Project Structure

A Tauri project is an ordinary web project with a Rust project tucked inside a src-tauri folder. This chapter explains what each file does, then looks at the tauri.conf.json configuration file and the capabilities folder that grants permissions.

The overall layout

A project created from the Vite and TypeScript template looks roughly like this:

tauri-app/
├── package.json          # frontend dependencies and scripts
├── index.html
├── vite.config.ts
├── src/                  # frontend code
│   └── main.ts
└── src-tauri/            # Rust core
    ├── Cargo.toml
    ├── build.rs
    ├── tauri.conf.json   # Tauri configuration
    ├── capabilities/
    │   └── default.json  # per-window permissions
    ├── icons/
    └── src/
        ├── main.rs       # desktop entry point
        └── lib.rs        # the app itself, shared with mobile

The frontend half is a regular web project. Any framework works as long as it can produce static HTML, CSS and JavaScript. Tauri does not run a Node.js server alongside your app, so frameworks such as Next.js or SvelteKit must be configured for static export or SPA mode.

src-tauri: the Rust core

Cargo.toml lists the Rust dependencies. The template builds a library crate that is shared by the desktop executable and the mobile builds.

[package]
name = "tauri-app"
version = "0.1.0"
edition = "2021"

[lib]
name = "tauri_app_lib"
crate-type = ["staticlib", "cdylib", "rlib"]

[build-dependencies]
tauri-build = { version = "2", features = [] }

[dependencies]
tauri = { version = "2", features = [] }
tauri-plugin-opener = "2"
serde = { version = "1", features = ["derive"] }
serde_json = "1"

build.rs runs tauri_build::build(), which reads the configuration and permission files and generates code needed at compile time. main.rs is the desktop entry point and simply calls the library's run function; the real app lives in lib.rs. The split exists because mobile builds do not use a main function: they enter through the run function marked with #[cfg_attr(mobile, tauri::mobile_entry_point)].

// src-tauri/src/main.rs
// Prevents an extra console window on Windows in release builds
#![cfg_attr(not(debug_assertions), windows_subsystem = "windows")]

fn main() {
    tauri_app_lib::run()
}

tauri.conf.json

The app name, version, windows, security and bundling settings all live in this file. The template's version looks like this:

{
  "$schema": "https://schema.tauri.app/config/2",
  "productName": "tauri-app",
  "version": "0.1.0",
  "identifier": "com.example.tauri-app",
  "build": {
    "beforeDevCommand": "npm run dev",
    "devUrl": "http://localhost:1420",
    "beforeBuildCommand": "npm run build",
    "frontendDist": "../dist"
  },
  "app": {
    "windows": [{ "title": "tauri-app", "width": 800, "height": 600 }],
    "security": { "csp": null }
  },
  "bundle": {
    "active": true,
    "targets": "all",
    "icon": ["icons/32x32.png", "icons/128x128.png", "icons/icon.icns", "icons/icon.ico"]
  }
}