PixelCrusher

PixelCrusher is now a native macOS SwiftUI app backed by a Rust processing engine.

• Frontend (macOS): SwiftUI (Sources/PixelCrusherMac/main.swift)
• Backend/core: Rust (crates/pixelcrusher-core)
• Bridge: bundled Rust CLI (pixelcrusher-cli) with JSON stdin/stdout status events
• Bundled optimizers: cjpeg, pngquant, pngcrush, svgo, gifsicle (+ optional zopflipng)
• Manual update check: “Check for Updates” button in the app options pane (queries GitHub Releases, no auto-update daemon)

The Tauri app path is used for Windows/Linux installers, while macOS release artifacts are produced by the SwiftUI packaging pipeline.

Repository layout

pixelcrusher/
  Sources/PixelCrusherMac/             # SwiftUI macOS app
  Sources/PixelCrusherMacCore/         # Swift-side queue, options, backend bridge, tool resolver
  Tests/PixelCrusherMacCoreTests/      # Swift tests (resolver, backend invocation, bundle checks)
  crates/pixelcrusher-core/            # Rust processing core + CLI binary (pixelcrusher-cli)
  scripts/build_bundled_tools.sh       # Bundles optimizer toolchain for native macOS app
  scripts/prepare_tauri_bundled_tools.cjs # Builds bundled optimizer toolchain for Tauri win/linux
  scripts/check_tauri_bundle_tools.cjs # Validates bundled tools are present in built win/linux bundles
  scripts/build-macos.sh               # Builds .app + .dmg (with /Applications symlink)

Build & test

Rust tests

cargo test --manifest-path crates/pixelcrusher-core/Cargo.toml

Swift tests

swift test

macOS release (.app + .dmg)

bash scripts/build-macos.sh

Artifacts are written to:

• dist/PixelCrusher.app
• dist/PixelCrusher.dmg
• dist/PixelCrusher.zip

The DMG includes:

• PixelCrusher.app
• /Applications symlink (drag-and-drop install flow)

Windows/Linux Tauri bundled toolchain prep

Before building Tauri installers, prepare bundled tools and runtime:

npm run bundled-tools:prepare

This creates:

• src-tauri/resources/BundledTools/bin/* (required binaries: cjpeg, pngquant, pngcrush, gifsicle, svgo)
• src-tauri/resources/BundledTools/node/bin/node
• optional zopflipng when available

Post-build verification:

npm run bundled-tools:check:linux
npm run bundled-tools:check:windows

Manual update button (macOS app)

In the right-side Options pane, click Check for Updates.

Behavior:

• Calls GitHub API repos/lubomirmolin/pixelcrusher/releases/latest
• Parses semantic versions from the current app bundle version and release tag (supports vX.Y.Z)
• If a newer release exists: shows version + notes + Open Download
• If current version is latest: shows up-to-date confirmation
• No background polling / no automatic install

GitHub Actions CI + Releases

Workflows:

• .github/workflows/ci-artifacts.yml

  • Trigger: pushes + pull requests
  • Builds installer artifacts and uploads them as CI artifacts:
    • macOS native: .dmg, .zip
    • Windows (Tauri): .msi, .exe (NSIS)
    • Linux (Tauri): .AppImage, .deb

• .github/workflows/release.yml

  • Trigger: git tags matching v* (for example v1.2.0)
  • Builds all platform artifacts and publishes them to GitHub Releases

Release flow

1. Ensure version/tag is ready.
2. Push a semver tag:

git tag v1.0.0
git push origin v1.0.0

3. GitHub Release is created/updated with generated notes + installer files.

Runtime notes

At launch, the app resolves optimizer tools in this order:

1. PIXELCRUSHER_<TOOL>_PATH override
2. Bundled app tools (BundledTools/bin/*) resolved from app resources (macOS app bundle + Tauri win/linux resources)
3. Host PATH

Bundled tools directory override:

• PIXELCRUSHER_BUNDLED_TOOLS_DIR

Third-party bundled tooling licenses

See THIRD_PARTY.md for bundled optimizer/runtime components and upstream license references.