stellarium-explorer

A desktop app explorer for writing and executing requests, and browsing Stellarium networks.

Running requests

Each workspace, collection or request can set the node that runs its requests, under Network settings. Requests use their own settings first, then their collection's, then their workspace's. A node's credentials come from the same scope as the node:

• API key: the node operator's API_KEY.
• API client: a client ID and secret from the Stellarium Platform's API clients page, and the operator API that issues run tokens (for example https://operator.stellarium.sh/v1). The app exchanges them for a run token, which lasts 15 minutes, and reuses it until shortly before it expires. On another organization's node, runs are paid from your organization's balance.

Secrets are kept in the OS keychain, never in workspace files.

The request page shows the most script tokens the request can execute. Nodes that charge per token bill only the tokens a run executes, which the response header shows after each run.

Running locally

The app is built with Tauri 2: a React + Vite frontend in src/ and a Rust backend in src-tauri/.

Prerequisites

• Node.js (LTS) and pnpm
• Rust 1.85 or newer (the backend uses the 2024 edition)
• Tauri's platform dependencies — see the Tauri prerequisites guide (on macOS this is the Xcode Command Line Tools: xcode-select --install)

Install dependencies

pnpm install

Start the app in development mode

pnpm tauri dev

This starts the Vite dev server on http://localhost:1420 and opens the desktop window with hot reload. The first run compiles the Rust backend and takes a few minutes; later runs are much faster.

Build a release bundle

pnpm tauri build

Installers and app bundles are written to src-tauri/target/release/bundle/.

Release builds also produce signed updater artifacts, so TAURI_SIGNING_PRIVATE_KEY (and TAURI_SIGNING_PRIVATE_KEY_PASSWORD) must be set; see Releasing.

Tests and checks

pnpm test    # frontend unit tests (Vitest)
pnpm check   # type-check, frontend tests, cargo test, and cargo clippy

cargo test -- --ignored in src-tauri runs tests against a live registry, node and operator. See live_registry_and_node and live_api_client in src-tauri/src/state.rs for the environment they need.

Releasing

The app checks GitHub Releases for updates shortly after launch and every 6 hours. When it finds one, it offers to download, install and restart. Update bundles are verified against the public key in src-tauri/tauri.conf.json.

One-time setup

1. Generate the updater signing key:

   pnpm tauri signer generate -w ~/.tauri/stellarium-explorer.key
   

2. Put the printed public key in plugins.updater.pubkey in src-tauri/tauri.conf.json.
3. Add the repository secrets TAURI_SIGNING_PRIVATE_KEY (the contents of the key file) and TAURI_SIGNING_PRIVATE_KEY_PASSWORD.

Back up the private key. Without it, installed copies can't be updated.

Publishing a version

1. Bump the version in package.json, src-tauri/tauri.conf.json and src-tauri/Cargo.toml.
2. Commit, tag vX.Y.Z, and push the tag. The Release workflow builds every platform and creates a draft release with latest.json.
3. Publish the draft. Installed apps pick up the update on their next check.