Development Setup

Prerequisites

1. Rust (via rustup):

   curl --proto '=https' --tlsv1.2 -sSf https://sh.rustup.rs | sh

2. Node.js 20+ — recommended via nvm or fnm

3. pnpm — the project’s package manager:

   npm i -g pnpm

4. SimC binary for your platform — see SimC Sidecar below

Getting Started

git clone https://github.com/aine-etke/wow-topgear.git
cd wow-topgear
pnpm install
pnpm tauri dev    # launches the app with hot reload

pnpm tauri dev starts both the Vite dev server (frontend hot reload) and the Tauri Rust backend. Frontend changes apply instantly; Rust changes trigger a recompile.

Frontend Only

If you’re working on frontend code and don’t need the Tauri shell:

pnpm dev          # Vite dev server only, no Tauri

SimC Sidecar Setup

The app bundles SimC as a Tauri sidecar. For local development, you need the SimC binary for your platform placed in src-tauri/binaries/ with the correct name:

Platform	Binary Name
macOS Apple Silicon	simc-aarch64-apple-darwin
macOS Intel	simc-x86_64-apple-darwin
Windows x64	simc-x86_64-pc-windows-msvc.exe

Download the latest SimC release from SimC GitHub Releases and rename the binary accordingly.

On macOS, make it executable:

chmod +x src-tauri/binaries/simc-aarch64-apple-darwin

Project Commands

Command	Description
pnpm install	Install dependencies
pnpm tauri dev	Dev mode with hot reload
pnpm tauri build	Production build (current platform)
pnpm dev	Frontend only (no Tauri shell)
pnpm test	Run Vitest test suite
pnpm season:validate	Validate season-config.ts
pnpm build:item-db	Regenerate items.db from SimC source

Project Structure

wow-topgear/
├── src/                       ← React frontend
│   ├── components/            ← UI components
│   ├── lib/                   ← Core logic modules
│   │   ├── parser.ts          ← SimC string parser
│   │   ├── combinator.ts      ← Combination generator
│   │   ├── profileset-builder.ts
│   │   ├── optimization-assembler.ts
│   │   ├── types.ts           ← Shared TypeScript types
│   │   └── presets/
│   │       └── season-config.ts  ← Season-specific data
│   ├── hooks/                 ← React hooks
│   └── App.tsx
├── src-tauri/                 ← Tauri / Rust backend
│   ├── src/
│   │   ├── main.rs
│   │   └── commands/          ← Tauri IPC commands
│   ├── binaries/              ← SimC sidecars (gitignored)
│   └── tauri.conf.json
├── docs/                      ← Internal reference docs
├── scripts/                   ← Build scripts
└── .github/workflows/         ← CI/CD

Stack

Layer	Technology
Frontend	React + Vite + TypeScript
Styling	Tailwind CSS
Desktop shell	Tauri 2.x (Rust)
Simulation engine	SimulationCraft (bundled sidecar)
Item database	SQLite (rusqlite with FTS5)
Package manager	pnpm
Testing	Vitest