Spindle

Spindle is a desktop optical-disc authoring studio built with Tauri, React, and Rust.

This repository is organised as a pnpm workspace monorepo with a matching Cargo workspace for native code. The desktop app lives in apps/spindle, and shared native project logic lives in plugins/tauri-plugin-spindle-project.

Current DVD authoring capabilities include:

• titleset-aware project editing with drag-and-drop title organisation
• chapter seeding from source media plus chapter-targeted menu and end actions
• menu editing with authored scene documents, layers, and motion timing support
• semantic interaction graphs and remote-navigation preview simulation
• asset inspection with embedded metadata title surfacing, compatibility explanations, and fix-oriented validation
• DVD build planning and execution with diagnostics export and toolchain checks
• bitmap subtitle muxing plus first-pass text subtitle rendering for DVD authoring

Workspace layout

• apps/spindle contains the Tauri desktop application and React UI
• plugins/tauri-plugin-spindle-project contains project schema, validation, inspection, and build logic
• tsconfig.base.json provides shared TypeScript compiler defaults for workspace packages
• docs/initial-planning contains product and implementation planning notes

Development

The shared development container currently provides Node 24.14.0 and pnpm 10.32.1 through Corepack, and the workspace is aligned to that toolchain.

Install dependencies from the repository root:

pnpm install

Run the web app in development mode:

pnpm dev

Run the Tauri desktop shell:

pnpm tauri dev

If Rust tooling is not installed locally, run Rust and Tauri commands through ghcr.io/liminal-hq/tauri-dev-desktop:latest.

Current app behaviour also includes:

• a persistent thumbnail cache stored in the app cache directory, with Settings controls to inspect and clear cached previews
• developer toggles to prefer host PATH tools over bundled sidecars and to skip unsupported subtitle mappings during builds, mainly for unknown subtitle types or debugging
• diagnostics bundle export including toolchain status, build logs, validation issues, project summary, and active developer options

Build the frontend bundle:

pnpm build

Run the Rust plugin tests:

cargo test -p tauri-plugin-spindle-project

For an opt-in end-to-end DVD authoring smoke test that exercises ffmpeg, spumux, and dvdauthor, run:

cargo test -p tauri-plugin-spindle-project execute_build_plan_smoke_authors_titleset_menu_return_path -- --ignored --nocapture

Release preparation

Spindle now uses a repo-local release preparation flow aligned with the current Liminal HQ desktop release pattern.

Check that all release-facing versions are synchronised:

pnpm release:version:check

Prepare a coordinated version bump on a dedicated release branch:

pnpm release:version:prepare --version 0.1.1

That updates the release-facing version set together:

• package.json
• apps/spindle/package.json
• apps/spindle/src-tauri/tauri.conf.json
• apps/spindle/src-tauri/Cargo.toml
• plugins/tauri-plugin-spindle-project/Cargo.toml

The helper script expects a clean working tree and creates chore/release-vX.Y.Z by default unless you pass --no-branch or an explicit --branch.

Release publishing

The release workflow lives in .github/workflows/release.yml.

Current release scope:

• Linux desktop bundles only
• x64 and arm64
• AppImage, .deb, and .rpm outputs
• one rolled-up SHA256SUMS file per published release

Linux package dependency behaviour today:

• .deb packages declare a hard dependency on ffmpeg
• .rpm packages declare a recommendation for ffmpeg or ffmpeg-free, since RPM package naming differs across distributions
• AppImage builds still rely on the host system to provide ffmpeg and ffprobe

Typical release sequence:

1. Run pnpm release:version:prepare --version <x.y.z>.
2. Review the diff and open a pull request.
3. Merge the release bump into main.
4. Create and push tag vX.Y.Z.
5. Monitor the GitHub Actions release run, or rerun it manually if needed.