CodeCity

CodeCity is a local-first Tauri desktop app that turns a local folder or GitHub repository into a 3D city. Files become buildings, directories become districts, and imports become connection paths that make architecture visible at a glance.

The app is intentionally a single project. The UI stays in TypeScript/React because it drives the 3D experience, while repository analysis, parsing, storage, GitHub imports, and offline folder support live in Rust under src-tauri.

Features

• Analyze GitHub repositories or local folders.
• Queue analyses and refresh completed cities.
• Store parsed city data locally in SQLite.
• Browse GitHub repositories, trending repositories, and recent cities.
• View code structure as a 3D city with file details, filters, commits, and dependency paths.
• Package native desktop builds for Windows, macOS, and Linux.
• Supports Tauri updater artifacts through GitHub Releases.

Downloads

Stable builds are published on the GitHub Releases page.

Platform	Release asset
Windows	NSIS setup .exe and WiX .msi installers
macOS Apple Silicon	.dmg and .app.tar.gz for aarch64
macOS Intel	.dmg and .app.tar.gz for x86_64
Linux	.AppImage, .deb, and .rpm packages

The app updater reads latest.json from:

https://github.com/MagnovaAI/codecity/releases/latest/download/latest.json

Stack

Layer	Technology
Desktop shell	Tauri 2
Backend	Rust, tree-sitter, SQLite
Frontend	Next.js 16, React 19, TypeScript
3D scene	Three.js, React Three Fiber
Styling	Tailwind CSS v4
Package manager	pnpm 9

Project Structure

codecity/
├── src/                    # Next.js app, UI, city scene, client helpers
│   ├── app/                # App Router pages
│   ├── components/         # Product and city components
│   ├── lib/                # Frontend helpers and Tauri bridge
│   └── ui/                 # Local shadcn-style UI primitives
├── src-tauri/              # Rust backend and Tauri desktop package
│   └── src/analysis/       # Parser, layout, database, GitHub analysis
├── public/                 # Static assets
├── scripts/                # Desktop/server helper scripts
└── package.json

Development

Install dependencies:

pnpm install

Run the web UI:

pnpm dev

Run the desktop app:

pnpm desktop

Check the project:

pnpm type-check
cd src-tauri && cargo check

Build locally:

pnpm build
pnpm bundle:desktop

Release

Releases are built by .github/workflows/release.yml with tauri-apps/tauri-action. The workflow builds:

• macOS Apple Silicon: aarch64-apple-darwin
• macOS Intel: x86_64-apple-darwin
• Windows: windows-latest, producing NSIS .exe and WiX .msi installers.
• Linux: ubuntu-22.04, producing .AppImage, .deb, and .rpm packages.

Before the first release, configure these repository secrets:

Secret	Required	Purpose
TAURI_SIGNING_PRIVATE_KEY	Yes	Full updater private key content generated by pnpm tauri signer generate -w ~/.tauri/codecity.key. Include the comment lines.
TAURI_SIGNING_PRIVATE_KEY_PASSWORD	If your key has one	Exact password for the updater signing key, or an empty value for an unencrypted key.

The public key from the signer command must match plugins.updater.pubkey in src-tauri/tauri.conf.json.

Create a release by bumping versions in:

• package.json
• src-tauri/Cargo.toml
• src-tauri/tauri.conf.json

Then tag and push:

git tag v0.1.0
git push origin main --tags

You can also run the workflow manually from GitHub Actions. The workflow creates a GitHub Release named CodeCity v__VERSION__, uploads platform installers, and publishes updater metadata.

Notes

• GitHub archive download is the fastest import path. Git clone is used as a fallback.
• Clone fallback uses shallow, single-branch, no-tag clones to reduce transfer size.
• Local folder analysis works offline after the app is installed.
• If a local folder was moved or deleted, refresh/reanalysis will report that directly.