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Get Tempest up and running on your machine. The build process orchestrates Rust and TypeScript compilation, the React frontend, and Tauri bundling into installers.

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Prerequisites

1

Node.js 18 or later

Download from nodejs.org. Tempest uses Node for the React frontend build and npm scripts.
2

Rust 1.77 or later

Install from rustup.rs. Tauri compiles the native backend with Rust.
3

Windows: WebView2 Runtime

Windows only. Download from Microsoft Edge WebView2. This is the rendering engine for the Tauri window.

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Installation and setup

1

Clone the repository

git clone https://github.com/gsvprharsha/tempest
cd tempest
2

Install dependencies

npm install
3

Build workspace assets

npm run setup
This builds the Atlas workspace and bundles its resources. Required before development or production builds.

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Run in development mode

Start the dev server with live reload: 
npm run dev
This command:
  1. Builds the Atlas workspace and starts the Vite dev server on http://localhost:1420
  2. Launches the Tauri app window with hot module replacement (HMR) on port 1421
  3. Reloads React components, TypeScript, and styles instantly in the window
The app runs against the frontend dev server, not bundled assets. Tauri watches http://localhost:1420 and rebuilds the Rust backend only when src-tauri/ changes.

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Build for production

Create installers and bundles: 
npm run build
This command:
  1. Builds Atlas and transpiles TypeScript, then Vite bundles the React frontend to dist/
  2. Compiles the Rust backend
  3. Bundles everything into a Windows NSIS installer and updater artifacts
  4. Outputs installers to dist-installers/ along with updater metadata
The production build optimizes the Rust binary for size with link-time optimization (LTO), code-generation unit optimization, and symbol stripping.

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Build only the frontend

To bundle the React app without running Tauri: 
npm run build:frontend
Output goes to dist/. This is useful for debugging frontend issues or testing the production bundle separately.

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Development tips

  • Frontend-only development: Run npm run dev:frontend to start just the Vite dev server on port 1420 without launching the Tauri window
  • Preview production build: Run npm run preview to test the bundled frontend in a browser
  • Tauri CLI: Access Tauri commands directly with npm run tauri <command>. For example, npm run tauri info shows your development environment info

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Project structure

  • src/ : React TypeScript frontend code
  • src-tauri/ : Rust backend code
  • packages/atlas/ : Workspace containing code intelligence and token-graph features
  • dist/ : Frontend build output (created by vite build)
  • dist-installers/ : Platform-specific installers (created by tauri build)
  • resources/ : Assets bundled into the app at runtime

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What’s next

Theme System

Customize colors, typography, and radius using the --tempest-* CSS variable system.

Workspaces

Learn how workspaces are created, stored, and switched at runtime.