openpencil/packages/docs/guide/getting-started.md

Getting Started

Try Online

OpenPencil runs in the browser — no installation required. Open app.openpencil.dev to start designing.

Download Desktop App

Pre-built binaries for macOS, Windows, and Linux are available on the releases page.

Platform	Download
macOS (Apple Silicon)	.dmg (aarch64)
macOS (Intel)	.dmg (x64)
Windows (x64)	.msi / .exe
Windows (ARM)	.msi / .exe
Linux (x64)	.AppImage / .deb

Building from Source

Prerequisites

• Bun (package manager and runtime)
• Rust (for desktop app only)

Installation

git clone https://github.com/open-pencil/open-pencil.git
cd open-pencil
bun install

Development Server

bun run dev

Opens the editor at http://localhost:1420.

Available Scripts

Command	Description
bun run dev	Dev server with HMR
bun run build	Production build
bun run check	Lint (oxlint) + typecheck (tsgo)
bun run test	E2E visual regression (Playwright)
bun run test:update	Regenerate screenshot baselines
bun run test:unit	Unit tests (bun:test)
bun run docs:dev	Documentation dev server
bun run docs:build	Build documentation site

Desktop App (Tauri)

The desktop app requires Rust and platform-specific prerequisites.

macOS

xcode-select --install
cargo install tauri-cli --version "^2"
bun run tauri dev

Windows

1. Install Rust with stable-msvc toolchain:

   rustup default stable-msvc
   

2. Install Visual Studio Build Tools with "Desktop development with C++" workload
3. WebView2 is pre-installed on Windows 10 (1803+) and Windows 11
4. Run:

   bun run tauri dev
   

Linux

Install system dependencies (Debian/Ubuntu):

sudo apt install libwebkit2gtk-4.1-dev build-essential curl wget file \
  libxdo-dev libssl-dev libayatana-appindicator3-dev librsvg2-dev

Then:

bun run tauri dev

Build for Distribution

bun run tauri build                                    # Current platform
bun run tauri build --target universal-apple-darwin    # macOS universal