Building Gnomad Webcanvas for macOS, Linux, and Windows

Prerequisites (all platforms)

Node.js LTS (22 recommended)
Rust stable (rustup)
Platform SDKs for the OS you are building on (cross-compiling is possible but not covered here)

cd 05_apps_and_extensions/gnomad-preview
npm install
npm run build

Tauri v2 prerequisites — install WebView2 (Windows), Xcode CLT (macOS), webkit2gtk (Linux).

Development

# Web only (browser at http://localhost:5173)
npm run dev

# Desktop (Vite + Tauri shell)
npm run tauri:dev

# Unit tests (Vitest — 19 tests)
npm run test
npm run test:watch   # watch mode

Production build

npm run tauri:build

Output under src-tauri/target/release/bundle/:

Platform	Artifacts
macOS	`.app`, `.dmg`
Windows	`.msi`, `.exe` (NSIS)
Linux	`.deb`, `.rpm`, AppImage

Build on the target OS for best results. CI (.github/workflows/release.yml) builds all three on tagged releases.

macOS

npm run tauri:build

Output: src-tauri/target/release/bundle/macos/Gnomad Webcanvas.app

Window title reflects open filename and dirty state
Open/Save use native AppKit dialogs
Notarization: Not yet configured in CI — see future MACOS_NOTARIZATION.md

Linux

Install dependencies first (Ubuntu/Debian):

sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install -y \
  libwebkit2gtk-4.1-dev libappindicator3-dev librsvg2-dev patchelf

Then:

npm run tauri:build

Output under src-tauri/target/release/bundle/:

.deb — Debian, Ubuntu, Mint
.rpm — Fedora, RHEL, openSUSE
AppImage — distro-agnostic

Windows

Build on Windows with WebView2 runtime installed:

npm run tauri:build

Output: .msi and/or NSIS .exe under src-tauri/target/release/bundle/

CI release builds

Tagged pushes (v*) trigger .github/workflows/release.yml:

Runner	Target
`macos-latest`	`aarch64-apple-darwin`
`ubuntu-latest`	`x86_64-unknown-linux-gnu`
`windows-latest`	`x86_64-pc-windows-msvc`

Releases are created as drafts — publish manually after QA.

See RELEASE_RUNBOOK.md.

Verification after build

npm run lint
npm run test
npx tsc -b --noEmit
npm run build

Before tagging: walk QA_CHECKLIST.md on at least one platform.

Cross-platform parity

The same React bundle ships in web and desktop builds. Platform differences:

Feature	Web	Desktop
Open/Save file	—	Native dialogs
Project persistence	localStorage	File + localStorage
Export ZIP	✓	✓
Share URL	✓	✓
Window title dirty state	—	✓

Use CROSS_PLATFORM_CHECKLIST.md when adding OS-facing features.

Built with ❤️ by Gnomad Studio 🦙