mr.zeroandClaude Opus 5
cb8a28b156
The client had our store's config URL compiled into it, which meant a second store — or anybody else's site — needed a release of this app. It now asks `GET /api/stores` and installs what the site offers: one record and there is nothing to decide, several and the setup screen shows a picker. From a record the client works the rest out. `storeRepositoryUrl` gives the `config.json` to read, and that file stays the authority on how the store behaves; `catalogUrl` and `name` override its `store.base_url` and `store.name`, because the registry is what says which catalog a store is *for*. The store id — which names the store home and the folder games land in — comes from the repository name, so `ttg-desktop-store` becomes `ttg`. A repository with no `config.json` still installs: the engine merges whatever it is handed onto its own defaults, so the client writes a three-field config and the store behaves like the default one pointed at that catalog. That was worth having rather than an error, and it is tested. The registry address is now the single thing about a particular site left in the client, and `STORES_API` overrides it — which is how this was tested, against a local endpoint serving the same payload the site returns, with one store that has a config and one that has not. Both installed; the engine listed all ten titles with the synthesised config. `npm run uitest` now passes on either outcome — the grid when a store is present, the setup gate with a populated picker when there is none — and it reports both, so the gate cannot silently regress into an empty screen. Run with the registry unreachable it produces the retry gate, and fails, which is the honest verdict: a client that cannot reach the registry cannot set anything up. Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 5 (1M context) <noreply@anthropic.com>
warp-engine-desktop-gui — a window for the desktop store
A graphical client for
warp-engine-desktop-store:
the catalog as a grid of cards, one click to install a title into your own
application menu, one to play it, one to remove it. Linux, macOS and Windows.
The CLI stays the product; this is its front door. Every action here runs
desktop_store.py, so there is one catalog logic, one state file and one delete
guard — the window never touches the filesystem itself.
It is also the Windows install path. The store's own installer is
curl … | sh, which Windows does not have; this app downloads the store engine
itself, into the same folder the shell installer would use.
Which store it installs is not baked in: the client asks a registry — GET /api/stores on the site — and each record says what the store is called, which
catalog it serves and where its configuration lives.
What it needs
- Python 3 on the machine, because the store is a Python program. The app
looks for
python3,pythonandpy -3, and says so plainly if none answer. - Nothing else at runtime. No Node, no package manager, no admin rights: the store installs under your own user account.
Install
Grab the package for your machine from the releases and open it. On first run, if there is no store on the machine yet, the window offers to download one — that is the whole setup.
Opening it on macOS
The build is ad-hoc signed but not notarised, so macOS asks before running a copy that came from a browser. The reliable way through:
xattr -dr com.apple.quarantine "/Applications/WarpEngine Store.app"
If macOS offers Open Anyway under System Settings ▸ Privacy & Security after a blocked attempt, that works as well. Notarisation is the only thing that removes the step entirely, and it needs a paid Apple Developer ID.
Nothing the store itself downloads is affected: Python fetches those files, and Python does not set the quarantine flag.
v1.0.0 could not be opened at all — it reported "is damaged". The bundle had
never been signed; only its main executable carried the linker's ad-hoc signature,
so there was no resource seal and Gatekeeper refused it outright rather than
asking. scripts/after-pack.js signs the bundle during the build now, and the
result verifies as valid on disk.
Which store it installs
On first run the client fetches the registry and offers what it finds. One store and there is nothing to decide; several and the setup screen shows a picker.
[
{
"name": "Teletype Games",
"catalogUrl": "https://teletypegames.org",
"storeRepositoryUrl": "https://git.teletypegames.org/stores/ttg-desktop-store"
}
]
From a record the client works out the rest:
storeRepositoryUrl→ the store'sconfig.json, read from…/raw/branch/master/config.json. That file is the authority on how the store behaves: which platforms, which statuses, where things land.catalogUrlandnameoverride the config's ownstore.base_urlandstore.name. The registry says which catalog this store is for, so it wins.- the store id — which names the store home and the folder games land in —
comes from the repository name:
ttg-desktop-storebecomesttg. Aconfig.jsonthat sets its own id keeps it.
A repository without a config.json still works. The engine merges whatever
it is handed onto its own defaults, so the client writes a three-field config and
the store behaves like the default one pointed at that catalog.
The registry address is the single thing about a particular site left in the
client, and STORES_API overrides it:
STORES_API=http://127.0.0.1:8731/stores npm start
Adding a store is therefore a database row on the site — see its ActiveAdmin panel — and not a release of this app.
Use
- Install all fetches everything the catalog offers for this machine.
- A card's button is Install, Update, or Play / Open once it is there. Remove takes a title back out.
- Each card says whether it is native — unpacked and run locally, works offline — or hosted: a browser build the catalog serves rather than packages, so its entry opens a page and needs the network.
- The Log drawer at the bottom carries the store's own output verbatim, and next to it are buttons that open the two folders everything lands in.
- The language follows the system and can be switched; English and Hungarian.
Anything installed from the window is a normal menu entry, so it also shows up in your launcher, Dock or Start menu — the app does not have to be running to play.
Development
make is the front door; it wraps the npm scripts so the useful sequences have
names. make on its own lists everything.
| Target | What it does |
|---|---|
make setup |
install the dependencies (checks the Node version first) |
make start |
run the app against whatever store is installed |
make smoke |
drive the store bridge with no window at all |
make uitest |
load the window once and report what rendered |
make test |
both checks |
make dist |
package for this machine (dist-mac, dist-win, dist-linux to pick) |
make publish |
upload the packages already in dist/ to the Gitea release |
make release |
package and publish in one go |
make clean |
remove the built packages (distclean also drops node_modules) |
make version |
the versions involved, including whether tea is there |
The npm scripts still work directly (npm start, npm run dist:mac) — the
Makefile adds no logic of its own beyond the release step.
Publishing a release
make release
The tag comes from package.json, so npm version patch is the only place a
version is set. The release is created if it is not there yet, and an attachment
whose name is already on it is replaced rather than refused — so a rebuild and
a second make publish lands rather than erroring.
Release notes come from RELEASE_NOTES.md when the file is present, otherwise the
release gets a one-line note. The repository is read from origin, so a fork
publishes to the fork.
It needs tea installed and logged in — the devarea repo has make tea for that.
Overridable: TAG, REPO, TEA_LOGIN, NOTES, DIST.
make publish TAG=v1.0.2 # a tag other than package.json's
scripts/release.sh dist/one-file.dmg # just one package
Node 22 or newer is needed to install, not to run: Electron's own installer
is ESM-only, and older Node cannot require() it. The packaged app carries its
own runtime.
npm run uitest runs with its own user-data directory and without the
single-instance lock. Otherwise a copy the user already has open swallows the test
process, which exits 0 and reads as a pass.
Both test scripts accept a sandbox store instead of the real one, which is how this repository is tested without touching a working installation:
STORE_ROOT=/tmp/sandbox-root npm start
SMOKE_HOME=/tmp/sandbox-root/ttg-desktop npm run smoke
How it is put together
| File | What it does |
|---|---|
main.js |
the window, the IPC, and the one-call-at-a-time guard |
preload.js |
the entire surface the renderer gets — no Node reaches it |
lib/store.js |
finds the store and Python, runs the CLI, parses its JSON |
lib/bootstrap.js |
reads the registry, then downloads the engine, the core and a config |
lib/i18n.js |
the two string tables |
renderer/ |
plain HTML, CSS and JS — no framework, no build step |
Makefile |
the named sequences; no logic of its own beyond the release |
scripts/release.sh |
creates the Gitea release and replaces its attachments |
scripts/after-pack.js |
ad-hoc signs the macOS bundle during packaging |
contextIsolation is on, nodeIntegration off, sandbox on, and the page
carries a CSP that allows only its own script and stylesheet plus images over
HTTPS. Links open in the real browser; the window itself never navigates.
lib/store.js talks to the CLI through --json, which puts data on stdout and
the human-readable log on stderr. That flag arrived with engine 1.1.0, and the
client checks: an older store is met with an offer to refresh it rather than a
failed call.
The bridge keeps an ENGINES list with one entry today. The RetroArch store has
the same command shape, so a second entry is the whole change needed to drive it
too — that is why the indirection is there.
Verified, and not
Exercised on macOS (arm64), with the packaged app from the release rather than a
dev run: the store is discovered, the catalog lists, a sync installs, the window
renders the installed state, and npm run uitest passes with the grid rendered
and both languages in the picker. The bootstrap download was run into an empty
directory and the resulting store answered the bridge.
The registry path was exercised against a local endpoint serving the same payload
the site returns, with two records: one store whose repository has a config.json
and one without. Both installed, and the engine listed all ten titles with the
synthesised config. npm run uitest was run twice — with a store present it shows
the grid, with none it shows the setup gate and its picker carries both names —
and once more with the registry unreachable, which produces the retry gate.
The signing was measured rather than assumed, by setting the quarantine flag on a
copy unzipped from the release artifact: codesign --verify --deep --strict is
clean, and syspolicy_check reports only the expected "adhoc signed" warning.
A quarantined copy is still stopped until it is approved — that part is Gatekeeper
policy, not a fault in the package.
Not tried on Linux or Windows. The paths and the launch behaviour are written
for them, and the store CLI itself has the same gap — .desktop and .lnk
launchers have been generated and read, but nobody has clicked one.