Turbo Desktop

Turbo Native for Desktop — wrap your Rails app in a native macOS / Windows / Linux shell

Features • Architecture • Quick Start • Path Config • Bridge • Rails Gem • Comparison • Docs

Rails developers already have Hotwire Native (turbo-ios and turbo-android) to wrap their web apps in native mobile shells. But there has been nothing for desktop.

Turbo Desktop fills this gap. It gives you a thin, native desktop shell powered by Tauri 2 that treats your Rails app as the single source of truth — the same pattern you already know from Hotwire Native, but for the desktop.

• No new UI framework — your existing Rails views, Turbo Frames, and Stimulus controllers just work
• Native when you need it — notifications, file pickers, menus, and keyboard shortcuts via Bridge Components
• Tiny binary — Tauri uses the OS WebView, no bundled Chromium. Ship a ~5-10 MB app
• Path configuration — JSON-based routing rules (same concept as turbo-ios / turbo-android)
• Bridge components — web-to-native communication via Stimulus controllers
• Rails gem — turbo_desktop-rails gives your Rails app desktop shell awareness
• CLI scaffolding — npx turbo-desktop new myapp to get started fast

┌──────────────┐     ┌──────────────┐     ┌──────────────────┐
│ Rails Server │ ──▶ │   WebView    │ ──▶ │  Tauri / Rust    │
│ HTML + Turbo │     │ turbo-       │     │  Windows, menus, │
│   Drive      │     │ desktop.js   │     │  OS APIs         │
└──────────────┘     └──────────────┘     └──────────────────┘

Three layers that mirror the Hotwire Native pattern:

1. Rails Server — your existing app serves HTML with Turbo Drive
2. WebView — turbo-desktop.js intercepts Turbo visits and bridges to native
3. Tauri Shell — Rust handles window management, path config routing, and OS APIs

git clone https://github.com/aguspe/turbo_desktop.git
cd turbo_desktop
cargo install tauri-cli
npm install

Edit turbo-desktop.toml:

[app]
server_url = "http://localhost:3000"
app_name   = "My App"

[path_configuration]
url = "http://localhost:3000/turbo-desktop/path-configuration.json"

# Gemfile
gem "turbo_desktop-rails"

bundle install
rails generate turbo_desktop:install

# config/routes.rb
get "/turbo-desktop/path-configuration", to: "turbo_desktop#path_configuration"

# Start your Rails server
bin/rails server

# Start the Tauri desktop app
cargo tauri dev

The path configuration is a JSON file that maps URL patterns to presentation rules — the same concept from turbo-ios and turbo-android.

{
  "settings": {
    "screenshots_enabled": true,
    "pull_to_refresh_enabled": false
  },
  "rules": [
    {
      "patterns": ["/"],
      "properties": { "presentation": "default" }
    },
    {
      "patterns": ["/new$", "/edit$"],
      "properties": { "presentation": "modal", "title": "Edit" }
    },
    {
      "patterns": ["/reports/"],
      "properties": { "presentation": "new_window" }
    },
    {
      "patterns": ["/settings"],
      "properties": { "presentation": "native" }
    }
  ]
}

The Bridge is the desktop equivalent of Strada. It lets your web components talk to native OS features through structured message passing.

import { Controller } from "@hotwired/stimulus"

export default class extends TurboDesktop.stimulusBridge(Controller, "notification") {
  connect() {
    super.connect()
    this.sendBridge("connect", { title: "My App" })
  }

  notify(event) {
    this.sendBridge("connect", {
      title: "New Message",
      body: event.target.dataset.body
    })
  }

  receiveBridge(message) {
    console.log("Native says:", message)
  }
}

<%# Attach bridge data attributes to any element %>
<%= tag.button "Export PDF",
    **turbo_desktop_bridge("menu-item",
      title: "Export PDF",
      shortcut: "Cmd+E"
    ) %>

The turbo_desktop-rails gem gives your Rails app awareness of the desktop shell.

turbo_desktop/
├── src/                    # JavaScript (turbo-desktop.js)
├── src-tauri/              # Rust / Tauri shell
│   └── src/
│       ├── main.rs         # App entry point
│       ├── navigation.rs   # Visit proposals & path config routing
│       ├── bridge.rs       # Bridge component handlers
│       └── window.rs       # Window management
├── turbo_desktop-rails/    # Rails gem
├── cli/                    # CLI scaffolding tool
├── templates/              # Project templates
├── test/                   # Tests
└── docs/                   # Documentation

MIT — see LICENSE for details.

Built with Tauri, Hotwire, and Ruby on Rails.