Desktop UI

CheckAI now ships with a dedicated Electron desktop application in desktop/ in addition to the existing browser UI.

Goals

The desktop app keeps the full engine workspace available while adding desktop-native workflows:

• Persistent sessions for saved backend URLs, launch arguments, and the last active view
• Local backend launch controls so the app can start and stop checkai serve
• Inline log inspection for backend stdout/stderr
• Dedicated multi-panel layout with dashboard, game, board, analysis, archive, engine, log, and settings views
• Keyboard shortcuts including a quick-action palette (⌘/Ctrl + K)

Technology Stack

Layer	Technology
Main process	Electron
Renderer	Svelte + TypeScript
Styling	SCSS + Tailwind CSS v4
Bundler	Vite
Packaging	electron-builder

Build and Run

cd desktop
bun install --frozen-lockfile
bun run build
bun run start

For local packaging:

cd desktop
bun run pack   # unpacked app bundle
bun run dist   # installable artifacts

Workflow

1. Open the Engine view and set the backend URL you want to target.
2. Optionally configure a local checkai executable, launch arguments, working directory, opening book, and tablebase paths in Engine.
3. Use Start backend to launch the saved local profile.
4. Use Dashboard, Games, Board, Analysis, and Archive to move through the desktop workspace views. The Board view carries a live engine panel: press Evaluate (or switch on Auto) to get an evaluation bar, the top candidate lines, opening-book statistics and the tablebase verdict for the position in front of you, with configurable search time, line count and thread count.
5. Use Logs to inspect stdout/stderr from the local backend process.
6. Open Settings to adjust theme, compact mode, notifications, developer mode, and board orientation.

Notes

• The desktop app complements the existing web UI; it does not replace it.
• Saved desktop state is stored in Electron's user data directory.
• Release automation publishes updater-compatible desktop artifacts alongside native installers for each platform (.deb on Linux, .dmg on macOS, .msi on Windows).
• Windows release builds keep the updater-compatible NSIS installer in addition to the MSI package so in-app desktop updates can still be applied consistently.