Building a Desktop App Without Knowing Rust: A Vibe Coding Adventure

Using Claude Code daily, I was getting frustrated with checking conversation history in the terminal. Scrolling up and down, hunting for specific exchanges... "There has to be a better way to view this."

That's when I kept hearing about "vibe coding" - AI writing code for you. Could this actually work? Curiosity got the better of me.

Finding the Problem and Solution

Claude Code stores conversation logs locally as JSONL files, typically in ~/.claude/projects/. If I could read these files and display them nicely, that would solve my problem.

A web app? No. I need local file access, so it has to be a desktop application.

I'd used Electron before, but what's trending now? A quick search revealed Tauri + Rust was gaining momentum.

"Rust? Never touched it..."

Perfect. This was my chance to test how far vibe coding could take me with a completely unfamiliar technology.

Just Start Building

I asked Claude: "I want to build a Tauri + React app that reads local JSONL files and displays them as chat history. How do I start?"

That began a 3-day journey. Zero Rust knowledge, but Claude patiently guided me through everything. Error? Copy-paste and ask. New feature? Ask again.

The Result

After 3 days, I had:

• Project/session tree navigation

• Clean chat-style history view

• Token usage analytics dashboard

• Dark mode (because developers)

How to Download & Install:

Check it out on GitHub

You can download the latest DMG file from the release notes at the link and install it directly on your macOS system.

What I Learned

1. Vibe coding works: You can absolutely build with unfamiliar tech when AI guides you

2. Solve your own problems: If it annoys you, it probably annoys others too

3. Start small: Build an MVP first, then iterate

I still don't know Rust, but now I can ship a Tauri app.

Vibe coding? Pretty solid approach.

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Still in beta - feedback welcome!