SilkCast

SilkCast is a desktop IPTV client built with Tauri (Rust backend) and React (TypeScript frontend).

This project is a client only.
No channels, providers, or playlists are bundled.

Status

SilkCast is in active development. Core source import, catalog browsing, playback, recents, and settings are implemented.

Features Available Today

• Import and manage M3U playlist sources (URL or local file)
• Import and manage Xtream sources (server URL, username, password)
• Edit, refresh, and delete sources
• Browse Live TV, Movies, and Series catalogs
• Filter by group, search by name, and toggle favorites
• Series episode browsing for Xtream sources
• Live EPG now-playing labels and source-level EPG refresh for Xtream live channels
• Recents view split by media type
• In-app web playback (Vidstack) for live and on-demand streams
• MPV pop-out playback
• Settings for hardware decode, startup behavior, default player, and theme
• Local persistence with SQLite, plus logs and crash reports

Tech Stack

• Frontend: React 19, TypeScript, Vite, Tailwind CSS v4, shadcn/ui, Zustand
• Desktop runtime: Tauri v2
• Backend: Rust
• Storage: SQLite (rusqlite bundled)
• Playback: Web player (@vidstack/react) and libmpv/mpv
• Testing: Vitest + Testing Library (frontend), cargo test (backend)

Project Layout

• src/ - React app, pages, UI components, store, and API clients
• src-tauri/ - Rust backend commands, playback engine, source import/parsing, storage
• .github/workflows/tests.yml - CI test job for Windows and Linux
• .github/workflows/release.yml - tagged Windows installer release workflow

Requirements

• Node.js 22+ (CI uses Node 22)
• npm
• Rust toolchain (stable)
• Tauri prerequisites for your OS: Tauri v2 prerequisites
• MPV requirements:
  • Embedded/libmpv backend: dynamic library available on your library path
    • Windows candidates: mpv-2.dll, libmpv-2.dll, mpv.dll
    • Linux candidates: libmpv.so.2, libmpv.so
  • MPV pop-out: mpv executable available on your PATH (mpv or mpv.exe)

Linux packages used in CI

sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install -y \
  libwebkit2gtk-4.1-dev \
  libgtk-3-dev \
  libayatana-appindicator3-dev \
  librsvg2-dev \
  patchelf

Getting Started (Development)

git clone https://github.com/nalyDzzz/SilkCast.git
cd SilkCast
npm install
npm run tauri dev

For full desktop behavior, use npm run tauri dev instead of only npm run dev.

Scripts

• npm run dev - Start Vite dev server
• npm run tauri dev - Run the full desktop app in development
• npm run build - Build frontend assets
• npm run tauri build - Build desktop bundles
• npm run prepare:mpv-runtime - Validate/copy Windows MPV runtime DLLs into bundle resources
• npm run build:windows:exe - Build NSIS installer (.exe)
• npm run build:windows:installers - Build NSIS + MSI installers
• npm run build:windows:installers:strict - Same as above but fail if required MPV DLLs are missing
• npm run test - Run Vitest in watch mode
• npm run test:run - Run frontend tests once
• npm run test:rust - Run Rust tests
• npm run test:all - Run frontend and Rust tests
• npm run test:coverage - Run frontend tests with coverage

Building Windows Installers

1. Place MPV runtime DLLs in a folder (must include one of mpv-2.dll, libmpv-2.dll, or mpv.dll).
2. Set MPV_DLL_DIR to that folder.
3. Build installers.

$env:MPV_DLL_DIR="C:\path\to\mpv\bin"
npm ci
npm run build:windows:installers

Artifacts are produced in:

• src-tauri/target/release/bundle/nsis/*.exe
• src-tauri/target/release/bundle/msi/*.msi

Release Tags (GitHub)

Push a tag that starts with v (for example v0.1.0) to trigger the release workflow:

git tag v0.1.0
git push origin v0.1.0

The workflow builds Windows installers and uploads them to a draft GitHub Release.

Data and Logs

App data is stored under the OS-specific Tauri app data directory.
The backend creates:

• storage/silkcast.db - SQLite database
• logs/silkcast.log - application log
• crash/ - panic/crash reports

Platform Notes

• Development and CI currently target Windows and Linux.
• On Wayland compositors (including Hyprland), MPV window embedding is not supported. SilkCast falls back to MPV pop-out mode for that path.

Legal

SilkCast is a media client only.

• No IPTV providers or playlists are bundled
• No scraping modules are included
• Users are responsible for supplying legally obtained sources

License

No license file has been added yet.