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authorChristophe Besson <cbesson@gmail.com>2026-08-18 10:30:59 +0200
committerChristophe Besson <cbesson@gmail.com>2026-08-18 10:30:59 +0200
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tree2a9ae0352ec09aca413448c9b2e5e9a638b36471 /packages/meshbay-client/README.md
parent30e855f55f1d920b25da0bdd8e538c249d3c0c26 (diff)
downloadmeshbay-68bfe56a19aeb4c16f8e185fc85d8eee61aef78f.tar.gz
fix(client): the desktop client runs, and running it corrected three things
Electron 42 / Chromium 148, launched under xvfb. The packaged interface mounts over `app://` with a secure context, `crypto.subtle` present, Argon2 WASM loaded, and no console errors. Three statements in the design were wrong, and only launching it found them. **A CSP in a `<meta>` tag silently drops `frame-ancestors`.** Chromium says so in the console. A policy carrying a directive that does nothing is worse than one without it, so the policy is sent as a header by the protocol handler — which is also the only thing serving the interface, so one source instead of two. **`secure: true` is not what makes the service worker register.** Chromium refuses a worker on a custom scheme whatever its privileges: "The URL protocol of the current origin ('app://meshbay') is not supported". The application has no service worker and needs none — it saves through a native dialog, which is the better of the two paths. `sw.js` stays in the package because the same files serve the browser, where it is one of only three ways to write a large file. What `secure: true` is actually for was measured at the same time: without it **the whole of `crypto.subtle` is undefined**. The first probe loaded a `data:` URL and every algorithm failed with TypeError, AES-GCM included — which is why the probe was rewritten before believing its answer. X25519 and Ed25519 are both present on Chromium 148, settling the version floor left open as O6. **The renderer cannot call the hub.** Its origin is `app://meshbay` and CORS refuses it. The hub has *no CORS middleware at all* — its API is reachable from no web origin whatever — and that is worth keeping. Widening it for `app://meshbay` would be worse than it looks: that origin is not a credential, since any Electron application can claim the same scheme and host name. So every hub call leaves from the main process, exactly as saving a file does, and it refuses any origin that is not the hub the user signed in to. `platform.apiFetch()` is `fetch` in a browser and the bridge in the application, so no caller has to know which it got. `transport.js` reaches it through a global because it is a classic script, not a module — the alternative was a second fetch path, which is how two callers of one hub start disagreeing about how to reach it. Verified from inside Electron: the main process gets 200 from /v1/hub/version, the renderer is refused by CORS, and **a script served by the hub is refused by the policy** — T3's mitigation demonstrated rather than asserted. Build note, written into the README because it will bite the next person: **Ubuntu 24.04's nodejs 18 cannot install Electron at all** — the download script `require()`s an ESM module, which Node gained in 22. Node 24 LTS, checksum-verified against nodejs.org, is what this was built with. package-lock.json is committed; builds use `npm ci`, not `npm install`. 799 tests pass, e2e.py still passes end to end. The session harness needed a platform stub: it lifts `hubFetch` out of app.js as text and runs it, so the adapter is now part of the environment it models. Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 5 <noreply@anthropic.com>
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+# MeshBay desktop client
+
+The interface ships **inside this package** and loads from disk. A shell that
+points a WebView at the hub's `/app/` is a browser with a different icon and
+fixes nothing — that is finding T3, and removing it is the reason this exists.
+
+## Building
+
+Needs **Node ≥ 22**. Ubuntu 24.04 ships nodejs 18, which cannot install Electron
+at all: the download script `require()`s an ESM module, which Node gained only in
+22. Fedora 44 is fine.
+
+ # once, on a machine whose distro is too old:
+ curl -fsSLO https://nodejs.org/dist/v24.19.0/node-v24.19.0-linux-x64.tar.xz
+ curl -fsSLO https://nodejs.org/dist/v24.19.0/SHASUMS256.txt
+ grep " node-v24.19.0-linux-x64.tar.xz$" SHASUMS256.txt | sha256sum -c -
+ sudo tar -xJf node-v24.19.0-linux-x64.tar.xz -C /opt/nodejs --strip-components=1
+ export PATH=/opt/nodejs/bin:$PATH
+
+ npm ci # not `npm install` — the lockfile is the build input
+ npm run sync-ui # copy the interface from the hub package
+ npm start
+
+`ui/` is generated and is not committed. The interface has exactly one source,
+`packages/meshbay-hub/src/meshbay_hub/static/`, and a silent fork is the only
+real way to end up maintaining it twice.
+
+## Running headless
+
+ xvfb-run -a ./node_modules/electron/dist/electron --no-sandbox .
+
+## What it does not have
+
+**No service worker.** Chromium refuses to register one on a custom scheme, so
+the streamed-download path never runs here — the application saves through a
+native dialog instead, which is the better of the two. `sw.js` is still shipped
+because the same files serve the browser, where it is one of only three ways to
+write a large file.
+
+**No direct network from the renderer.** Its origin is `app://meshbay`, which
+CORS refuses, and the hub has no CORS middleware at all — a posture worth
+keeping. Every hub call leaves from the main process, which refuses any origin
+that is not the hub the user signed in to.