage. Your code does not change.

The recommended desktop shell

What you test is what every user runs. Pick Tauri instead when download size matters more than identical rendering.

Same commands as every platform

Every platform answers to kitr dev, kitr build and kitr start, by the name you gave it. Leave the name off to run them all.

kitr dev app: the Electron window, loading Vite on port 3200
kitr build app: electron-vite builds main, preload and the app
kitr start app: opens the built app

Electron or Tauri?

Both run the same app/ and register the same platform and storage drivers, so switching is one line in kitrrc.ts. A project keeps one of the two. Electron is the default we recommend.

See Tauri →

	Electron	Tauri
Ships with	Its own Chromium	The OS webview
Installer size	Larger (a browser inside)	Small
Rendering	Identical on every OS	Can differ between OSes
Native side	Node, over typed IPC	Rust commands and events
Build needs	Node only	The Rust toolchain