NEAR AI Private Chat

A private chat application built with React, TypeScript, and Tauri. Available as both a web application and a desktop application.

Backend

This frontend application connects to the chat API backend. For backend setup and documentation, please refer to:

Backend Repository: https://github.com/nearai/chat-api

Prerequisites

• Node.js (v24 or higher)
• pnpm (v10.24.0 or higher) - This project uses pnpm as the package manager
• Rust (latest stable) - Required for building the desktop app
• System dependencies for Tauri:
  • macOS: Xcode Command Line Tools
  • Linux: libwebkit2gtk-4.0-dev, build-essential, curl, wget, libssl-dev, libgtk-3-dev, libayatana-appindicator3-dev, librsvg2-dev
  • Windows: Microsoft C++ Build Tools, WebView2

Installation

1. Clone the repository:

git clone <repository-url>
cd private-chat

2. Install dependencies:

pnpm install

Development

Web Application

To run the web application in development mode:

pnpm dev

This will start the development server on http://localhost:3000.

Desktop Application

To run the desktop application in development mode:

pnpm tauri:dev

This will:

• Start the Vite dev server for the frontend
• Build and run the Tauri desktop application
• Enable hot-reload for both frontend and backend changes

Building

Web Application

To build the web application for production:

pnpm build

The built files will be in the dist/ directory, ready to be deployed to any static hosting service.

To preview the production build locally:

pnpm preview

Desktop Application

To build the desktop application:

pnpm tauri:build

This will:

• Build the frontend production bundle
• Compile the Rust backend
• Create platform-specific installers:
  • macOS: .app bundle and .dmg installer
  • Windows: .msi installer
  • Linux: .AppImage, .deb, or .rpm (depending on configuration)

The built artifacts will be in src-tauri/target/release/bundle/.

Environment Variables

The following environment variables can be configured (optional):

• VITE_CHAT_API_URL - Backend API URL (default: https://private.near.ai)
• VITE_DEPRECATED_API_URL - Legacy API URL (default: https://private-chat-legacy.near.ai)
• VITE_PUBLIC_POSTHOG_KEY - PostHog analytics key
• VITE_PUBLIC_POSTHOG_HOST - PostHog host URL
• VITE_DEFAULT_MODEL - Default AI model (default: zai-org/GLM-4.6)
• VITE_NEAR_RPC_URL - NEAR RPC endpoint (default: https://free.rpc.fastnear.com)

Create a .env file in the root directory to set these variables:

VITE_CHAT_API_URL=http://localhost:8080
VITE_PUBLIC_POSTHOG_KEY=your-posthog-key

Available Scripts

• pnpm dev - Start web development server
• pnpm build - Build web application for production
• pnpm preview - Preview production build locally
• pnpm tauri:dev - Run desktop app in development mode
• pnpm tauri:build - Build desktop app for production
• pnpm tauri - Run Tauri CLI commands
• pnpm lint - Run type checking and linting
• pnpm format - Format code with Biome
• pnpm typecheck - Run TypeScript type checking

Project Structure

private-chat/
├── src/                    # Frontend source code
│   ├── api/               # API clients and queries
│   ├── components/        # React components
│   ├── hooks/             # Custom React hooks
│   ├── pages/             # Page components
│   ├── stores/            # Zustand state stores
│   └── ...
├── src-tauri/             # Tauri backend (Rust)
│   ├── src/              # Rust source code
│   ├── Cargo.toml        # Rust dependencies
│   └── tauri.conf.json   # Tauri configuration
├── public/                # Static assets
└── dist/                  # Production build output

Technology Stack

• Frontend:

  • React 19
  • TypeScript
  • Vite
  • Tailwind CSS
  • Zustand (state management)
  • React Query (data fetching)
  • Radix UI (component library)

• Desktop:

  • Tauri 2.x
  • Rust

License

See LICENSE file for details.