Implement Electron desktop app with cross-platform installers

[Copilot]

Adds standalone desktop application for Mac and Linux. Users can now install FreePress as a native app instead of managing Docker Compose manually.

Changes

Dependency resolution

• Updated @waku/react 0.0.7-b9d400c → 0.0.8 (React 19 compat)
• Updated @waku/sdk 0.0.35 → 0.0.36
• Removed unused TypeScript declarations

Electron desktop app

• Main process spawns backend (Node.js/Hono) as child process
• Frontend loads from Vite dev server (dev) or built files (prod)
• Graceful shutdown of backend on app quit
• Native menus with standard shortcuts

Build system

• electron-builder configuration for AppImage, deb, rpm (Linux) and dmg (Mac)
• Build scripts: npm run package:linux and npm run package:mac
• Icons generated at 512px, 256px, 128px, 64px, 32px, 16px

Distribution artifacts

• FreePress-0.1.0.AppImage (104MB, portable)
• freepress-desktop_0.1.0_amd64.deb (72MB)
• freepress-desktop-0.1.0.x86_64.rpm (72MB)

Architecture

┌─────────────────────────┐
│   Electron Main         │
│   (electron/main.js)    │
├─────────────────────────┤
│ ┌─────────┐ ┌─────────┐│
│ │ Backend │ │Frontend ││
│ │ (spawn) │ │ (load)  ││
│ └─────────┘ └─────────┘│
└─────────────────────────┘
         │
         ↓
   Docker Services
   (IPFS, Tor, WP)

Backend API and frontend bundled in app; IPFS/Tor/WordPress still require Docker.

Docs

• INSTALLATION.md - End-user installation guide
• DESKTOP.md - Developer build instructions
• Updated README.md with desktop installation section

Warning

Firewall rules blocked me from connecting to one or more addresses (expand for details)

I tried to connect to the following addresses, but was blocked by firewall rules:

• esm.ubuntu.com
  • Triggering command: /usr/lib/apt/methods/https /usr/lib/apt/methods/https (dns block)

If you need me to access, download, or install something from one of these locations, you can either:

• Configure Actions setup steps to set up my environment, which run before the firewall is enabled
• Add the appropriate URLs or hosts to the custom allowlist in this repository's Copilot coding agent settings (admins only)

Original prompt

Implement a user friendly desktop installation for this application. Update all deps and fix all the build errors. It should be able to run on mac as well as linux

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Project	Deployment	Review	Updated (UTC)
free-press	Ready	Preview, Comment	Jan 21, 2026 9:20am