Skip to content

Build from source

Pelton is Go + Wails on the backend, Svelte + TypeScript on the frontend. The Makefile at the repo root is the source of truth for build/run/package commands; this page just walks through using it.

Checklist

  • Install the prerequisites
  • Clone the repo
  • Run it in dev mode, or build a release binary

Prerequisites

  • Go 1.25 or newer
  • Node.js and pnpm (the frontend uses pnpm, not npm)

  • The Wails CLI, installed at the exact version this repo pins in go.mod:

    go install github.com/wailsapp/wails/v2/cmd/wails@$(go list -m -f '{{.Version}}' github.com/wailsapp/wails/v2)

    Installing a different Wails CLI version than the one pinned in go.mod can rewrite go.mod and the generated TypeScript bindings out from under you, the command above sidesteps that by matching them.

Platform-specific toolchains, only needed for the platform you're building for:

  • Linux: the GTK/WebKitGTK development packages Wails needs (see the Wails Linux guide for your distro's package names).
  • Windows: WebView2 (preinstalled on most modern Windows) and, if you want to build the installer, NSIS.
  • macOS: Xcode command line tools. Building the .dmg also needs create-dmg (brew install create-dmg).

Cross-compiling (building a Windows binary from macOS, for example) needs the target platform's toolchain too, and isn't always practical. Building on the target platform gets you a cleaner build.

  • Install the prerequisites

Clone the repo

git clone https://github.com/TRC-Loop/Pelton.git
cd Pelton
  • Clone the repo

Running in dev mode

make run

This installs Go and pnpm dependencies, regenerates the TypeScript bindings from the Go methods, and launches wails dev with hot reload for both the Go backend and the Svelte frontend. It points Pelton at an isolated PELTON_DEV config/database directory, so it never touches a real install's accounts, mail cache, or settings.

Building a release binary

make build-mac    # macOS, needs macOS
make build-win    # Windows, needs Windows for a clean build
make build-linux  # Linux

Each produces a binary under build/bin/. A couple of platforms have an extra packaging step:

  • macOS: make dmg (builds first, then packages build/bin/Pelton.dmg with a drag-to-Applications drop link).
  • Windows: wails build -platform windows/amd64 -nsis -ldflags "..." produces an NSIS installer instead of a bare .exe (the Makefile's build-win target builds the bare .exe; add -nsis yourself for an installer, matching what the release workflow does).

  • Linux: build-linux also copies build/linux/pelton.desktop next to the binary in build/bin/. Install the binary somewhere on your PATH, install the .desktop file to ~/.local/share/applications/, and give it an icon named pelton (see build/icons/).

  • Run it in dev mode, or build a release binary

Need help?

See Support.