# ECP-0097: Tauri Desktop Bundle Boot via Relative Assets and Custom Protocol

Status: Proposed

## Decision

Make the Tauri desktop frontend boot from bundled assets reliably by:

- building the Tauri UI with relative Trunk asset URLs
- exposing the standard `custom-protocol` cargo feature so direct Cargo runs can load bundled
  assets instead of the dev server URL
- showing a minimal boot-status overlay until the Dioxus app mounts, so startup failures are no
  longer silent blank windows

## Motivation

The desktop shell was starting as a blank window even though the frontend bundle itself rendered
correctly over HTTP. Two separate issues caused that failure mode:

- the Trunk bundle used root-absolute asset paths, which are fragile for desktop asset loading
- `cargo run` without the Tauri custom-protocol feature followed the dev-server path instead of the
  bundled `dist/` assets

This made local desktop verification ambiguous and hid useful error information from operators.

## Scope

In scope:

- Tauri UI bundling for desktop
- direct Cargo run behavior for the desktop app
- a minimal visible frontend boot diagnostic

Out of scope:

- redesigning the viewer UI
- changing the web deployment path for non-Tauri surfaces
- full developer tooling around webview devtools

## Alternatives Considered

- Keep root-absolute Trunk paths and require `cargo tauri dev` only. Rejected because desktop
  bundle verification remains fragile and blank-window failures remain opaque.
- Add only the boot overlay. Rejected because diagnostics help, but the bundle/load path still
  needs correction.

## Rollout / Reversibility

- The change is local to the Tauri desktop app.
- Roll back by restoring the prior Trunk public URL and removing the package feature / boot
  overlay.