Renly1994/xiaotang-daozai

What it does

Daozai is a Windows desktop companion that parks a small notch at the top of the screen. It stays collapsed as a slim bar and expands when the mouse approaches, surfacing information that needs attention. The app is written in Rust with egui and does not use Electron.

Its main areas are music and lyrics from the Windows media session, IMAP mail with verification-code detection, a calendar that merges work calendars and email invitations, todos, a temporary file shelf, focus and water-drinking timers, system status hints, and AI quota rings for services such as Codex, Claude, Kimi, Grok Bot and Gemini. It is aimed at Windows users who want these small pieces of information visible without switching windows.

Getting started

Prebuilt packages target Windows 10/11 x64 with an OpenGL-capable graphics driver. From the latest release, download Daozai-Setup-v0.6.49-x64.exe, run the installer, choose the install location and whether to create a desktop shortcut or start at login, then click the install button. After installation, launch Daozai and open Settings from the tray menu to enable the features you need.

A portable ZIP is also published. Extract it completely and run daozai.exe. The program still uses the current user's application data directory. Update checks are available under Settings → About; in-app downloads are verified before restarting the update. SHA-256 checksums are included in SHA256SUMS.txt and can be compared with Get-FileHash -Algorithm SHA256.

To build from source, you need Rust stable, MSVC C++ build tools and the Windows SDK:

rustup default stable-x86_64-pc-windows-msvc
cargo build --locked --release --bin daozai
.\target\release\daozai.exe

Tests run single-threaded, and packaging requires NSIS 3; the README build section gives the exact commands.

Service connections

Mail supports QQ, 163, 126, Tencent Exmail, iCloud and Gmail over IMAP using the provider's authorization code or app-specific password. Work calendars connect through CalDAV for Feishu, DingTalk and WeCom, but a desktop client installation does not itself grant calendar access; you need a separate calendar account or password. AI quota support uses each service's local login references or separate connection method, and availability can vary by account and subscription.

The project says QQ mail, email calendars and Feishu personal calendars were tested with real accounts, while DingTalk and WeCom integrations have been verified at the code and UI level but not yet with real-account sync in the current round.

Constraints and data handling

Only Windows 10/11 x64 is currently packaged; macOS, Linux and ARM64 packages are not provided. The README states Windows 11 was tested on the author's machine, while Windows 10, different GPUs and multi-monitor setups still need more feedback. The program is not commercially code-signed, so Windows may show an unknown publisher warning.

Settings, todos, water records, shelf paths and connection metadata live in %APPDATA%\Daozai. Mail and calendar passwords are stored in Windows Credential Manager, and the Gemini session is encrypted with Windows DPAPI. Reading existing AI client logins does not write back to those clients. Mail is read from the inbox, not the spam folder, and enabling online features means the app contacts service providers and a lyrics service rather than staying fully offline. More detail is in the privacy documentation.

The original code is MIT-licensed, but bundled dependencies, icons and brand marks keep their own licenses; the MIT license does not grant trademark rights or imply official partnerships with the connected services.

HotRepo's take

On 2026-11-03 the repository appeared on HotRepo's new-project list for Rust with 104 stars and 17 forks gained in a window that began at 04:25 UTC and was observed through 17:45 UTC. That is a single early snapshot, not a trend: the project was created that same day, and no best GitHub daily rank has been recorded for it. The most useful signal for readers is the breadth of the surface area in the first release—mail, calendars, media, AI quotas and system prompts—combined with the README's own admission that several calendar integrations have not completed real-account acceptance. The lack of code signing and the reliance on a downloaded installer are practical considerations when evaluating the prebuilt package.