Lichess Local Engine

Recent versions of Stockfish have gotten too big to run in the browser. Lichess has created an API that allows you to run an engine on your own computer and send the results back to their Analysis page. This is a desktop app that intends to make it easy to use.

Download

Available for Windows, Mac, and Linux.

Still in development, but you can download the preview version here:

https://github.com/fitztrev/lichess-tauri/releases

Development Setup

1. Follow prerequisities for installing Rust + Tauri here: https://tauri.app/v1/guides/getting-started/prerequisites

2. Run project

   npm install
   npm run tauri dev

Architecture + How It Works

This is a Tauri-based app -- Tauri is like Electron except it uses Rust instead of Node.js. This app is written in Rust and Typescript.

Tauri uses the OS's native webview. It can be compiled to a native binary for Windows, Mac, and Linux.

Development Notes

Commands and documentation related to development of this app.

Testing

# test the utility functions for the frontend
npm run test

# same tests but in watch mode
npm run watch

Formatting

Run linter

# for frontend
npm run format

# for backend
cargo fmt --check --manifest-path=src-tauri/Cargo.toml
cargo clippy --all-targets --all-features --manifest-path=src-tauri/Cargo.toml

Auto-check format on commit

npm run prepare

Will apply the .husky commit hooks to your local git repo.

Icon generation

All the app icons get generated from a single source SVG. To update the icons, run:

npx svgexport src/assets/lichess-pad4-white.svg icon.png 64x
npm run tauri icon icon.png

Clear the cached build for it to take effect locally:

rm -rf src-tauri/target
npm run tauri dev

SQLite dev

Uses diesel to manage migrations.

cargo install diesel_cli --no-default-features --features sqlite

To add a new migration:

cd src-tauri
diesel migration generate <migration_name>

For testing migrations:

cd src-tauri
diesel --database-url ~/.local/share/lichess-tauri/lichess-tauri.sqlite migration redo

How to release a new version

1. Test build locally

   npm run tauri build

2. Tag the new version:

   git checkout main
   npm version 0.x.x
   git push origin main --tags

   Github workflow will build the app for each OS and add them to a release.

   • Pre-release tag format: 0.0.6-2

3. Manually edit the release and add the changelog to the description