tauri-apps/tauri
Glossary
Project-specific terms used throughout the Tauri codebase.
| Term | Meaning |
|---|---|
| App | The Rust struct returned by tauri::Builder::build. Represents a constructed but not-yet-running Tauri application. See crates/tauri/src/app.rs. |
| AppHandle | A cheap, cloneable, Send/Sync handle to the running app, used from commands and plugin code to access state and dispatch to the runtime. |
| Runtime | The trait tauri_runtime::Runtime that abstracts windowing/webview backends. The default impl is tauri-runtime-wry. See crates/tauri-runtime/src/lib.rs. |
| Manager | The internal singleton that tracks all windows and webviews and routes IPC. See crates/tauri/src/manager/mod.rs. |
| Webview / WebviewWindow | A WRY-backed webview attached to a TAO window. WebviewWindow is the common shorthand: a window that contains exactly one webview. See crates/tauri/src/webview/. |
| Wry | Tauri's default rendering layer (tauri-apps/wry). Wraps the platform's native webview (WKWebView/WebView2/WebKitGTK). |
| Tao | Tauri's default windowing layer (tauri-apps/tao), a fork of winit extended with menu and tray support. |
| Command | A Rust function annotated with #[tauri::command] and registered via generate_handler!, callable from JS via invoke(). Defined in crates/tauri-macros and dispatched in crates/tauri/src/ipc/. |
| Capability | A JSON document (under src-tauri/capabilities/) that grants a set of permissions to an identified set of webviews. Type lives in crates/tauri-utils/src/acl/capability.rs. |
| Permission | A named ACL entry that allows or denies one or more commands and constrains command arguments through scopes. Lives next to each plugin under permissions/. Type in crates/tauri-utils/src/acl/. |
| Scope | The allow/deny data inside a permission. Plugins parse scope into Rust types (e.g. fs allow-paths). See crates/tauri/src/scope/. |
| ACL | Access-Control List. The umbrella term for the capability/permission/scope system. Resolved at compile time by tauri-build into a Resolved struct. |
| Plugin | A reusable bundle of Rust code, JS code, and ACL files that extends a Tauri app. Built with tauri-plugin. See crates/tauri/src/plugin.rs and crates/tauri-plugin/. |
| Context | A type generated by tauri-codegen at compile time that bundles the parsed tauri.conf.json, the embedded frontend assets, and the resolved ACL. Passed to Builder::build. |
| Isolation pattern | A security mode where the WebView's IPC payloads are routed through an iframe that cryptographically wraps them. Enabled when tauri.conf.json security.pattern.use = "isolation". See crates/tauri/src/pattern.rs. |
| Custom protocol | A Tauri-registered URI scheme (e.g. tauri://, asset://) that the WebView uses instead of http(s)://localhost. Registered in crates/tauri-runtime-wry. |
| Asset protocol | A specific custom protocol (asset://) gated by the protocol-asset Cargo feature, used to expose filesystem files to the webview. See crates/tauri/src/protocol/asset.rs. |
| Tray icon | Desktop-only system tray support backed by the upstream tray-icon crate. Code under crates/tauri/src/tray/. |
| Menu | Desktop menus (menu bar, context menus, tray menus) backed by the upstream muda crate. Code under crates/tauri/src/menu/. |
| Bundler | The component that turns a Cargo-produced binary into installers (DMG, AppImage, MSI, NSIS, …). See crates/tauri-bundler/. |
| Updater bundle | A signed archive produced by the bundler that the runtime updater can verify and apply. See crates/tauri-bundler/src/bundle/updater_bundle.rs. |
| Channel | A long-lived IPC stream for sending many messages from Rust to JS, e.g. for download progress. See crates/tauri/src/ipc/channel.rs. |
| Resource | A handle to a Rust-owned resource (file handle, db connection, …) that JS holds via a ResourceId. See crates/tauri/src/resources/. |
| Pattern | One of brownfield (default) or isolation. Set in tauri.conf.json#app.security.pattern. Wired in crates/tauri-codegen and enforced at runtime. |
| Covector | The release tooling (.changes/*.md change files) used to bump versions and write changelogs. See .changes/README.md. |
| napi-rs | The Rust ↔ Node addon framework used by packages/cli to expose tauri-cli to JavaScript. |
| brownfield pattern | Default pattern: WebView talks directly to the Tauri IPC channel. The "non-isolation" mode. |
| TAURI_ env vars | All Tauri environment variables are prefixed TAURI_. The CLI documents its own under crates/tauri-cli/ENVIRONMENT_VARIABLES.md. |
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