Mxr Desktop App
Mxr desktop app
This note is now historical.
The current mxr repo no longer has an Electron desktop client under apps/desktop/. Code truth on 2026-05-31 is: apps/web/ is the GUI source, mxr web serves it through the local daemon bridge, and the public docs explicitly say mxr does not ship a native desktop app.
That makes the old desktop work useful as a lesson, not as a live project.
What changed
The earlier desktop idea wrapped the same local mxr runtime in an Electron shell. It was tempting because it looked like a small packaging step around the web app. The reassessment showed the opposite. A native wrapper creates a real product contract: first-run account setup, visible OAuth prompts, bundled-core freshness, app-level smoke tests, platform packaging, signing, notarization, and updates.
The repo chose the smaller and cleaner contract instead:
- one shipped
mxrbinary - embedded React SPA
mxr webfor the browser GUI- PWA installability where users want an app-like window
- no
.app, DMG, Electron updater, or desktop release lane
Still-valid lesson
The old note was wrong about current source, but the launch lesson still holds.
A client is not ready because it can render screens. It is ready when a clean user can install it, connect an account, see every credential prompt in the surface they are using, recover from partial setup, and end in a working mailbox.
For mxr, the web app is the client that carries that work now. The desktop note remains a warning against shipping a wrapper before the wrapper has earned its own first-run and distribution story.
Code grounding
apps/web/is the current GUI source.site/src/content/docs/guides/no-native-desktop-app.mdis the public explanation.docs/web-app.mdis the maintainer note for the embedded SPA and bridge..github/workflows/release.ymlships CLI archives only, not desktop app artifacts.