capacitor-platforms

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Guides the agent through adding, configuring, and using the Capawesome desktop platforms for Capacitor — @capawesome/capacitor-electron and @capawesome/capacitor-tauri. Covers choosing between Electron and Tauri, installation and scaffolding, sync/run workflows, live reload, deep links, plugin compatibility (Electron plugin implementations and web fallback; Tauri plugin tiers), packaging, and app updates. Do not use for the Android or iOS platforms, installing individual Capacitor plugins, migrating Capacitor apps or plugins to newer versions, or non-Capacitor desktop frameworks.

2installs

Sourcecapawesome-team/skills

Added on2026-08-17

NPX Install

npx skill4agent add capawesome-team/skills capacitor-platforms

SKILL.md Content

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Capacitor Platforms (Desktop)

Bring a Capacitor app to macOS, Windows, and Linux with the Capawesome desktop platforms:

@capawesome/capacitor-electron

and

@capawesome/capacitor-tauri

. Both use the standard Capacitor workflow (

cap add

/

cap sync

/

cap run

), report

Capacitor.isNativePlatform()

as

true

, and deliver deep links through the standard

@capacitor/app

events.

Prerequisites

Requirement	Electron	Tauri
Node.js	LTS (18+)	LTS (18+)
Capacitor	6+	8+
Electron	>= 28 (installed by the scaffold)	—
Rust toolchain + system dependencies	—	Required — see the Tauri prerequisites guide

On Capacitor 6 and 7, the Capacitor CLI ignores the exit code of platform hooks — a failing

npx cap sync

still reports success. Check the log output for

[capacitor-electron]

errors. Capacitor 8 fails the command properly.

Agent Behavior

Auto-detect before asking. Read
```
package.json
```
and the Capacitor config to determine installed platforms and plugins before prompting the user.
Help choose the platform first. If the user has not committed to Electron or Tauri, apply Step 1 — plugin requirements usually decide it.
Always use the full package name with Capacitor CLI commands (e.g.
```
npx cap sync @capawesome/capacitor-electron
```
). A bare
```
npx cap sync electron
```
or
```
npx cap sync tauri
```
silently does nothing.
Check plugin compatibility early. On Tauri, list the app's Capacitor plugins and verify each is covered by a web implementation or a curated shim (see
```
references/tauri.md
```
) before recommending it.

Procedures

Step 1: Choose a Platform

The app needs…	Choose
Reuse of Capacitor plugins with native (Node) desktop implementations	Electron
Web-bundle over-the-air updates	Electron (ships a bundle-serving primitive; Tauri compiles web assets into the binary — only full signed binary updates)
A single, predictable bundled Chromium across all OSes	Electron
Smallest binaries (~3–10 MB vs ~85–120 MB) and lowest memory use	Tauri
A deny-by-default security model with a Rust core	Tauri
No Rust toolchain in dev/CI	Electron

Tauri's trade-offs are inherent, not bugs: no Node runtime (so no arbitrary Capacitor plugin reuse), three different system webviews (WKWebView/WebView2/WebKitGTK), no web-bundle OTA, and a required Rust toolchain. If in doubt, read the Honest Limitations section of the Tauri platform README.

Step 2: Install and Add the Platform

Electron:

bash

npm install @capawesome/capacitor-electron
npx cap add @capawesome/capacitor-electron
cd electron && npm install && cd ..

Then add a

postinstall

script to the app's root

package.json

so the Electron dependencies are always installed together with the main app dependencies:

json

{
  "scripts": {
    "postinstall": "cd electron && npm ci && cd .."
  }
}

Tauri (verify

rustc --version

works first; if not, stop and walk the user through the Tauri prerequisites):

bash

npm install @capawesome/capacitor-tauri
npx cap add @capawesome/capacitor-tauri

Both scaffolds contain only files the user owns (config, icons, a few-line entry point); all runtime logic lives in the versioned package/crate and updates via

npm update

/

cargo update

.

Step 3: Sync and Run

bash

npx cap sync @capawesome/capacitor-electron   # or @capawesome/capacitor-tauri
npx cap run @capawesome/capacitor-electron    # or @capawesome/capacitor-tauri

Electron sync copies web assets and regenerates the plugin manifest. Tauri sync additionally scans the app's Capacitor plugin dependencies and generates a deny-by-default capability file, the curated

tauri-plugin-*

crate dependencies, and the Rust plugin registrations.

For live reload on either platform, set

server.url

in the Capacitor config to the local dev server and run the platform — see the platform reference for details.

Step 4: Configure

Electron: typed options in
```
electron/capacitor.electron.config.ts
```
(window, CSP, deep links, hooks) — see
```
references/electron.md
```
.

Tauri:

src-tauri/tauri.conf.json

(window, CSP, deep links via

plugins.deep-link.desktop.schemes

, bundle) — see

references/tauri.md

.

Step 5: Package for Distribution

Electron:
```
cd electron && npm run pack
```
(electron-builder; vendors the runtime and plugin implementations automatically) — see
```
references/electron.md
```
.

Tauri:

npx cap sync @capawesome/capacitor-tauri && npx tauri build

(native installers per OS) — see

references/tauri.md

.

References

```
references/electron.md
```
— scaffold layout, configuration, live reload, deep links, plugin support and plugin development contract, packaging and vendoring, app updates, migration from
```
@capacitor-community/electron
```
.
```
references/tauri.md
```
— Rust prerequisites, scaffold layout, sync-time codegen, the plugin tier model (built-in / curated / web fallback), configuration, live reload, deep links, packaging, honest limitations.

capacitor-platforms

NPX Install

Tags

SKILL.md Content

Capacitor Platforms (Desktop)

Prerequisites

Agent Behavior

Procedures

Step 1: Choose a Platform

Step 2: Install and Add the Platform

Step 3: Sync and Run

Step 4: Configure

Step 5: Package for Distribution

References