Tauri + Leptos SSR

A cargo-generate template for building Tauri v2 desktop apps with full Leptos server-side rendering.

The Axum SSR server runs as a Tokio task inside the Tauri process on a dynamically allocated port. The WebView navigates to the embedded server, giving you true SSR with server functions while shipping a single native binary.

Features

• Full SSR — Leptos renders pages server-side within the Tauri process
• Server Functions — #[server] functions execute in the same process
• Single Binary — no sidecar, no companion process
• Dynamic Port — binds to 127.0.0.1:0 to avoid port conflicts
• Tailwind CSS 4 — via @import "tailwindcss" in style/input.css
• Dual-Target — the app crate supports both Tauri (filesystem) and Spin (KV store) via feature flags

Prerequisites

• Rust (stable)
• cargo-generate: cargo install --locked cargo-generate
• cargo-leptos: cargo install --locked cargo-leptos
• Tauri CLI: cargo install tauri-cli

Getting Started

Generate from Template

cargo generate --git git@github.com:codeitlikemiley/tauri-leptos-ssr

Development

cargo tauri dev

This runs cargo leptos watch (via beforeDevCommand) which starts the standalone server binary on :3000 with hot-reload. Tauri opens the WebView at http://localhost:3000.

Production Build

cargo tauri build

This runs cargo leptos build --release (via beforeBuildCommand), bundles the site assets as Tauri resources, and compiles everything into a single native binary with the Axum server embedded.

Project Structure

├── app/              # Shared Leptos app (components, routes, server functions)
│   └── src/lib.rs    # App component, server fns, build_router()
├── frontend/         # WASM client entry point (hydration)
├── server/           # Standalone Axum server (dev mode only)
├── src-tauri/        # Tauri desktop shell
│   ├── src/lib.rs    # Embedded Axum server setup + lifecycle
│   └── tauri.conf.json
├── style/            # Tailwind CSS input
├── public/           # Static assets (favicon, etc.)
└── Cargo.toml        # Workspace config + cargo-leptos metadata

How It Works

Dev Mode (cargo tauri dev)

1. beforeDevCommand runs cargo leptos watch → starts the server binary on :3000
2. Tauri WebView loads http://localhost:3000
3. File changes trigger hot-reload via cargo-leptos

Release Mode (cargo tauri build)

1. beforeBuildCommand runs cargo leptos build --release
2. Produces target/site/ with WASM, CSS, and static assets
3. Tauri bundles target/site/ + Cargo.toml as resources
4. At runtime, src-tauri/src/lib.rs:
   • Reads Leptos config from the bundled Cargo.toml
   • Spawns Axum as a Tokio task on 127.0.0.1:0 (OS-assigned port)
   • Waits for the server to become ready
   • Navigates the WebView to http://127.0.0.1:{port}
5. On window close, the server task is gracefully aborted

Feature Flags

Crate	Feature	Purpose
app	hydrate	Client-side hydration (WASM)
app	ssr	Server-side rendering (native)
app	spin	Spin KV storage backend

Testing

Setup

cd end2end
npm install
npx playwright install

Run Tests

cargo leptos end-to-end

# Release mode
cargo leptos end-to-end --release

# View report
cd end2end && npx playwright show-report

For Tauri WebDriver testing, see the Tauri docs.

License

MIT