OpenDesktop

A lightweight, minimalist desktop app for viewing and managing Docker containers running inside WSL.
Built with Tauri v2 for a tiny footprint and native performance.

Features

• View all containers - equivalent to docker ps -a, but in a clean UI
• Compose grouping - containers from the same Docker Compose project are automatically grouped with collapsible headers
• Start / Stop / Restart / Remove individual containers
• Start All / Stop All / Restart All for entire Compose projects
• Filter by running or stopped state
• Status indicators - color-coded dots (green = running, red = exited, yellow = partial)
• Dark theme - easy on the eyes

Prerequisites

• Windows 10/11 with WSL 2 installed
• Docker installed and running inside WSL (e.g., Docker Engine on Ubuntu)
• For building from source:
  • Node.js (v18+)
  • Rust (stable)

Installation

Download Release

Download the latest .msi or .exe installer from the Releases page.

Build from Source

git clone https://github.com/alexjrk/OpenDesktop.git
cd OpenDesktop
npm install
npm run tauri build

The built installer will be in src-tauri/target/release/bundle/.

Development

npm install
npm run tauri dev

This starts the app in development mode with hot-reload for the frontend. The first build compiles all Rust dependencies and takes a few minutes; subsequent builds are fast.

Project Structure

OpenDesktop/
+-- src/                    # Frontend (HTML/CSS/JS)
|   +-- index.html
|   +-- main.js
|   +-- styles.css
+-- src-tauri/              # Rust backend (Tauri)
|   +-- src/
|   |   +-- lib.rs          # Tauri commands (Docker via WSL)
|   |   +-- main.rs         # Entry point
|   +-- Cargo.toml
|   +-- tauri.conf.json
+-- package.json
+-- README.md

How It Works

OpenDesktop calls wsl docker ps -a from the Rust backend to list containers, parsing the output into structured data. Actions like start/stop/restart are executed via wsl docker <action> <container-id>. Compose operations use wsl docker compose -p <project> <action>.

The frontend is vanilla HTML/CSS/JS - no framework overhead. The Tauri webview renders the UI natively, resulting in a ~5MB app with minimal memory usage.

Tech Stack

Component	Technology
Framework	Tauri v2
Backend	Rust
Frontend	Vanilla HTML/CSS/JS
Docker access	WSL CLI bridge

Contributing

Contributions are welcome! Please:

1. Fork the repository
2. Create a feature branch (git checkout -b feature/my-feature)
3. Commit your changes (git commit -m 'Add my feature')
4. Push to the branch (git push origin feature/my-feature)
5. Open a Pull Request

License

This project is licensed under the MIT License - see the LICENSE file for details.