You just want to use the app? Then simply download the appropriate setup for your operating system. This chapter is intended for developers who want to modify and customize the code.
Unfortunately, we have to provide a note regarding development on Linux systems. MindWork AI Studio consists of a Rust and a .NET part. Compiling the .NET code works smoothly on all operating systems. However, this is not the case for our Rust part. More specifically, it is not the Rust code itself that is problematic, but rather the Tauri framework on which we base our work. Tauri has certain dependencies that depend on the operating system. The specific dependencies vary between different Linux distributions and between versions of distributions.
Therefore, we cannot provide a static list here that is valid for all Linux systems. Unfortunately, the situation is even more complex: Tauri requires dependencies that are not available in current Linux distributions because they already include newer versions. For these reasons, we currently advise against developing AI Studio on Linux. In case you still want to try, you will need a lot of patience and willingness to experiment. We ask for your understanding. Thank you very much.
- Install the .NET 9 SDK.
- Install the Rust compiler in the latest version.
- Met the prerequisites for building Tauri. Node.js is not required, though.
- The core team uses JetBrains Rider and RustRover for development. Both IDEs are free to use for open-source projects for non-commercial use. They are available for macOS, Linux, and Windows systems. Profiles are provided for these IDEs, so you can get started right away. However, you can also use a different IDE.
- Clone the repository.
Regardless of whether you want to build the app locally for yourself (not trusting the pre-built binaries) or test your changes before creating a PR, you have to run the following commands at least once:
- Open a terminal.
- Install the Tauri CLI by running
cargo install --version 1.6.2 tauri-cli
. - Navigate to the
/app/Build
directory within the repository. - Run
dotnet run build
to build the entire app.
This is necessary because the build script and the Tauri framework assume that the .NET app is available as a so-called "sidecar." Although the sidecar is only necessary for the final release and shipping, Tauri requires it to be present during development as well.
In order to build MindWork AI Studio from source instead of using the pre-built binaries, follow these steps:
- Ensure you have met all the prerequisites.
- Open a terminal.
- Navigate to the
/app/Build
directory within the repository. - To build the current version, run
dotnet run build
to build the entire app.- This will build the app for the current operating system, for both x64 (Intel, AMD) and ARM64 (e.g., Apple Silicon, Raspberry Pi).
- The final setup program will be located in
runtime/target/release
afterward.
Do you want to test your changes before creating a PR? Follow these steps:
- Ensure you have met all the prerequisites.
- At least once, you have to run the
dotnet run build
command (see above, "Build instructions"). This is necessary because the Tauri framework checks whether the .NET app as so-called "sidecar" is available. Although the sidecar is only necessary for the final release and shipping, Tauri requires it to be present during development. - Open a terminal.
- Navigate to the
runtime
directory within the repository, e.g.cd repos/mindwork-ai-studio/runtime
. - Run
cargo tauri dev --no-watch
.
Cargo will compile the Rust code and start the runtime. The runtime will then start the .NET compiler. When the .NET source code is compiled, the app will start. You can now test your changes.
In order to create a release:
- To create a new release, you need to be a maintainer of the repository—see step 8.
- Make sure there's a changelog file for the version you want to create in the
/app/MindWork AI Studio/wwwroot/changelog
directory. Name the filevX.Y.Z.md
and include all release changes—your updates and any others included in this version. - After you have created the changelog file, you must commit the changes to the repository.
- To prepare a new release, open a terminal, go to
/app/Build
and rundotnet run release --action <ACTION>
, where<ACTION>
is eitherpatch
(creating a patch version),minor
(creating a minor version), ormajor
(creating a major version). - Now wait until all process steps have been completed. Among other things, the version number will be incremented, the new changelog registered, and the version numbers of central dependencies updated, etc.
- The actual release will be built by our GitHub Workflow. For this to work, you need to create a PR with your changes.
- Your proposed changes will be reviewed and merged.
- Once the PR is merged, a member of the maintainers team will create & push an appropriate git tag in the format
vX.Y.Z
. - The GitHub Workflow will then build the release and upload it to the release page.
- Building the release including virus scanning takes some time. Please be patient.