Installation

OSA-Midnight Oil ships in two runtime modes. For most operators, the native Tauri 2 desktop build is the right path. The Vite web build is provided for rapid UI iteration and beta compatibility. For Licensed Editions - Simply Run The Installer.

Prerequisites

You need Node.js 20 or newer, Rust (stable toolchain), and cargo. If you plan to build the native desktop binary, install the Tauri CLI once:

cargo install tauri-cli

Native desktop (recommended)

For normal use, download the desktop build from the ROS site. Public documentation stays online even if the source repository is private.

Current launch targets:

• macOS Apple Silicon
• macOS Intel
• Linux x64
• Windows x64

Source build

Developers with repository access can run the native shell in development mode:

npm install
npm run desktop:dev

This will compile the Rust core, bring up the Tauri shell, and load the cockpit UI from Vite. The first build can take a few minutes — subsequent builds are incremental and fast.

To produce a release binary:

npm run desktop:build

The build output lands in src-tauri/target/release/bundle/. On macOS this includes a .dmg; on Windows, an .msi; on Linux, an AppImage or .deb depending on your distribution.

Disk space

Tauri and Rust build artifacts can consume several gigabytes between src-tauri/target/ and rust-core/target/. If you need to reclaim space, clearing those directories is the fastest safe cleanup.

Web / beta

The Vite app can run in the browser for rapid UI development and beta compatibility:

npm install
npm run dev

The browser build does not benefit from the Rust-owned trust boundary that the native desktop build provides. Use it for UI work and previews, not for actual operator data.

First launch

On first launch, you will be prompted to create a master passphrase. This passphrase derives the vault encryption key — it is never transmitted and cannot be recovered. Store it somewhere you trust.

After that, you land on the welcome screen. To go further, see First Vault.

Troubleshooting

If npm run build fails on the optional WASM step, that step is non-blocking — the Vite build still completes when the wasm32-unknown-unknown target or wasm-pack is missing.

For Rust toolchain or Tauri build errors specific to your OS, check the Tauri prerequisites guide first.