Tauri Debugger Skill

Debug Tauri 2.x desktop app issues including dialogs, CSP, plugins, and Vite integration.

Trigger Patterns

• Tauri dialog not opening / not appearing
• File save dialog doesn't work
• CSP (Content Security Policy) errors in Tauri
• virtual:pwa-register errors
• Click handlers not working in Tauri
• Tauri dev vs build differences
• XDG Portal issues on Linux

Quick Diagnostics

1. Check Tauri Detection in Vite

// vite.config.ts should have:
const isTauri =
  process.env.TAURI_ENV_PLATFORM !== undefined ||  // Build
  process.env.TAURI_DEV !== undefined              // Dev

// tauri.conf.json must set TAURI_DEV in dev:
"beforeDevCommand": "TAURI_DEV=true npm run dev"

2. Check XDG Portal (Linux)

# Portal service running?
systemctl --user status xdg-desktop-portal

# zenity installed (fallback)?
which zenity || echo "INSTALL: sudo apt install zenity"

# FileChooser portal working?
gdbus call --session \
    --dest org.freedesktop.portal.Desktop \
    --object-path /org/freedesktop/portal/desktop \
    --method org.freedesktop.DBus.Properties.Get \
    org.freedesktop.portal.FileChooser version

3. Check PWA Plugin Configuration

WRONG (causes CSP errors):

!isTauri && VitePWA({ ... })  // No stub modules provided!

CORRECT:

VitePWA({
  disable: isTauri,  // Provides empty stub modules
  ...
})

4. Check Dialog Plugin (Cargo.toml)

# For Linux with XDG Portal support:
tauri-plugin-dialog = { version = "2.6", default-features = false, features = ["xdg-portal"] }

# NOTE: Can't enable both gtk3 AND xdg-portal - they conflict!

5. Check Capabilities (src-tauri/capabilities/default.json)

{
  "permissions": [
    "dialog:default",
    "dialog:allow-save",
    "dialog:allow-open",
    "fs:default",
    {
      "identifier": "fs:allow-write-text-file",
      "allow": [
        { "path": "$DOWNLOAD/**" },
        { "path": "$HOME/**" }
      ]
    }
  ]
}

Common Issues & Solutions

Issue: CSP Error virtual:pwa-register/vue

Symptoms:

• Console shows "Refused to load virtual:pwa-register/vue because it does not appear in the script-src directive"
• Click handlers don't fire
• Vue events seem broken

Root Cause: PWA plugin conditionally excluded but import statements still exist in code. No stub modules provided.

Solution:

// vite.config.ts
VitePWA({
  disable: isTauri,  // This provides empty stub modules
  ...
})

Issue: isTauri is false during tauri dev

Symptoms:

• PWA enabled in Tauri dev mode
• Tauri-specific code not running

Root Cause: TAURI_ENV_PLATFORM only set during tauri build, not tauri dev.

Solution:

// tauri.conf.json
{
  "build": {
    "beforeDevCommand": "TAURI_DEV=true npm run dev"
  }
}

Issue: Dialog doesn't appear on Linux

Symptoms:

• dialog.save() returns immediately with no dialog
• No errors in console

Checklist:

1. Install zenity: sudo apt install zenity
2. Check XDG Portal is running: systemctl --user status xdg-desktop-portal
3. Use xdg-portal feature in Cargo.toml (not gtk3)
4. Ensure DISPLAY/WAYLAND_DISPLAY env vars are set

Issue: Blocking dialog freezes app

Symptoms:

• App hangs when calling blocking_save_file()

Root Cause: Blocking API can't acquire GTK MainContext from certain threads.

Solution: Use async API instead:

#[tauri::command(async)]
async fn save_file(app: AppHandle) -> Option<PathBuf> {
    app.dialog()
        .file()
        .save_file()
        .await
        .map(|p| p.into_path())
        .flatten()
}

Key Files Reference

Version Compatibility

Related Skills

• supabase-debugger - For Supabase connection issues in Tauri
• dev-debugging - General Vue/Pinia debugging