Contributing

LocalDomain is open source and we welcome contributions. Here's how to get started.

Prerequisites

Rust — install via rustup (opens in a new tab)
Node.js 18+ — for the React frontend
Tauri CLI — cargo install tauri-cli

Platform-specific

macOS:

Xcode Command Line Tools (xcode-select --install)

Windows:

Visual Studio Build Tools 2022 (C++ workload)
WebView2 runtime

Linux:

sudo apt install libwebkit2gtk-4.1-dev libgtk-3-dev \
  libayatana-appindicator3-dev librsvg2-dev patchelf \
  libssl-dev build-essential pkg-config

Setup

# Clone the repo
git clone https://github.com/kakha13/localdomain.git
cd localdomain
 
# Install frontend dependencies
npm install
 
# Check everything compiles
cargo check --workspace
npx tsc --noEmit
 
# Run tests
cargo test --workspace

Development

# Start the app with hot-reload
cargo tauri dev

This launches the Tauri app with Vite hot-reload on port 1420. The frontend rebuilds instantly on changes. Note: cargo tauri dev does NOT rebuild the daemon — see below.

Rebuilding the daemon

After changing daemon code, you need to rebuild and restart it:

macOS:

./scripts/reload-daemon.sh

Linux:

./scripts/reload-daemon-linux.sh

Windows:

.\scripts\reload-daemon.ps1

Project Structure

localdomain/
├── src/                  # React frontend (TypeScript)
│   ├── components/       # UI components
│   ├── hooks/            # Custom React hooks
│   └── lib/              # API calls, utilities
├── src-tauri/            # Tauri app (Rust)
│   ├── src/commands/     # Tauri commands (invoked from frontend)
│   ├── src/db/           # SQLite database
│   └── src/daemon_client/# IPC client to daemon
├── daemon/               # Background daemon (Rust)
│   └── src/              # Hosts file, Caddy, certs, IPC server
├── shared/               # Shared types between app and daemon
├── scripts/              # Build and deployment scripts
└── resources/            # Bundled resources (service files, etc.)

How to Contribute

Pick an issue or open one describing what you want to work on
Fork and branch — create a feature branch from main
Make your changes — follow existing code patterns
Test — run cargo test --workspace and npx tsc --noEmit
Submit a PR — describe what you changed and why

Good first contributions

Bug fixes
Documentation improvements
UI/UX enhancements
Test coverage
Platform-specific fixes (especially Linux and Windows)

Code Conventions

Rust: Follow existing patterns. Use #[cfg(target_os)] for platform-specific code
TypeScript: React hooks for state, invoke() for Tauri commands
Commits: Short, descriptive messages. One logical change per commit
No external services: Everything runs locally. No telemetry, no accounts

Questions?

Open an issue on GitHub (opens in a new tab) or email us.

Troubleshooting Architecture