50 lines
2.0 KiB
Markdown
50 lines
2.0 KiB
Markdown
# Browserlay
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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.
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## Features (Phase 1 / MVP)
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- Frameless, transparent overlay window pinned over other apps.
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- Real-time opacity slider (10%–100%) backed by Win32 `SetLayeredWindowAttributes` — true OS-level translucency.
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- Always-on-top toggle.
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- Click-through toggle — mouse events pass through to the app underneath.
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- **`Ctrl+Alt+Space`** global hotkey to toggle click-through from anywhere (the escape hatch when you can't click the overlay).
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- Last URL, opacity, and toggle states persist between sessions.
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- Window position and size remembered between sessions.
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## Dev setup
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Prereqs: Node 18+, Rust toolchain (`rustup`), Tauri 2 prereqs for Windows ([WebView2 ships with Windows 11](https://tauri.app/start/prerequisites/)).
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```bash
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cd browserlay
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npm install
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npm run tauri dev
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```
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Frontend tests:
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```bash
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npm test
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```
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## Build
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```bash
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npm run tauri build
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```
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Outputs an MSI/NSIS installer under `src-tauri/target/release/bundle/`.
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## Architecture
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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.
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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)).
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See [`docs/plans/2026-05-08-browserlay-mvp-design.md`](docs/plans/2026-05-08-browserlay-mvp-design.md) for the full design.
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## Roadmap (Phase 2)
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Presets · configurable hotkeys · system tray icon · edge-snap · multi-monitor placement · in-overlay toolbar.
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