Migrate from Tauri to Electron by richiemcilroy · Pull Request #2119 · CapSoftware/Cap

richiemcilroy · 2026-08-12T23:47:20Z

I wanted to see what a migration from Tauri to Electron would look like for Cap. We regularly receive bug reports caused by differences between the browser versions available across OS releases. Electron ships a stable Chromium runtime, giving Cap consistent browser behavior across supported versions.

This keeps the existing Rust backend and UI, replacing the Tauri runtime and bridge with Electron equivalents. Packaging and release workflows have been updated to match.

Validation: Rust checks, clippy and 141 tests; desktop typecheck and Biome; production renderer and Electron builds; unsigned macOS packaging.

Greptile Summary

The PR replaces the Tauri desktop runtime and packaging pipeline with Electron while retaining the Rust backend and existing renderer.

Adds an Electron main process, preload bridge, native-operation adapters, and Rust IPC transport.
Reworks desktop builds, signing, updater metadata, and GitHub release staging/promotion.
Updates frontend integrations and shared Rust crates for the new runtime.

Confidence Score: 5/5

The PR appears safe to merge with respect to the eligible follow-up findings.

The current workflow stages artifacts under SHA-specific tags, serializes releases by channel and version, validates the complete assembled asset set, re-fetches draft state immediately before promotion, and creates the final tag only after successful builds, so no previously reported blocking release failure remains.

Important Files Changed

Filename	Overview
.github/workflows/desktop-release.yml	Rebuilds release creation around immutable staging drafts, centralized asset assembly, serialized version releases, and guarded final promotion; the previously reported release races and stranded-tag paths are no longer present.
apps/desktop/electron/main.cjs	Introduces Electron application startup, protocol registration, navigation restrictions, backend wiring, and lifecycle management.
apps/desktop/electron/backend.cjs	Implements the loopback transport between Electron and the retained Rust backend.
apps/desktop/electron/native.cjs	Implements the Electron-side native operations previously supplied through Tauri plugins.
crates/desktop-runtime/src/transport.rs	Adds the framed Rust transport and handshake used to communicate with Electron.
apps/desktop/electron-builder.yml	Defines Electron packaging, platform targets, bundled resources, and updater artifact generation.

_{Reviews (16): Last reviewed commit: "fix: validate release policy without adm..." | Re-trigger Greptile}

cursor · 2026-08-12T23:47:47Z

Bugbot is not enabled for your account, so this pull request was not reviewed.

Enable Bugbot in the Cursor dashboard to get automatic reviews on future PRs.

socket-security · 2026-08-12T23:48:44Z

Warning

Review the following alerts detected in dependencies.

According to your organization's Security Policy, it is recommended to resolve "Warn" alerts. Learn more about Socket for GitHub.

Action	Severity	Alert (click "▶" to expand/collapse)
Warn		Critical CVE: npm `shell-quote` quote() does not escape newlines in object .op values CVE: GHSA-w7jw-789q-3m8p shell-quote quote() does not escape newlines in object .op values (CRITICAL) Affected versions: >= 1.1.0 < 1.8.4 Patched version: 1.8.4 From: pnpm-lock.yaml → `npm/concurrently@9.2.1` → `npm/shell-quote@1.8.3` ℹ Read more on: This package \| This alert \| What is a critical CVE? Next steps: Take a moment to review the security alert above. Review the linked package source code to understand the potential risk. Ensure the package is not malicious before proceeding. If you're unsure how to proceed, reach out to your security team or ask the Socket team for help at `support@socket.dev`. Suggestion: Remove or replace dependencies that include known critical CVEs. Consumers can use dependency overrides or npm audit fix --force to remove vulnerable dependencies. Mark the package as acceptable risk. To ignore this alert only in this pull request, reply with the comment `@SocketSecurity ignore npm/shell-quote@1.8.3`. You can also ignore all packages with `@SocketSecurity ignore-all`. To ignore an alert for all future pull requests, use Socket's Dashboard to change the triage state of this alert.
Warn		Obfuscated code: npm `electron-winstaller` is 90.0% likely obfuscated Confidence: 0.90 Location: Package overview From: pnpm-lock.yaml → `npm/electron-builder@26.15.3` → `npm/electron-winstaller@5.4.0` ℹ Read more on: This package \| This alert \| What is obfuscated code? Next steps: Take a moment to review the security alert above. Review the linked package source code to understand the potential risk. Ensure the package is not malicious before proceeding. If you're unsure how to proceed, reach out to your security team or ask the Socket team for help at `support@socket.dev`. Suggestion: Packages should not obfuscate their code. Consider not using packages with obfuscated code. Mark the package as acceptable risk. To ignore this alert only in this pull request, reply with the comment `@SocketSecurity ignore npm/electron-winstaller@5.4.0`. You can also ignore all packages with `@SocketSecurity ignore-all`. To ignore an alert for all future pull requests, use Socket's Dashboard to change the triage state of this alert.
Warn		Obfuscated code: npm `tiny-async-pool` is 90.0% likely obfuscated Confidence: 0.90 Location: Package overview From: pnpm-lock.yaml → `npm/electron-builder@26.15.3` → `npm/tiny-async-pool@1.3.0` ℹ Read more on: This package \| This alert \| What is obfuscated code? Next steps: Take a moment to review the security alert above. Review the linked package source code to understand the potential risk. Ensure the package is not malicious before proceeding. If you're unsure how to proceed, reach out to your security team or ask the Socket team for help at `support@socket.dev`. Suggestion: Packages should not obfuscate their code. Consider not using packages with obfuscated code. Mark the package as acceptable risk. To ignore this alert only in this pull request, reply with the comment `@SocketSecurity ignore npm/tiny-async-pool@1.3.0`. You can also ignore all packages with `@SocketSecurity ignore-all`. To ignore an alert for all future pull requests, use Socket's Dashboard to change the triage state of this alert.

View full report

richiemcilroy · 2026-08-12T23:50:25Z

hey @greptile-apps please review the PR

richiemcilroy · 2026-08-13T00:09:43Z