Development

Building from source, architecture, tests, and how to contribute.

Stack

Backend: Go 1.25+, Wails 2.11, SQLite.
Frontend: React 19, TypeScript (strict), Vite 8, Tailwind 4, TanStack Query v5, zustand v5, Radix UI, i18next.
Platforms: Windows x64, Linux x64 (GTK3 + WebKitGTK 4.1).

Building from source

Requirements: Go 1.25+, Node.js 22+, Wails 2.11, a C compiler, and the Wails platform dependencies.

git clone https://github.com/AmadoMuerte/Waxlight-launcher.git
cd Waxlight-launcher
npm ci --include=dev --prefix frontend
go install github.com/wailsapp/wails/v2/cmd/wails@v2.11.0
cd cmd/waxlight
wails dev

Production build from the repository root:

make wails-build

Architecture

The Go code is layered:

Layer	Purpose
`internal/app`	Composition root (`wire.go`, `adapters.go`): constructs every dependency and owns startup/shutdown
`internal/<feature>`	Features: `accounts`, `instances`, `versions`, `launching`, `sessions`, `mods`, `snapshots`, `recovery`, `servers`, `settings`, `operations`, `updates`, `telemetry`, `statistics`, `gamelog`, `downloads`, `events`, `mutations`, `errs`
`internal/platform/*`	Adapters: `sqlite`, `snapshots`, `process`, `logging`, `dataroot`, `credentials`, `filesystem`, `downloader`, mod/server catalogs, etc.
`internal/transport/wails`	Wails controllers and DTOs

cmd/waxlight/main.go starts Wails; feature logic stays independent of Wails and React. The full backend architecture is documented in docs/backend-architecture.md. The frontend follows Feature-Sliced Design (app/, pages/, features/, entities/, shared/, widgets/); backend calls go only through frontend/src/shared/api.

Checks and tests

make test           # frontend production build (i18n + tsc), then Go and frontend tests
make format         # gofmt + oxfmt
make lint           # Go static analysis (Linux target) + oxlint
make vet            # go vet for the current platform
make security       # prohibited-pattern and vulnerability checks
make release-check VERSION=X.Y.Z  # full release validation

Focused Go tests: go test ./path/to/package -run TestName. The pre-commit hook runs make format-check lint and blocks commits on failure.

Branching and PRs

main is the stable production branch; dev is the integration branch.
Working branches start from dev with prefixes like feat/, fix/, refactor/, chore/, docs/, test/, ci/.
Normal PRs target dev; only the dev → main promotion PR may target main.
Direct commits to main and dev are forbidden, as is force-pushing them.

Security rules for contributors

Never put passwords, TOTP codes, pre-login tokens, session keys, or signatures in DTOs, generated bindings, logs, errors, fixtures, URLs, process arguments, environment variables, or exports.
Production credentials use native OS storage only; no plaintext or in-memory fallback.
Features that copy/export/diagnose/archive instances must remove the four authentication properties from clientsettings.json.
Logging goes only through internal/platform/logging (slog); stdlib log and stdout prints are forbidden.

Localization

The canonical locale is frontend/src/shared/i18n/locales/en.json: translate values only; preserve keys, {{...}} interpolations, and plural suffixes. Validation: npm run check:i18n --prefix frontend. Adding a language also requires registration in languages.ts, i18n/index.ts, and backend validation. The interface is already available in 10 languages: English, Русский, Беларуская, Español, Français, Deutsch, Қазақша, Polski, Svenska, Português.

How to help

Code, translations, testing, documentation, bug reports, and focused feature proposals are welcome. Before opening a PR, read CONTRIBUTING.md. Report vulnerabilities privately via the security policy. Questions and discussions — on Discord.