desktop

Aster Desktop

A Tauri desktop shell around the aster CLI. Pick a repo, choose what to review (working tree, a git range, a PR, or a diff file), and watch verified findings stream in. A chat panel lets you ask the same repo questions.

The app does not reimplement the review pipeline or the chat agent. It shells out to the CLI and renders its output, so it stays in lockstep with aster.

Getting started

You need Bun, a Rust toolchain (the CLI builds from the same workspace), and the Tauri system prerequisites for your platform.

cd desktop
bun install
bun run dev

bun run dev builds the aster CLI from the root workspace, stages it as a sidecar, then launches the app. The first run compiles the CLI, so it takes a while; later runs are fast.

When the window opens, pick a repo, choose a review scope, and run a review. Findings, phases, and token usage stream in as the CLI emits them.

How-to guides

Run against a CLI you already built

Set ASTER_CLI_BIN to an existing binary to skip recompiling during the sidecar step (CI does this with the release build job's artifact):

ASTER_CLI_BIN=/path/to/aster bun run dev

To point the running app at a specific binary at launch instead, set ASTER_BIN (see Binary resolution for the full order).

Choose a model, endpoint, or key

Values you enter in the UI are passed to the CLI as ASTER_MODEL and ASTER_API_KEY. Leave them blank and the CLI falls back to the repo's .env and aster.yaml, exactly as it does on the command line. See the CLI's Configuration for the resolution rules.

Build a distributable bundle

bun run build

This stages the sidecar, builds the frontend, and produces a self-contained Tauri bundle. End users do not need aster installed: the CLI ships inside the bundle as an externalBin sidecar.

Regenerate app icons

bun run icon

Regenerates the icon set from src-tauri/icons/source-icon.png.

Reference

Scripts

Script	Does
bun run dev	Build + stage the sidecar, then launch the app (Tauri dev)
bun run build	Build the sidecar and produce a distributable bundle
bun run sidecar	Build aster from the workspace and stage it only
bun run icon	Regenerate icons from src-tauri/icons/source-icon.png

Always go through the bun run scripts. A bare cargo build inside src-tauri fails until the sidecar has been staged.

Binary resolution

At launch, the CLI binary is resolved in this order:

1. ASTER_BIN environment variable
2. the bundled sidecar (aster-cli, present in a packaged build)
3. ../target/{release,debug}/aster (the workspace build, for dev)
4. aster on PATH

Environment variables

Variable	Purpose
ASTER_BIN	Force a specific CLI binary at launch (resolution step 1)
ASTER_CLI_BIN	Reuse an already-built binary during the sidecar step instead of compiling
ASTER_MODEL	Model passed through from the UI to the CLI
ASTER_API_KEY	Provider key passed through from the UI to the CLI

CLI commands the app invokes

Action	Command
Review	aster review --stream (NDJSON events: diff, phases, findings, usage)
Chat	aster chat --messages-json - --json

Both run with the selected repo as the working directory. Log output (stderr) tails into the activity log.

How it works

The shell is a thin renderer over the CLI's streaming output. A review invokes aster review --stream and parses its NDJSON events (diff, phases, findings, usage) as they arrive, so findings appear incrementally rather than all at once. Chat messages go through aster chat --messages-json - --json the same way. In both cases the CLI runs with the chosen repo as its working directory, and its log feed (stderr) is tailed into the activity log.

Keeping the pipeline in the CLI is deliberate. The desktop app owns presentation and the CLI owns behavior, so model resolution, the review algorithm, and the chat agent have exactly one implementation. The app inherits CLI improvements without changes.

The crate is standalone (desktop/src-tauri), deliberately outside the crates/* workspace so it never perturbs the library crates or their lockfile. A packaged build bundles the CLI as a sidecar, staged by scripts/prepare-sidecar.mjs at src-tauri/binaries/aster-cli-<target-triple>, which is why an end-user install needs nothing beyond the app itself.