Building the Desktop App¶

This page covers how to compile the Go backend and package the full application as a Windows NSIS installer.

Step 1 — Build the Go backend¶

cd backend-go
go build -o backend.exe .
cd ..

The backend.exe binary must be present in backend-go/ before packaging.

Step 2 — Build the frontend¶

npm run build

Vite bundles the React application into dist/. The Electron wrapper loads this directory as a local HTML page.

Step 3 — Package with Electron Builder¶

npm run build:electron

This runs electron-builder with the configuration in package.json. The output NSIS installer is written to the output directory defined in package.json (C:\temp\calliope-release\ by default).

To change the output path, edit the build.directories.output field in package.json.

What gets packaged¶

electron-builder creates an ASAR archive from the dist/, electron/, backend-go/, and python/ directories. The backend binary and Python runner are excluded from the ASAR and placed in app.asar.unpacked/ so the OS can execute them:

"asarUnpack": [
  "backend-go/**/*",
  "python/**/*"
]

Installer options¶

The NSIS installer is configured as a one-click or guided install (user's choice):

Option	Value
One-click install	Disabled
Change install dir	Enabled
Desktop shortcut	Created
Start menu shortcut	Created

Build artifacts¶

Artifact	Location
Installer (`.exe`)	`C:\temp\calliope-release\TEMPO Setup x.x.x.exe`
Unpacked app dir	`C:\temp\calliope-release\win-unpacked\`

Versioning¶

The application version is read from the version field in package.json. Increment it before each release build:

"version": "1.0.0"

CI / CD¶

The GitLab CI pipeline (gitlab-ci.yml) currently only builds the documentation PDF. A separate pipeline stage for the Electron build can be added by including a Windows runner with Node.js and Go installed.