Building a Desktop App: Package It
Once the feature from Create a Feature works in the development window, say one thing. At the end you have an installer file you can send to someone, who double-clicks it.
Step 1 — Build the installer
Say this
Build the finished, release version of the desktop app, and tell me exactly where the installer file ended up.
What you should see: one real file path ending in your computer's installer
kind — .msi or .exe on Windows, .dmg on macOS, .deb or .AppImage on
Linux. Ask for the actual path: "the build succeeded" is not checkable, a file
you can look at is.
That file is the thing you send to someone. They do not need any of the programs you installed.
Unlike the admin system, this app cannot be packaged inside Docker — it has to be built on a real computer, and on the same kind of computer as the people you are sending it to. If an agent starts looking for a Docker way to do it, say: "there is no Docker path for the desktop app, build it directly."
When it goes wrong
You do not need to diagnose anything. Find your symptom, say the sentence:
| What you see | Say this |
|---|---|
| The build fails on a different style file each time | "Check the required build setting in the top-level AGENTS.md — do not change the version pins" |
| The agent has been silent for a long time | "Are you waiting on something that never finishes? Start it the way that lets you keep talking to me, and tell me when it is up" |
| The agent starts looking for a Docker way to build | "There is no Docker path for the desktop app, build it directly" |