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Build from Source

Smriti builds natively on Linux, Windows, and macOS.

Prerequisites

Linux

  • Rust toolchain (stable, MSRV 1.88+) via rustup
  • Node 20.19+ and npm (the frontend is Vite 8 + Svelte 5)
  • Tauri build deps. On Ubuntu/Debian:
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install -y \
  libwebkit2gtk-4.1-dev \
  libgtk-3-dev \
  libayatana-appindicator3-dev \
  librsvg2-dev \
  libsoup-3.0-dev \
  libjavascriptcoregtk-4.1-dev \
  pkg-config \
  libheif-dev          # only if you want HEIC decoding

Windows

  • Rust toolchain via rustup
  • Node 20.19+ via the official installer or winget install OpenJS.NodeJS
  • Visual Studio Build Tools (Desktop development with C++) — provides the MSVC linker that cargo build and Tauri’s bundler both need.
  • WebView2 Runtime — preinstalled on Windows 11; auto-downloaded by Tauri on Windows 10 if missing.

macOS

  • Xcode command line tools (xcode-select --install)
  • Rust toolchain via rustup
  • Node 20.19+ via Homebrew (brew install node) or the official installer

One-time tooling

cargo install tauri-cli --version "^2" --locked

Smriti now ships a small core application. Face recognition and offline geocoding use an optional asset pack (ONNX runtime + models + geonames DB) that can be installed in-app with one click.

Manual setup scripts are still available:

Linux/macOS:

./scripts/setup_assets.sh

Windows PowerShell:

powershell -ExecutionPolicy Bypass -File scripts\setup_assets.ps1

Both scripts are idempotent and useful for local development/testing.

Build and run

Smriti is a Tauri 2 app: the Rust engine + Tauri shell live in src/ and src-tauri/, the Svelte 5 frontend lives in src-ui/. The cargo tauri CLI orchestrates both halves.

Dev mode (hot reload via Vite, opens a native window):

cd src-ui && npm install && cd ..   # one-time
./scripts/dev.sh                    # Linux / macOS
# .\scripts\dev.ps1                 # Windows PowerShell

Production bundle (.deb + AppImage on Linux, .msi on Windows, .dmg / tar.gz on macOS):

cargo tauri build

Engine-only build (useful when iterating on src/ without a window):

cargo build -p smriti -p smriti-tauri

Test and lint

cargo fmt --check
cargo clippy --all-targets -p smriti -p smriti-tauri -- -D warnings
cargo test -p smriti -p smriti-tauri
(cd src-ui && npm run check && npm run build)

Linux packaging (.deb + AppImage)

The official path is cargo tauri build — it produces both .deb and AppImage in target/release/bundle/. Tag-driven CI (.github/workflows/release.yml) runs the same command on a fresh Ubuntu runner for every v* tag.

For a local .deb build through the same Tauri path as CI:

./scripts/release_local.sh ubuntu

Output:

  • target/release/bundle/deb/*.deb

Install test:

sudo dpkg -i target/release/bundle/deb/*.deb
smriti-tauri

Uninstall test:

sudo apt remove smriti

Linux AppImage

AppImage is built in CI from release tags (v*) via .github/workflows/release.yml. Output directory:

  • target/release/bundle/appimage/

Run:

chmod +x target/release/bundle/appimage/*.AppImage
target/release/bundle/appimage/*.AppImage

Windows packaging (MSI + ZIP)

MSI packaging should run on native Windows with the MSVC build tools.

Prerequisites

  • Tauri CLI:
cargo install tauri-cli --version "^2" --locked

Build MSI installer

From repository root:

cd src-tauri
cargo tauri build --ci --bundles msi

Output:

  • target\release\bundle\msi\*.msi

MSI installs the core app. Optional assets are installed separately.

Troubleshooting

  • Optional assets not detected: install via startup prompt, or run setup script and restart app.
  • GUI linking errors on Linux: install missing Wayland/X11 dev packages listed above.
  • Slow Windows builds on UNC path: expected; primary development should happen in WSL.

Local installer verification scripts

Linux/macOS shell:

./scripts/verify_installers_local.sh

Windows PowerShell:

powershell -ExecutionPolicy Bypass -File scripts\release_local.ps1 -Mode full

These scripts summarize installer packaging status locally before you create release tags.

Mandatory push gate before any git push:

cargo fmt --all --check
cargo clippy --all-targets
cargo test --no-run

Automated release orchestration (draft-only publish flow)

From Windows PowerShell, once local checks are green:

powershell -ExecutionPolicy Bypass -File scripts\release_publish.ps1 -Version v0.1.0-rc3 -RunLocalChecks -Wait

Behavior:

  • validates repo state and branch sync
  • optionally runs local verification first
  • creates and pushes the release tag
  • waits for release.yml workflow
  • verifies expected assets in the GitHub draft release
  • prints draft release URL for manual publish

By design, this script does not auto-publish the release.

Asset installer URL behavior

In-app optional asset installation resolves in this order:

  1. SMRITI_ASSET_PACK_PATH (local zip path override; legacy PHOTOVAULT_ASSET_PACK_PATH is also accepted)
  2. SMRITI_ASSET_PACK_URL (custom URL override; legacy PHOTOVAULT_ASSET_PACK_URL is also accepted)
  3. version-pinned release URL (.../releases/download/v<app-version>/Smriti-Assets.zip)
  4. latest published release fallback (.../releases/latest/download/Smriti-Assets.zip)

If you are testing locally before publishing a release, set SMRITI_ASSET_PACK_PATH.