tw93/Pake

What it does

Pake turns a web page into a native desktop window by combining Tauri with the system WebView, so the resulting app carries no bundled browser engine. The repository ships the free, open-source CLI; installers are described as typically under 10 MB, considerably smaller than Electron builds. It targets people who want a dedicated desktop shell for a site without writing per-platform code: developers can package any URL, while non-CLI users have a graphical app and prebuilt packages.

The toolkit covers window sizing, custom icons and titles, immersive windows, drag and drop, ad removal, keyboard shortcuts, and style customization. A --json output mode plus a declarative config schema make it usable from scripts and AI agents.

Quick start

Requires Node.js (pnpm) for the CLI path; the full development path needs Rust >= 1.85 and Node >= 22 (20.9+ also works). Build prerequisites are covered by the Tauri setup guide.

1. Install the CLI globally: pnpm install -g pake-cli
2. Package a site, with the icon fetched automatically: pake https://github.com --name GitHub
3. For custom window and icon options: pake https://weekly.tw93.fun --name Weekly --icon https://cdn.tw93.fun/pake/weekly.icns --width 1200 --height 800 --hide-title-bar

The first build provisions the environment and takes a while; later builds are faster. The result is an installable desktop app. For local project development, run pnpm i, then pnpm run dev, and pnpm run build to produce the app. Full options are in the CLI usage guide; alternatives include GitHub Actions online building and prebuilt popular packages.

Constraints and licensing

Apps render through the operating system WebView rather than Chromium, so behavior depends on the platform webview and site assumptions. Apps are built per target platform (DMG for macOS, MSI for Windows, DEB for Linux in the published examples). Packaging a local build output with pake ./dist --name MyTool requires that build to already exist.

The CLI is GPL-3.0, with a separate Pake Output Exception: apps you build with Pake remain yours to distribute. A graphical desktop app is offered separately at pake.run, the project's stated official site; the repository itself stays the free CLI.

HotRepo's take

Pake appeared on the all-language daily list on 2026-06-22 with 1,848 stars gained in that snapshot, and on the Rust daily list on 2026-11-13 at 6th place with 105 stars gained. The wider trajectory is visible in the fork count of 12,990 against 63,473 stars. The Hacker News thread from 2026-06-21 drew little discussion by volume, but one comment argued that a lightweight Tauri wrapper fits many tools better than a full Electron app (comment) — a fair restatement of the tradeoff the project itself advertises. Read the rank history as periodic list appearances, not a continuous trend.