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Architecture Guide

High-level architectural overview and mental models for this app.

Philosophy

  1. Clarity over Cleverness - Predictable patterns over magic
  2. AI-Friendly Architecture - Clear patterns that AI agents can follow
  3. Performance by Design - Patterns that prevent common performance pitfalls
  4. Security First - Built-in security patterns for file system operations
  5. Extensible Foundation - Easy to add new features without refactoring

Mental Models

The "Onion" State Architecture

State management follows a three-layer hierarchy:

┌─────────────────────────────────────┐
│           useState                  │  ← Component UI State
│  ┌─────────────────────────────────┐│
│  │          Zustand                ││  ← Global UI State
│  │  ┌─────────────────────────────┐││
│  │  │      TanStack Query         │││  ← Persistent Data
│  │  └─────────────────────────────┘││
│  └─────────────────────────────────┘│
└─────────────────────────────────────┘

Decision Tree:

Is this data needed across multiple components?
├─ No → useState
└─ Yes → Does this data persist between app sessions?
    ├─ No → Zustand
    └─ Yes → TanStack Query

See state-management.md for implementation details.

Event-Driven Bridge

Rust and React communicate through events for loose coupling:

Rust Menu Click → Event Emission → React Listener → Command Execution → State Update
Keyboard Shortcut → Event Handler → Command Execution → State Update
Command Palette → Command Selection → Command Execution → State Update

This ensures the same actions work consistently across all interaction methods.

Command-Centric Design

All user actions flow through a centralized command system:

  • Commands are pure objects with execute() functions
  • Context provides all state and actions commands need
  • Registration merges commands from different domains at runtime

This decouples UI triggers from implementations and enables consistent behavior.

Pattern Dependencies

Understanding how patterns work together:

Command System
├── Depends on: State Management (context)
├── Integrates with: Keyboard Shortcuts, Menus
└── Enables: Consistent behavior across UI

State Management
├── Enables: Performance (getState pattern)
├── Supports: Data Persistence, UI State
└── Foundation for: All other systems

Event-Driven Bridge
├── Enables: Rust-React communication
├── Supports: Security (validation in Rust)
└── Foundation for: Menus, Updates, Notifications

Core Systems

System Documentation
Command System command-system.md
Keyboard Shortcuts keyboard-shortcuts.md
Native Menus menus.md
Quick Panes quick-panes.md
Data Persistence data-persistence.md
Internationalization i18n-patterns.md
Cross-Platform cross-platform.md

Component Hierarchy

MainWindow (Top-level orchestrator)
├── TitleBar (Window controls + toolbar)
├── LeftSidebar (Collapsible panel)
├── MainWindowContent (Primary content area)
├── RightSidebar (Collapsible panel)
└── Global Overlays
    ├── PreferencesDialog (Settings)
    ├── CommandPalette (Cmd+K)
    └── Toaster (Notifications)

File Organization

locales/                  # Translation JSON files
src/
├── components/
│   ├── layout/          # Layout components (MainWindow, sidebars)
│   ├── command-palette/ # Command palette system
│   ├── preferences/     # Preferences dialog system
│   └── ui/              # Shadcn UI components
├── hooks/               # Custom React hooks
├── i18n/                # Internationalization config
├── lib/
│   ├── commands/        # Command system implementation
│   └── menu.ts          # Native menu builder with i18n
├── services/            # TanStack Query + Tauri integration
├── store/               # Zustand stores
└── types/               # Shared TypeScript types

Multi-Window Architecture

Tauri applications can have multiple windows, each running a separate JavaScript context. Windows cannot share React state directly.

Key patterns:

  1. Separate entry points - Each window has its own HTML file and React root
  2. Event-based communication - Use Tauri events to communicate between windows
  3. Window reuse - Create windows once at startup, then show/hide as needed
  4. Theme synchronization - Emit theme changes so all windows stay in sync
// Window A: emit event
await emit('data-updated', { value: 'new data' })

// Window B: listen and react
listen('data-updated', ({ payload }) => {
  setData(payload.value)
})

See quick-panes.md for a complete implementation example.

Security Architecture

Tauri Capabilities

Tauri v2 uses a permission-based capabilities system. Each window only gets the permissions it needs.

Location: src-tauri/capabilities/default.json

{
  "identifier": "main-capability",
  "windows": ["main"],
  "permissions": ["core:window:allow-minimize", "fs:default"]
}

Key rules:

  • Use specific window labels, not ["*"]
  • Only add permissions actually needed
  • Remote content (if any) should have minimal permissions

Content Security Policy

CSP prevents XSS attacks. Configuration is in src-tauri/tauri.conf.json.

Rules:

  • Never load scripts from CDNs - bundle everything locally
  • Avoid 'unsafe-eval' unless absolutely necessary
  • Images: restrict to specific domains when possible

Secure Storage

Data Type Storage Security Level
API tokens/keys OS keychain (keyring crate) High
App preferences App data directory (JSON) Medium
User content App data directory/SQLite Medium

Never store sensitive tokens in tauri-plugin-store (plain JSON on disk). See external-apis.md for keychain patterns.

Rust-First Security

All file operations happen in Rust with built-in validation:

fn is_blocked_directory(path: &Path) -> bool {
    let blocked_patterns = ["/System/", "/usr/", "/etc/", "/.ssh/"];
    blocked_patterns.iter().any(|pattern| path.starts_with(pattern))
}

Input Sanitization

pub fn sanitize_filename(filename: &str) -> String {
    filename.chars()
        .filter(|c| !['/', '\\', ':', '*', '?', '"', '<', '>', '|'].contains(c))
        .collect()
}

Atomic File Operations

All disk writes use atomic operations to prevent corruption:

// Write to temp file, then rename (atomic)
std::fs::write(&temp_path, content)?;
std::fs::rename(&temp_path, &final_path)?;

See Tauri Security Documentation for detailed guidance.

Type-Safe Tauri Commands

All Tauri commands use tauri-specta for type safety:

// ✅ GOOD: Type-safe with autocomplete
import { commands } from '@/lib/tauri-bindings'

const result = await commands.loadPreferences()
if (result.status === 'ok') {
  console.log(result.data.theme)
}

// ❌ BAD: String-based invoke (no type safety)
const prefs = await invoke<AppPreferences>('load_preferences')

See tauri-commands.md for adding new commands.

Quality Gates

Before any changes are committed:

npm run check:all

See static-analysis.md for all tools included.

Anti-Patterns to Avoid

Anti-Pattern Why It's Bad Do This Instead
State in wrong layer Confuses ownership, breaks patterns Follow the onion model
Direct Rust-React coupling Tight coupling, hard to maintain Use command system and events
Store subscription in callbacks Causes render cascades Use getState() pattern
Skipping input validation Security vulnerabilities Always validate in Rust
Magic/implicit patterns Hard for AI and humans to follow Prefer explicit, clear code

Adding New Features

  1. Commands - Add to appropriate command group file
  2. State - Choose appropriate layer (useState/Zustand/TanStack Query)
  3. UI - Follow component architecture
  4. Persistence - Use established data-persistence.md patterns
  5. Testing - Add tests following testing.md patterns
  6. Documentation - Update relevant docs