Parallax Desktop

A desktop node manager for the Parallax network. Built on Wails v2 — a Go backend embeds a full prl.Parallax node in-process and exposes it to a React frontend rendered in the platform's native webview. One binary, no sidecars.

Features

• One binary that runs a Parallax full node — no sidecars.
• First-run wizard for picking a data directory, sync mode, and inbound NAT policy.
• Client dashboard with sync progress, peer count, uptime, disk usage, latest blocks (with miner / reward / size / gas-fill), and latest transactions.
• Mining with GPU pool mining (via hashwarp) and CPU solo mining, device detection, and live hashrate/stats.
• Connect page with a one-click Add to MetaMask button (powered by an embedded localhost helper that calls wallet_addEthereumChain in the user's default browser) plus manual fields for non-MetaMask wallets. Detects when the user is already on the Parallax network and reflects it in the UI.
• Peers page that lists every connected peer, sortable, click-to- expand for full enode URL, addresses, capabilities, and per-protocol metadata.
• Settings with curated and advanced sections (cache sizes, peer limit, HTTP-RPC toggle + port, inbound-connection toggle), a spring-animated save bar that warns when changes require a node restart, and a one-click Restart node action.
• Logs screen (linked from Settings → Diagnostics) with live tail, level filter, pause/resume, and copy-to-clipboard.
• TopBar live client-status indicator that polls the node every 3 s and flips between Synced, Syncing, and Stopped with a pulsing dot.
• Local-only crash reports written to the user's config directory.

Building

The first time you build, install the Wails CLI:

go install github.com/wailsapp/wails/v2/cmd/wails@latest

On Linux you also need GTK3 + WebKit2GTK 4.1 + pkg-config:

# Arch
sudo pacman -S --needed gtk3 webkit2gtk-4.1 pkgconf

# Debian / Ubuntu
sudo apt install libgtk-3-dev libwebkit2gtk-4.1-dev pkg-config

Then from the repository root:

make prlx-gui              # build for the host platform
make prlx-gui-cross        # cross-build (best-effort, see notes below)
make prlx-gui-package      # build + zip per GUI_TARGETS into build/package/

Output is in build/bin/. Run it with:

./build/bin/Parallax\ Client

Development

wails dev

wails dev runs Vite in watch mode and live-reloads both the Go bindings and the React frontend.

If you're also making changes to the core parallax module, add a replace directive to go.mod so the GUI builds against your local checkout:

replace github.com/ParallaxProtocol/parallax => ../parallax

Remove it before committing.

Build tags

Two tags are applied to every Parallax Desktop build via the Makefile's WAILS_TAGS variable (default embedfrontend webkit2_41):

• embedfrontend — switches embed.go (the real //go:embed all:frontend/dist) on. Without it, the build falls back to the empty embed_stub.go. The tag is required for any production binary that needs to actually serve the UI; plain go test ./... from CI deliberately runs without it so the package compiles cleanly on a fresh checkout where frontend/dist/ hasn't been populated yet.
• webkit2_41 — selects the modern WebKit2GTK ABI on Linux. Wails 2.x defaults to 4.0 but Arch and recent Debian/Ubuntu only ship 4.1. Harmless on macOS / Windows.

Override with make prlx-gui WAILS_TAGS="…" if you need different tags.

Cross-compilation notes

Wails GUI cross-compilation is fragile by design — building darwin/* from a non-mac host requires osxcross, windows/* from a non-windows host requires mingw-w64, etc. make prlx-gui-package runs wails build once per GUI_TARGETS entry and continues past failures, so you'll get zips for whatever your local toolchain can produce.

For full multi-platform releases, see the Releases section below — the release workflow uses one native runner per OS, sidestepping the cross-compile problem entirely.

Releases

Tagged releases are produced by .github/workflows/release.yml. On git push of a v* tag, the workflow builds the GUI on a native runner per OS:

• linux/amd64 and linux/arm64 on Ubuntu (apt installs the GTK + WebKit deps).
• darwin/amd64 and darwin/arm64 on macos-14 (Apple Silicon).
• windows/amd64 on windows-latest.

All artifacts are combined into a single release/ directory with a unified SHA256SUMS.txt and published as a draft GitHub Release.

You can also dry-run the workflow against main via the Actions tab — the build jobs run but the release-publishing job is gated on a tag push.

CLI binaries (prlx, clef, parallaxkey) are built and released from the main parallax repository.

Contributing a localization

Parallax Desktop ships with English, Deutsch, Français, Português (Brasil), Русский, 中文（新加坡）, and 中文（繁體）. All UI strings live in a single flat dictionary at frontend/src/i18n/translations.ts, keyed with dot-notation (e.g. nav.client, settings.rpc.title).

To add a new language:

1. Add the BCP-47 tag to the Lang union and a display name to LANG_NAMES at the top of translations.ts.
2. Copy the en dictionary to a new const xx: Dict = { … } block and translate each value. Leave {placeholder} tokens untouched — they are substituted at runtime by t(key, vars).
3. Register the dictionary in the TRANSLATIONS map at the bottom of the file.
4. Extend the detectInitial() matcher and the saved-value guard in frontend/src/i18n/index.tsx so the new tag is recognised by navigator.language and persisted in localStorage.
5. Run wails dev and switch languages from Settings → Language (or the onboarding picker) to verify the strings render and nothing overflows.

Missing keys automatically fall back to English, so partial translations are fine for a first pass — open a PR and we'll help fill the gaps.

Architecture

.
├── main.go            Wails bootstrap, window options, asset embedding.
├── app.go             App struct bound to the frontend (every exported
│                      method becomes a JS-callable function).
├── embed.go           Real //go:embed of frontend/dist, gated on the
│                      `embedfrontend` build tag.
├── embed_stub.go      Empty embed.FS fallback for non-tagged builds
│                      (used by `go test ./...` from CI).
├── backend/
│   ├── config.go      GUIConfig persistence (~/.config/Parallax/gui.json).
│   ├── node.go        NodeController: in-process node.Node + prl.Parallax
│   │                  lifecycle, status snapshot, bootnode wiring, DNS
│   │                  discovery defaults, RPC endpoint formatting,
│   │                  Peers() and RecentBlocks/Transactions() walkers.
│   ├── miner.go       MinerController: GPU pool mining (hashwarp) and
│   │                  CPU solo mining, device detection, live stats.
│   ├── logs.go        LogTail: GlogHandler tee'd to stderr + ring buffer
│   │                  + live frontend emitter. Verbosity defaults to Info.
│   ├── metamask.go    Tiny localhost helper HTTP server that serves a
│   │                  Parallax-themed page calling wallet_addEthereumChain
│   │                  in the user's default browser.
│   ├── crash.go       Crash report writer; installs a recover() hook.
│   └── types.go       Wails-serialisable structs shared with the frontend.
└── frontend/          React + Vite + TypeScript + Tailwind + motion.
    └── src/
        ├── App.tsx           Top bar nav, route shell, AnimatePresence
        │                     between pages, splash screen.
        ├── lib/api.ts        Typed wrappers around the bound App methods.
        ├── lib/format.ts     wei↔LAX, byte / duration / hash / ago helpers.
        ├── components/       SectionHeading, AnimatedNumber, StatusPill,
        │                     ClientStatus, PageStagger, Toggle.
        ├── pages/
        │   ├── Dashboard.tsx   Client overview, status, latest blocks/txs.
        │   ├── Connect.tsx     One-click MetaMask flow + manual fallback.
        │   ├── Mining.tsx      GPU/CPU mining controls, live stats.
        │   ├── Peers.tsx       Sortable peers list, expand-for-details rows.
        │   ├── Settings/       Curated + advanced settings, floating save bar,
        │   │                   About card with prlx + desktop versions.
        │   ├── Logs.tsx        Live log tail, filter, pause/resume.
        │   └── Onboarding/     5-step first-run wizard.
        └── assets/           Logo (white version, from parallax-website).

Security defaults

• HTTP-RPC is on by default and bound to 127.0.0.1 only. There is no UI option to expose it to 0.0.0.0. Users can disable the endpoint entirely from Settings → Local apps.
• Inbound NAT is on by default — Wails opens a UPnP/PMP mapping so other peers can dial in, helping the network. Users behind strict firewalls or who prefer outbound-only can flip the toggle in Settings → Networking (or during first-run onboarding).
• Crash reports are written to <userConfigDir>/Parallax/crash-*.log and never sent off the machine.

Connecting MetaMask

The Connect page leads with a single Add Parallax to MetaMask button. Clicking it opens a localhost helper page in the user's default browser which fires wallet_addEthereumChain (or wallet_switchEthereumChain if the network is already added). The helper auto-detects whether MetaMask is already on Parallax and shows a connected confirmation instead of the add button.

For non-MetaMask wallets, the same Connect page also shows the manual network values:

Field	Value
Network name	Parallax
RPC URL	http://127.0.0.1:8545
Chain ID	2110
Currency symbol	LAX

Any EVM-compatible wallet that supports custom networks can use these values directly.