Development workflow

The day-to-day cycle for Tauri contributors. Everything below assumes you've followed Getting started.

Pick a target

Most issues touch one of these areas. Choosing the right starting point saves a lot of time.

Affected area	Where to edit	Quickest way to validate
Rust runtime / app builder	crates/tauri/src/	cargo run --example helloworld --manifest-path crates/tauri/Cargo.toml
Window/webview behaviour, event loop	crates/tauri-runtime-wry/src/lib.rs	cargo run --example multiwindow --manifest-path crates/tauri/Cargo.toml --features unstable
Configuration schema (tauri.conf.json)	crates/tauri-utils/src/config.rs	cargo run -p tauri-schema-generator then check the diff
ACL types (capabilities, permissions)	crates/tauri-utils/src/acl/	cargo test -p tauri-utils
Macros (#[command], generate_handler!)	crates/tauri-macros/src/	cargo test -p tauri --features compression
CLI subcommand (build/dev/init/…)	crates/tauri-cli/src/<subcmd>/	cargo run -p tauri-cli -- <subcmd> --help
Bundler (DMG/AppImage/MSI/NSIS)	crates/tauri-bundler/src/bundle/	Run the bundler against examples/api
JS API	packages/api/src/	pnpm build:api && pnpm example:api:dev
Node CLI wrapper	packages/cli/	pnpm build:cli && node packages/cli/main.js --help
Mobile (Android / iOS)	crates/tauri/mobile/, crates/tauri-cli/src/mobile/	cargo run -p tauri-cli -- android init against an example

Edit, run, repeat

1. Branch off dev. The default branch for contributions is dev, not main.
2. Edit. Use a downstream app or one of the examples/ to exercise your change. The examples crate-set automatically picks up the local Tauri sources because of the [patch.crates-io] block in the workspace Cargo.toml.
3. Format and lint locally before pushing:

   cargo fmt --all
   cargo clippy --workspace --all-targets -- -D warnings
   pnpm format
   pnpm eslint:check
   pnpm ts:check

4. Run tests for the crate(s) you touched:

   cargo test -p tauri --all-features
   cargo test -p tauri-utils
   pnpm test

5. Re-generate schema files if you changed config or ACL types:

   cargo run -p tauri-schema-generator

   CI's check-generated-files.yml will fail if you skip this.
6. Add a change file under .changes/. See Tooling — covector.
7. Push and open a PR against dev. The PR template lives at .github/PULL_REQUEST_TEMPLATE.md.

Pointing a downstream app at your local checkout

To exercise changes against a real app:

# in your-app/src-tauri/Cargo.toml
[dependencies]
tauri = { path = "/abs/path/to/tauri/crates/tauri" }
[build-dependencies]
tauri-build = { path = "/abs/path/to/tauri/crates/tauri-build" }

If you also need the CLI from this checkout:

cargo install --path crates/tauri-cli --debug    # --debug speeds up subsequent installs

Then cargo tauri dev in your app will run your local CLI which links against the local runtime.

Working on the Node CLI

@tauri-apps/cli is a napi-rs addon over crates/tauri-cli. The TypeScript definitions in packages/cli/index.d.ts are generated by napi-rs; the JS shim in packages/cli/main.js wraps the addon. To rebuild after a change:

pnpm build:cli         # release build
pnpm build:cli:debug   # faster

Then point a downstream app's package.json at the local checkout (e.g. via pnpm link).

Working on the JS API

The API is built with Rollup. Edit packages/api/src/*.ts, then pnpm build:api. The built artefacts go to packages/api/dist/. For interactive testing, pnpm example:api:dev runs the examples/api app, which depends on the local API package via the workspace.

Submitting a security issue

Do not open a public issue or PR. Use GitHub's Private Vulnerability Disclosure on the repo's "Security" tab. See SECURITY.md for the full policy.