⚡ Lightning

Shortcuts and automations for your real computer.

Lightning is a free, open-source, cross-platform desktop app for building drag-and-drop shortcuts and event-driven automations — inspired by the ergonomics of Apple's Shortcuts app, but built for the desktop, where far more powerful OS-level actions are possible.

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Headline features

• Shortcuts — compose a vertical flow of action blocks with parameters, variables and control flow, then run it from the app, a global hotkey, the tray, the CLI (lightning run <name>), a lightning:// deep link, or a .lightning file.
• Automations — the same flows, fired automatically by triggers: schedules, file changes, Wi-Fi networks, USB devices, login, clipboard changes, webhooks, and more.

Product principles

• "It just runs." A shortcut created on one OS opens on every other; actions the current platform can't perform are clearly badged — never silently dropped.
• Honest capability. Every action declares exactly what it supports per platform, refined by runtime probes (X11 vs Wayland, permissions, installed tools).
• Feels alive. Spring-based motion everywhere — always interruptible, GPU-cheap, and disabled under reduced-motion.
• Local-first & private. No account, no telemetry. Everything lives on your disk.

Platforms

Platform	Package
Windows 10 1809+ / 11 (x64, ARM64, x86)	Dedicated installer (.exe) · portable .zip
macOS 11+ (Apple Silicon & Intel)	.dmg (signed + notarized)
Ubuntu 22.04+ / Debian 12+	.deb
Arch Linux	AUR (lightning, lightning-bin)
Any glibc Linux	AppImage
Gentoo · FreeBSD 14+	ebuild · port (community, best-effort)

Repository layout

Single monorepo: pnpm workspaces + Turborepo (JS), one Cargo workspace (Rust), one .NET solution (Windows installer).

apps/desktop/       Tauri 2 app — React 19 + TypeScript frontend, thin Rust shell
crates/             All real logic: core engine, actions, triggers, platform layers,
                    scripting (QuickJS), store, IPC types
packages/           Design system, flow editor, generated bindings, i18n, shared config
installer/windows/  C# / WinUI 3 installer + uninstaller + updater
packaging/          .deb, AUR, ebuild, AppImage, FreeBSD port, macOS dmg/notarize
docs/               ADRs, per-action specs, QA checklists
tests/e2e/          WebdriverIO + tauri-driver suites

Development

Prerequisites: Node ≥ 22 LTS, pnpm 10, Rust stable (picked up from rust-toolchain.toml), and on Linux the Tauri system dependencies:

sudo apt install libwebkit2gtk-4.1-dev build-essential curl wget file \
  libssl-dev libayatana-appindicator3-dev librsvg2-dev

corepack enable && pnpm install   # one-time setup
pnpm dev                          # run the app with hot reload
pnpm verify                       # full local gate: fmt + clippy + lint + typecheck + tests
pnpm bindings                     # regenerate TS bindings after touching Rust IPC types

The full command reference, architecture guide, action catalog, and contribution rules live in CLAUDE.md and docs/.

Contributing

Contributions are welcome under GPL-3.0 (inbound = outbound, DCO sign-off, no CLA). See CONTRIBUTING.md.

Lightning is an original work inspired by Apple's Shortcuts. It contains no Apple assets, icons, or strings, and is not affiliated with or endorsed by Apple.

License

Copyright (C) 2026 neramc — GNU General Public License v3.0 (GPL-3.0-only).