Desktop App

claustre includes a native macOS desktop application built with Tauri v2. It provides the same project and task management features as the TUI in a windowed GUI, sharing the same SQLite database and library code.

Launching

claustre app

This locates the claustre-app binary (installed alongside the main claustre binary) and launches the desktop window.

Features

The desktop app mirrors the TUI dashboard capabilities:

Project management — add, remove, and browse projects
Task management — create, edit, reorder, launch, kill, and delete tasks with full field support (title, description, mode, base branch, push mode, review loop)
Subtasks — add and manage ordered sub-steps for tasks
Task launching — launch tasks to create sessions with git worktrees and start Claude
Split pane sessions — each session opens with a Shell pane (left) + Claude pane (right), with dynamic splitting and focus switching
Session monitoring — view active sessions with status indicators, CI badges, and git diff stats
Task filter — filter tasks by title with live results (/)
Command palette — searchable action menu (Ctrl+P)
Help overlay — keyboard shortcuts reference (?)
Skills panel — find, install, remove, and update Claude Code skills (i)
Configure wizard — check and apply recommended Claude Code permissions (c)
Statistics — view project-level stats and external Claude sessions
Rate limits — monitor current API usage in the title bar
Status bar — attention counter for tasks needing action
Auto-refresh — the UI polls the database every 2 seconds to reflect changes from hooks and other processes

Keyboard Shortcuts

Dashboard — Navigation

Key	Action
`j` / `↓`	Select next task
`↑`	Select previous task
`Enter`	Go to session terminal (if task has one)
`Ctrl+J` / `Ctrl+K`	Switch tabs
`Ctrl+P`	Command palette
`/`	Filter tasks by title
`?`	Help overlay
`Esc`	Close overlays / clear filter

Dashboard — Actions

Key	Action
`n`	New task
`e`	Edit selected task (pending/draft)
`l`	Launch selected task
`r`	Mark done (working/in_review)
`k`	Kill session
`d`	Delete task
`v`	View task details
`o`	Open PR in browser
`a`	Add project
`s`	Show stats
`i`	Skills panel
`c`	Configure permissions

Session Tab

Key	Action
`Ctrl+H`	Focus previous pane
`Ctrl+L`	Focus next pane
`Ctrl+R`	Split right (new shell pane)
`Ctrl+B`	Split down (new shell pane)
`Ctrl+W`	Close focused pane
`Ctrl+D`	Return to dashboard
`Ctrl+J` / `Ctrl+K`	Switch tabs

Architecture

The desktop app is a separate Cargo workspace member at app/src-tauri/. It depends on the claustre library crate, reusing all shared modules (store, config, session, skills, scanner, configure) rather than duplicating logic.

claustre (workspace root)
├── src/lib.rs          # Shared library
├── src/main.rs         # CLI + TUI binary
└── app/
    ├── src/            # Frontend (HTML, CSS, JS)
    │   ├── index.html
    │   ├── styles.css
    │   └── main.js
    └── src-tauri/      # Tauri backend (Rust)
        ├── Cargo.toml
        └── src/lib.rs  # IPC commands

IPC Commands

The Tauri backend exposes IPC commands that the frontend calls via window.__TAURI__.core.invoke(). Each command wraps a core function that operates on the shared Store (protected by a Mutex):

Command	Purpose
`list_projects`	List all projects with session/task counts
`create_project`	Register a new project
`delete_project`	Remove a project and its data
`list_tasks`	List tasks for a project
`create_task`	Create a new task
`update_task`	Edit an existing task
`delete_task`	Delete a task
`reorder_tasks`	Swap sort order of two tasks
`mark_task_done`	Transition a task to done and tear down its session
`list_subtasks`	List subtasks for a task
`create_subtask`	Add a subtask
`delete_subtask`	Remove a subtask
`launch_task`	Create a session and start Claude in embedded PTY
`kill_session`	Tear down a session and reset the task
`pty_spawn_shell`	Spawn a shell PTY in the session worktree
`pty_write`	Send keystrokes to a PTY pane
`pty_resize`	Resize a PTY pane
`get_project_stats`	Project statistics
`get_rate_limit`	Current API usage
`list_sessions`	Active sessions for a project
`list_installed_skills`	List installed skills (global or project)
`find_skills_search`	Search skills registry
`add_skill_package`	Install a skill by package name
`remove_skill`	Uninstall a skill
`update_all_skills`	Update all installed skills
`read_skill_content`	Read SKILL.md for detail view
`check_permissions`	Check Claude Code permissions alignment
`apply_permissions`	Apply recommended permissions
`list_external_sessions`	Scan for non-claustre Claude sessions
`get_version`	Get claustre version string

Building

# Build the desktop app
cargo build -p claustre-app

# Run tests
cargo test -p claustre-app

# Build the entire workspace
cargo build --workspace

The Tauri app requires the same prerequisites as the TUI. On first build, Cargo downloads Tauri dependencies automatically. DevTools are only opened in debug builds (#[cfg(debug_assertions)]); release builds do not include them.