Laras
A language learning app that keeps working with no signal, on desktop and Android.
Desktop Applications
Desktop applications that own their data and run without a server
Installable software for work that needs the full machine: local files, local databases, native binaries and no dependency on someone else’s uptime.
A desktop application makes sense when the data should stay on the user’s computer, when the workload needs native code, or when the software has to run in a place with no reliable internet. It is more work to distribute than a web app, so the reasons should be concrete.
Laras is the reference here. The desktop build is a Tauri shell around a Vue interface, talking over loopback to a Go REST API that Tauri starts as a sidecar process, with one SQLite file on disk. Speech recognition runs in a second sidecar so its native dependencies never touch the main server build. Signed Windows installers and an update manifest are published with each release.
01
When a desktop build is justified
Data that should not leave the machine
Records, documents or learning progress kept in a local database, with export, import and backup under the user’s control.
Native workloads
Speech models, file processing or device integrations that need compiled binaries rather than a browser sandbox.
Unreliable or absent internet
Sites where the software must open and do its job with the network cable unplugged.
One codebase, several operating systems
A shared interface and backend packaged for Windows and Linux from the same source through a tagged CI release.
02
How the work is approached
Tauri instead of a bundled browser
The system webview keeps installers small and memory use low, which matters once speech models are already part of the package.
A real backend, locally
The same layered Go API that could serve a network client runs on 127.0.0.1. Business rules stay testable without a window open.
Releases as a pipeline
Pushing a version tag builds the installers and attaches them to a draft release for review before anything is published.
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