# Browserlay

A Windows desktop app that creates a translucent, always-on-top browser overlay. Type a URL, drop the opacity, toggle click-through — keep a stream, dashboard, or doc page floating over your work.

## Features (Phase 1 / MVP)

- Frameless, transparent overlay window pinned over other apps.
- Real-time opacity slider (10%–100%) backed by Win32 `SetLayeredWindowAttributes` — true OS-level translucency.
- Always-on-top toggle.
- Click-through toggle — mouse events pass through to the app underneath.
- **`Ctrl+Alt+Space`** global hotkey to toggle click-through from anywhere (the escape hatch when you can't click the overlay).
- Last URL, opacity, and toggle states persist between sessions.
- Window position and size remembered between sessions.

## Dev setup

Prereqs: Node 18+, Rust toolchain (`rustup`), Tauri 2 prereqs for Windows ([WebView2 ships with Windows 11](https://tauri.app/start/prerequisites/)).

```bash
cd browserlay
npm install
npm run tauri dev
```

Frontend tests:

```bash
npm test
```

## Build

```bash
npm run tauri build
```

Outputs an MSI/NSIS installer under `src-tauri/target/release/bundle/`.

## Architecture

Two-window Tauri 2 app. Control window hosts a React + Tailwind v4 + Zustand UI; overlay is a frameless transparent webview spawned at runtime pointing directly at the user-supplied URL. Per-window capability files lock the overlay down — pages it loads can't call any Tauri APIs.

The click-through escape hatch (`Ctrl+Alt+Space`) runs in Rust via `tauri-plugin-global-shortcut` so it works regardless of focus. Window opacity drops down to Win32 directly because Tauri 2.11.x doesn't expose `set_opacity` (open issue [tauri-apps/tauri#3279](https://github.com/tauri-apps/tauri/issues/3279)).

See [`docs/plans/2026-05-08-browserlay-mvp-design.md`](docs/plans/2026-05-08-browserlay-mvp-design.md) for the full design.

## Roadmap (Phase 2)

Presets · configurable hotkeys · system tray icon · edge-snap · multi-monitor placement · in-overlay toolbar.