Integrate Tauri in a Vite project to build cross-platform apps

Make sure to setup your environment for Tauri development.

# pnpm
pnpm add -D vite-plugin-tauri @tauri-apps/cli
# yarn
yarn add -D vite-plugin-tauri @tauri-apps/cli
# npm
npm i -D vite-plugin-tauri @tauri-apps/cli

// vite.config.js
import { defineConfig } from "vite";
import tauri from "vite-plugin-tauri"; // 1. import the plugin

export default defineConfig({
  plugins: [
    tauri(), // 2. add it to the plugins list
  ],

  // 3. optional but recommended
  clearScreen: false,
  server: {
    open: false,
  },
});

You can pass arguments to the tauri CLI by prefixing the args with -- -t/--tauri, for example:

pnpm dev -- -t --verbose --release

The -- is necessary, otherwise vite will crash with unkown CLI argument and -t or --tauri marks the start of the tauri arguments.

You can also use a separate config file to add the vite-plugin-tauri plugin which allows you to define a separate script in package.json to develop your tauri app that won't conflict with your normal vite web development flow.

1. Create a vite.config.tauri.js with the following content

   import { defineConfig, mergeConfig } from "vite";
   import baseViteConfig from "./vite.config";
   import tauri from "vite-plugin-tauri";
   
   export default defineConfig(
     mergeConfig(baseViteConfig, {
       plugins: [tauri()],
   
       // optional but recommended
       clearScreen: false,
       server: {
         open: false,
       },
     }),
   );

2. Modify package.json:

   // package.json
   {
     ..
     "scripts": {
       "dev": "vite",
       "build": "vite build",
   +   "dev:tauri": "vite --config vite.config.tauri.js",
   +   "build:tauri": "vite build --config vite.config.tauri.js",
       "preview": "vite preview"
     },
     ..
   }

MIT © Amr Bashir