NullPointer IDE

A focused, native code editor built with Tauri 2, TypeScript, Vite, and CodeMirror 6.

Highlights

• Native folder picker and a Rust filesystem boundary: the UI can only read or write files inside the opened project.
• Fast startup: no frontend framework, lazy-loaded language support, and a single CodeMirror instance.
• Tabs with independent undo history, dirty-state protection, quick open, project tree, and keyboard-first controls.
• Multi-repository Source Control with branch state, staged and working changes, stage/unstage, commits, and a compact history graph.
• Signed automatic updates, release history, and safe version rollback.
• External-change detection, binary/oversized-file guards, bounded directory traversal, and safe path validation.

Requirements

• Node.js 20.19+ or 22.12+
• Rust 1.85+
• The Tauri platform prerequisites for your operating system

Development

npm install
npm run tauri dev

The npm wrapper runs tauri dev --no-dev-server, so the app loads generated frontend assets through Tauri's asset protocol without opening a TCP port. To rebuild frontend assets continuously while the app is open, run npm run dev in a second terminal.

Useful checks:

npm run check
npm run test
npm run tauri build

Automatic updates

Every successful push to main runs frontend and Rust tests, generates an internal version from the GitHub Actions run number, and publishes Windows x64 and macOS Apple Silicon builds in one GitHub Release. latest.json contains signed updater bundles for installed builds, while portable-latest.json points to the signed Windows portable executable. Production builds check for updates on startup and every 30 minutes. The Updates section can disable automatic checks, refresh the GitHub release history, show release notes, install a newer version, or roll back to an older signed build. Rolling back disables automatic updates so the selected version is not immediately replaced.

Only releases that contain the compatible update manifest can be installed. Updates and rollbacks are downloaded and verified by Tauri against the embedded public key before any installer or portable replacement starts.

The updater public key is committed in src-tauri/tauri.conf.json. The private key must never be committed; its local recovery copy is stored at %USERPROFILE%\.tauri\nullpointer-ide.key, and GitHub Actions reads it from the TAURI_SIGNING_PRIVATE_KEY repository secret.

Windows portable

Each GitHub Release also contains NullPointer_<version>_windows_x64_portable.zip. Extract the archive and run NullPointer.exe; no installation or administrator access is required. Keep portable.flag next to the executable to store WebView2 data, preferences, cache, and Research state in the adjacent data folder.

Portable builds use a dedicated signed update feed instead of the NSIS installer. NullPointer downloads and verifies the new portable executable, starts a temporary helper, replaces the executable only after the application has closed, preserves data/, and restarts. If the new executable does not confirm a healthy startup, the helper restores and relaunches the previous version automatically. Manual ZIP replacement remains available as a fallback; preserve the existing data/ directory when doing so.

macOS Apple Silicon

Download the .dmg asset from the latest GitHub Release, open it, and drag NullPointer.app into Applications. The build targets Apple Silicon Macs only and is ad-hoc signed with APPLE_SIGNING_IDENTITY=-, so it does not require a paid Apple Developer account.

Because the app is not Apple-notarized, Gatekeeper can block the first launch. Control-click NullPointer.app, choose Open, or allow it from System Settings → Privacy & Security. This ad-hoc signature is separate from the Tauri updater signature: downloaded updates are still verified against the embedded public updater key.

Shortcuts

Shortcut	Action
Ctrl/Cmd + O	Open folder
Ctrl/Cmd + P	Quick open
Ctrl/Cmd + S	Save active file
Ctrl/Cmd + W	Close active tab
Ctrl/Cmd + N	Create file
Ctrl/Cmd + B	Toggle explorer

Security model

The selected project directory is canonicalized in Rust and stored as application state. Every file command resolves its target relative to that root and rejects traversal, symlink escapes, absolute paths, binary files, oversized reads, invalid names, and conflicting external writes. Tauri's content-security policy is enabled and the app exposes only the dialog, updater, and process permissions it needs.

Git commands run directly without shell interpolation. Repository and file paths are validated against the open workspace before any staging or commit operation.