✏️ Edit Page

Universal Game Launcher Technical Wiki

Development & Contributing

Toolchain, quality gate, conventions, and contributing workflows

Development & Contributing

Thank you for contributing to Universal Game Launcher! This guide details the toolchain, quality gate, coding conventions, and pull request workflows.

🧰 Toolchain

🚦 Quality Gate

Before opening a pull request, all automated checks must pass with zero errors and zero warnings:

# 1. Typecheck & Svelte diagnostics (must report 0 errors, 0 warnings)
npm run check

# 2. Rust check & unit test suite
cargo check --manifest-path src-tauri/Cargo.toml
cargo test --manifest-path src-tauri/Cargo.toml

# 3. Production static asset build
npm run build

Build Order Matters: The Tauri desktop binary embeds the compiled SvelteKit frontend. On a fresh clone, always run npm install && npm run build before running a bare cargo check. The npm scripts (npm run tauri:dev, npm run tauri:build) orchestrate this ordering automatically.

🧩 Authoring Plugins & Modules

When implementing or improving a platform integration or metadata provider:

  1. Dedicated Files Only: Every plugin must live in its own dedicated file under src/lib/plugins/platforms/<id>.ts or src/lib/plugins/metadata/<id>.ts. Never combine multiple providers into monolithic files.
  2. Implement UniversalPlugin: Implement the UniversalPlugin interface from src/lib/plugins/framework.ts.
  3. Integrate Full Client Features: Platform plugins should implement all available client capabilities:
    • getLaunchSpec: Protocol URIs and CLI arguments.
    • getInstallUri / getUninstallUri: Storefront client install/uninstall protocols.
    • getFriendsListUri: Direct client social roster links.
    • getAchievementsUri: Client achievements view links.
    • getDefaultKnownFolders: Default installation search directories.
  4. Decoupled Settings: If your plugin accepts user configuration or API keys, export a getSettingsSchema() defining typed fields (text, password, boolean, select, path) and implement testConnection() for live verification.
  5. Register Your Plugin: Add your exported plugin to PLATFORM_PLUGINS or METADATA_PLUGINS in src/lib/plugins/index.ts.

🧾 Conventions

  • Code Formatting: Ensure Rust code adheres to cargo fmt and TypeScript adheres to Prettier.
  • Strict Typing: All frontend code must use TypeScript with strict null checks. Avoid any where typed interfaces can be declared.
  • Air-Gapped Invariant: Built-in plugins must never require external downloaders or runtime code generation. All core logic runs offline.
  • Non-Invasive Invariant: Never write directly to external storefront proprietary databases or cloud sync manifests (e.g. shortcuts.vdf).
  • Secrets & Credentials: Never commit personal API keys, tokens, or local absolute paths to the repository.

🔢 Versioning

Universal Game Launcher follows Semantic Versioning (SemVer). Version bumps must update all three configuration manifests in lockstep:

  • package.json
  • src-tauri/tauri.conf.json
  • src-tauri/Cargo.toml

✍️ Commit Message Guidelines

Use clear, imperative commit subjects:

feat(plugins): add Rockstar Games platform integration
fix(storage): resolve volume calculation on secondary APFS drive
docs(wiki): update in-app modular plugin development guide

🔐 Security & Vulnerability Reporting

  • Bugs & Feature Requests: Open an issue on the GitHub Issue Tracker.
  • Security Vulnerabilities: Report security issues privately per the instructions in SECURITY.md.

➡️ Next Steps