How it works

A list of names becomes a generated Tauri project, and six phases turn it into installers.

On this page

The picture
The six phases
The composition is the contract
Two folders
Two apps, side by side
When a build fails

The picture

cli
build
project
tauri
dist-native/

cli fronts the rest. build orchestrates project and tauri, which never call each other. doctor reads both. Only tauri spawns processes, so every subprocess line goes through one scrubber.

The six phases

build.run({ target }) walks PHASE_ORDER, emitting native:phase for each.

scaffold. Creates projectDir.
codegen. project.generate writes the Tauri project through a write-if-changed writer. On a mobile target with no gen/ tree, tauri ios init or tauri android init runs once. A half-written tree fails here, and is never initialized again by itself. Then patchMobile patches the tree.
icons. tauri icon expands app.icon, or a generated placeholder, into every platform's set.
compile. tauri build, which also runs web.build. Progress carries real crate counts from cargo.
bundle. The second half of tauri build, from its first "bundling" line. A store build whose page carries the editor agent is refused after it.
collect. Finished files are copied to <outDir>/<target>/, and native:complete is emitted.

The composition is the contract

config.system is a list of names. project resolves each against its registry:

Name	Package and crate	Platforms	System plugin
`store`	`tauri-plugin-store`	all	store
`notification`	`tauri-plugin-notification`	all	notify
`clipboard-manager`	`tauri-plugin-clipboard-manager`	all	clipboard
`tray`	none, a Cargo feature	desktop	tray
`deep-link`	`tauri-plugin-deep-link`	all	deep-link
`back`	none, a permission	Android	back
`haptics`	`tauri-plugin-haptics`	iOS, Android	haptics
`shell`	a generated local crate	Android	none, see project

A row is filtered out on a platform it does not support, so one list serves every target. Mobile permissions need no patched XML: the official plugins merge their own manifest needs.

Two folders

Config	Default	What it is
`projectDir`	`.moku/tauri`	The generated project. Delete it, and the next build writes it again.
`outDir`	`dist-native`	Finished installers, one folder per target.

Target	`dist-native/<target>/` holds
`macos`	`.dmg`, `.app`
`windows`	`-setup.exe`, `.msi`
`linux`	`.AppImage`, `.deb`, `.rpm`
`ios`	`.ipa`, or a `.app` folder for the simulator
`android`	`.apk`, or `.aab` with `aab: true`

Two apps, side by side

Plugins are bound to their own framework, so native plugins can never enter your web app. The two meet at the edges: one shared list of names, and web.build and web.dist in the config.

The packaged page's origin depends on the platform. Add both to any server CORS allowlist:

Platform	`location.origin`
Android, Windows	`http://tauri.localhost`
iOS, macOS, Linux	`tauri://localhost`

When a build fails

A non-zero exit of the Tauri CLI throws TauriError, with kind, exitCode and a scrubbed stderrTail. Classification reads the cause lines only, so one stray CodeSign line in a long log does not decide it.

`kind`	Means
`xcode-script-failed`	The Xcode "Build Rust Code" phase failed. Check the runner line in `gen/apple/project.yml`.
`signing-failed`	codesign, a provisioning profile, notarization, the keychain, signtool, jarsigner or the keystore.
`toolchain-missing`	`command not found`, `xcode-select`, `ANDROID_HOME`, a missing NDK, `rustup`.
`platform-missing`	The iOS platform is not installed.
`device-unavailable`	No device or booted simulator.
`config-invalid`	Tauri could not read the generated `tauri.conf.json`.
`compile-failed`	Rust compile errors.
`cancelled`	Stopped by a signal, usually Ctrl-C.
`unknown`	Nothing matched. Read the tail.