open-design/tools/pack/README.md

tools/pack

Local packaging control plane for Open Design.

tools-pack is the cross-platform packaging and smoke-lifecycle control plane. The macOS commands include:

• tools-pack mac build --to all
• tools-pack mac build --to app|dmg|zip
• tools-pack mac build --to all --signed
• tools-pack mac build --to all --portable for release artifacts that must not bake local tools-pack runtime paths
• tools-pack mac install
• tools-pack mac start
• tools-pack mac stop
• tools-pack mac logs
• tools-pack mac uninstall
• tools-pack mac cleanup

Build artifacts are namespace-scoped under .tmp/tools-pack/out/mac/namespaces/<namespace>/. Public release bundles keep channel-distinct identities: Open Design.app, Open Design Beta.app, Open Design Prerelease.app, or Open Design Preview.app. Local tools-pack install adds the developer namespace so installs can coexist without affecting runtime data/log/cache paths.

Packaged runtime state is namespace-scoped under .tmp/tools-pack/runtime/mac/namespaces/<namespace>/:

• Packaged daemon storage is governed only by the root AGENTS.md section Daemon data directory contract. Before changing or documenting packaged storage propagation, you MUST read that section; this README MUST NOT restate it.
• logs/ contains packaged process logs for desktop, web, and daemon.
• runtime/ is the sidecar runtime base used by the packaged desktop/web/daemon process group.
• cache/ is reserved for namespace-local packaged cache state.
• user-data/ is the Electron/Chromium userData root, with user-data/session/ used for sessionData.

Every packaged root registers the exact five-field sidecar stamp (channel / namespace / source / mode / app) in its own argv. Direct OS launches register during packaged startup; tools-pack launches receive the same stamp through the sidecar launch atomic. No identity file participates in discovery or ownership.

tools-pack mac stop scans exact argv stamps for desktop, Web, and daemon across both tools-pack and direct packaged sources, requests private graceful teardown, waits for every captured generation to exit, and then force-stops only the still-matching process trees. Cleanup and uninstall refuse to remove artifacts while any captured generation remains alive.

This keeps stop from killing processes outside the current namespace.

Packaged desktop also writes main-process lifecycle logs to logs/desktop/latest.log so Finder/manual launches are diagnosable. This log is intentionally scoped to packaged desktop startup/shutdown/process errors and does not capture web/renderer console output.

The packaged daemon path contract lives only in the root AGENTS.md section Daemon data directory contract. Before changing or documenting packaged path propagation, you MUST read that section; this README MUST NOT restate it.

Packaged desktop checks release metadata, verifies the downloaded artifact, and exposes update actions through desktop IPC. Launcher-based builds prefer verified payload activation followed by relaunch; installer replacement remains the fallback for artifact types and older builds that cannot apply a payload in place.

Electron-builder resources live under tools/pack/resources/mac/. The current logo is staged there as the mac icon/DMG placeholder so future design-provided assets can replace the resource files without changing packaging code.

Local developer artifacts bake the tools-pack namespace runtime root so tools-pack mac start/stop/logs/cleanup can manage them from the repo. Release artifacts use --portable so the installed app resolves namespace data/log/runtime/user-data from the user's Electron userData root instead of the build machine's .tmp path.

macOS compatibility notes

• tools-pack mac build --portable --to zip is the safest manual-install artifact for Intel Macs. This path was smoke-tested on macOS 12.7.6 Monterey on a 2015 Intel iMac and the app launched successfully from /Applications.
• Finder/manual launches on macOS may not inherit your shell-managed PATH. If packaged Open Design cannot detect agent CLIs that work in Terminal, expose those binaries to the GUI login environment or launch the packaged app from a shell session that already sees them.

Windows

Local lifecycle commands:

• tools-pack win build --to dir for fast unpacked smoke builds.
• tools-pack win build --to nsis for installer builds.
• tools-pack win build --to all for both outputs.
• tools-pack win install
• tools-pack win start
• tools-pack win inspect --expr "document.title"
• tools-pack win logs
• tools-pack win stop
• tools-pack win cleanup
• tools-pack win list
• tools-pack win reset

Build artifacts are namespace-scoped under .tmp/tools-pack/out/win/namespaces/<namespace>/. Packaged runtime state is namespace-scoped under .tmp/tools-pack/runtime/win/namespaces/<namespace>/. --to dir may point built-app.json at an immutable cached win-unpacked executable while keeping namespace-local config and runtime paths outside that cache entry.

Linux

Local lifecycle commands:

• tools-pack linux build --to all (default; produces AppImage)
• tools-pack linux build --to appimage (explicit AppImage)
• tools-pack linux build --to dir (unpacked output for fast iteration)
• tools-pack linux build --containerized (run electron-builder inside electronuserland/builder:base Docker for a wider glibc compatibility target — requires Docker)
• tools-pack linux build --to all --portable (release artifacts that must not bake local tools-pack runtime paths)
• tools-pack linux install
• tools-pack linux install --headless (install the headless launcher script instead of the AppImage)
• tools-pack linux start
• tools-pack linux start --headless (start the headless entry — daemon + web, no Electron)
• tools-pack linux stop
• tools-pack linux stop --headless (stop a running headless process)
• tools-pack linux inspect (desktop status, eval, and screenshot for AppImage mode)
• tools-pack linux inspect --headless (status only)
• tools-pack linux logs
• tools-pack linux uninstall
• tools-pack linux uninstall --headless
• tools-pack linux cleanup
• tools-pack linux cleanup --headless

Build artifacts are namespace-scoped under .tmp/tools-pack/out/linux/namespaces/<namespace>/. Packaged logs, sidecar runtime, cache, and Electron user-data are namespace-scoped under the tools-pack runtime root. Daemon storage follows only the root AGENTS.md Daemon data directory contract. Containerized build cache lives under .tmp/tools-pack/.docker-cache/{electron,electron-builder}/.

Local installs use XDG paths:

• AppImage: ~/.local/bin/Open-Design.<namespace>.AppImage
• Menu entry: ~/.local/share/applications/open-design-<namespace>.desktop
• Icon: ~/.local/share/icons/hicolor/512x512/apps/open-design-<namespace>.png

The <namespace> suffix is unconditional so multiple developer namespaces can coexist on the same desktop. The .desktop file registers the od:// scheme via MimeType=x-scheme-handler/od; and pre-sets OD_PACKAGED_NAMESPACE on the Exec= line so menu launches identify the correct namespace.

Headless mode (--headless)

Headless mode targets environments without a display (WSL2, headless servers, CI) where Electron can't run. If you have a desktop, use the AppImage; if you're SSH'd into a machine or in WSL, use headless.

--headless makes install, start, stop, uninstall, and cleanup operate on the headless entry (@open-design/packaged/dist/headless.mjs) instead of the AppImage. Headless mode runs daemon + web without Electron.

• install --headless writes a shell launcher at ~/.local/bin/open-design-headless-<namespace> that bakes in the namespace and resource paths. The launcher is self-contained, but the assembled app directory at those paths must remain in place — don't move it after install.
• start --headless launches through the sidecar atomic and waits up to 95s for private status readiness.
• stop --headless terminally stops the exact mode=headless argv stamp. The mode field keeps it disjoint from the AppImage desktop without identity files or public IPC paths.
• inspect --headless returns status only. Eval and screenshot require AppImage mode because there is no Electron renderer in headless mode.
• uninstall --headless removes the headless launcher after a safe stop.
• cleanup --headless stops the headless process before removing namespace output/runtime roots.

logs always reads logs/desktop/latest.log regardless of mode, so headless output is visible via tools-pack linux logs.

AppImage launch mode (FUSE caveat)

tools-pack linux start always spawns the AppImage with --appimage-extract-and-run. Smoke testing on Ubuntu 24.04 and Arch Linux showed that direct FUSE-mounted AppImage launches make Node module loads (Express, better-sqlite3, etc.) slow enough that the daemon sidecar consistently failed to clear apps/packaged's 35-second startup timeout. Extract-and-run unpacks the AppImage into /tmp/appimage_extracted_<hex>/ and exec's the inner Electron from there, bypassing FUSE and getting daemon boot in under 5 seconds — roughly an order-of-magnitude improvement.

Implication for end-users: if launching the installed AppImage manually (not via tools-pack linux start), pass --appimage-extract-and-run yourself, or rely on a desktop launcher / appimage-launcher daemon that handles extract-and-run automatically.

Optional system tools

tools-pack linux install and tools-pack linux uninstall invoke update-desktop-database and gtk-update-icon-cache as best-effort post-hooks. Either tool being absent (iconCache: "missing" in the output) is harmless — the icon and menu entry still work, the cache just isn't refreshed. Install via your distro:

• Arch / CachyOS: sudo pacman -S desktop-file-utils gtk-update-icon-cache
• Debian / Ubuntu: sudo apt install desktop-file-utils gtk-update-icon-cache
• Fedora: sudo dnf install desktop-file-utils gtk-update-icon-cache

libfuse2 is needed for FUSE-mounted AppImage launch (the default mode when running an AppImage directly without --appimage-extract-and-run). tools-pack linux start always uses extract-and-run and bypasses FUSE entirely, so it does not need libfuse2. Most modern distros ship libfuse2 by default; older Ubuntu LTS hosts may need sudo apt install libfuse2t64 (or libfuse2 on pre-24.04).

Sandbox / chrome-sandbox

Electron 41 on Linux requires kernel.unprivileged_userns_clone=1 (default on Arch, Ubuntu 24+, Debian 12+) or AppImage's --no-sandbox fallback. Most modern distros need no extra setup.

Distro compatibility target

AppImages built natively on a rolling distro (e.g., Arch / CachyOS) link against recent glibc and may not run on stable distros (Ubuntu 22.04, Debian 12). Use --containerized to build against the electronuserland/builder:base baseline (Ubuntu 18.04 / glibc 2.27), which is the compatibility target for release AppImages rather than a guarantee for every Linux distribution.

Verified smoke coverage in this repository currently includes:

• Main PR CI: packaged Linux smoke is intentionally outside the main CI gate.
• Release lane: Ubuntu GitHub-hosted runner, containerized AppImage build plus Xvfb AppImage runtime smoke when the Linux release lane is enabled.
• Manual AppImage behavior used to choose --appimage-extract-and-run: Ubuntu 24.04 and Arch Linux.

Format choice: why AppImage first

Linux desktop apps in this space split across formats: VS Code ships .deb + .rpm + Snap; Discord ships AppImage + .deb; Slack ships .deb + .rpm; Cursor and Obsidian ship AppImage. We start with AppImage because one artifact can cover the widest glibc-compatible target without distro repositories, store packaging, signing infrastructure, or per-format install scripts, and it integrates cleanly with the namespace-scoped install layout. .deb / .rpm / Snap / Flatpak can land incrementally when user demand justifies the extra release ownership.

Out of scope (later phases)

• AppImage signing (--signed) — deferred pending a GPG key infrastructure decision and a user-facing verification flow design (no ETA).
• AppImage auto-update feed (latest-linux.yml) — the linux electron-builder config has no publish block wired, so a generated feed would point users at a feed that never updates. Tracked alongside signing.
• Additional package formats: .deb, .rpm, Snap, Flatpak — deferred until there is demand and an owner for per-distro metadata, signing/store/repository plumbing, install/remove hooks, and release validation.
• Full Linux AppImage and headless packaged smoke remain outside the main PR gate; run the applicable tools-pack validation manually or through a release lane when Linux packaging changes.

--to dmg is manual-install DMG output only. Any builder-generated updater metadata such as latest-mac.yml or .blockmap files is treated as scratch and cleaned from the builder directory; release-beta generates the authoritative latest-mac.yml feed during release asset preparation, pointing at the update ZIP.

Branch build timing experiments

release-beta.yml supports branch/SHA builds with publish=false. For a full macOS arm64, Intel and Windows packaging comparison, dispatch it from the branch carrying the workflow and pin ref to the commit under test:

gh workflow run release-beta.yml --ref <branch> \
  -f ref=<commit-sha> -f publish=false \
  -f enable_mac_arm64=true -f enable_mac_x64=true -f enable_win_x64=true \
  -f enable_linux_x64=false \
  -f mac_arm64_target=all -f mac_x64_target=all -f win_x64_target=all \
  -f mac_arm64_sign_mode=notarize -f mac_x64_sign_mode=notarize \
  -f mac_arm64_smoke_mode=core -f mac_x64_smoke_mode=core -f win_x64_smoke_mode=core

This creates test artifacts and isolated dogfood downloads without changing any channel's latest metadata. Windows signing remains off by default. core checks installation/startup; it does not exercise the full updater lifecycle. If the branch's packaged version is behind the current stable/beta feed, add -f force=true while retaining -f publish=false to permit that test build. Web source, tests and generated route types are validated in an independent same-commit job. Stable retains its existing verification gate; prerelease retains its independently dispatched, advisory verification.

Compare build step times separately from queueing, dependency installation, Apple notarization/retries, artifact availability, smoke, and cache transfer. The Windows outer cache keeps at most the newest complete entry per build layer within a 6 GiB payload budget. Final installers, portable ZIPs and unpacked trees remain reusable: dropping them made same-source repeat builds slower in the timing experiment. Historical copies are discarded. The cache snapshot's sizes.json reports retained/removed bytes by node. Snapshot compression/upload still costs time in the build job; saving the GitHub cache and pruning old outer caches run in cache-maintenance.yml, outside release concurrency. Cache maintenance failure does not change the build's artifact validity.

A changed outer cache prefix starts cold. Measure a second run at the same commit to assess the warm-cache tradeoff, and compare equivalent runner images, artifact targets and signing modes. A single run is observational evidence, not a stable percentage saving. publish=false also skips PostHog sourcemap upload, so its total duration is not directly comparable with a publishing run.