Build from source#

A development build runs against a checkout of the ThinkWatch Lite repository. To install the released app instead, see Install and update.

Run#

On Linux, install the WebKitGTK, AppIndicator and D-Bus development packages first. On Ubuntu or Debian:

sudo apt install libwebkit2gtk-4.1-dev build-essential curl wget file libxdo-dev \
  libssl-dev libayatana-appindicator3-dev librsvg2-dev dbus

pnpm install
bash src-tauri/scripts/fetch-core.sh
pnpm tauri dev

fetch-core.sh downloads the twcore release that Cargo.lock pins, checks its sha256 and places it in src-tauri/resources/. Every build needs that file, pnpm tauri dev included, because Tauri checks at compile time that the resources the app declares exist; the development build then runs that copy of twcore. A development build never updates itself.

Build a bundle#

pnpm tauri build

On macOS this produces a self-contained .app; on Windows, an NSIS installer; on Linux, an AppImage. The build runs fetch-core.sh itself, so the twcore inside the bundle is always a checksum-verified ThinkWatch Core release rather than a local build, and which build was distributed is determined by that release and not by the state of a working copy. The release is the tag that Cargo.lock resolved for tw-api, so the protocol mirror compiled into the app and the binary shipped beside it always come from one Core commit.

The macOS bundle is neither signed by a registered Apple developer nor notarized, and it is built for Apple silicon only. The Windows installer is not code-signed.

Platforms#

Releases are built for macOS on Apple silicon, for Windows on x64 and ARM64, and for Linux on x86_64 and aarch64.

Next steps#

• Architecture: the structure of the app and how it communicates with Core.
• Contributing: the checks required before opening a pull request.