CATS Configurator

🐈 Always land on your paws! 🐈‍⬛

CATS Configurator is the cross-platform desktop utility for configuring CATS flight computers and inspecting .cfl flight logs. It uses a Vue/Vuetify renderer and a Rust/Tauri host for serial communication, configuration, profiles, preflight, local files, and CATS Flights handoff.

The current version is 2.0.0. Automatic Configurator self-updates remain disabled. Windows packages are unsigned, and macOS packages are ad-hoc signed but not notarized.

Requirements

• Node.js 24.15 or newer (within Node.js 24 LTS) and npm 11 or newer
• Current stable Rust with Cargo
• Windows: the Microsoft C++ build tools and WebView2
• macOS: Xcode command-line tools (the app uses WKWebView)
• Linux: WebKitGTK 4.1 and the native build dependencies below
• A supported CATS device for hardware validation

On Debian or Ubuntu:

sudo apt-get install libwebkit2gtk-4.1-dev libappindicator3-dev librsvg2-dev libudev-dev patchelf xdg-utils

Linux users also need permission to access the Vega serial device. On Debian and Ubuntu this normally means membership in the dialout group.

Development

Run all commands from the repository root:

npm ci
npm start

npm installs the renderer dependencies and invokes the Tauri CLI. Cargo builds the native backend and shell. npm run dev runs only the Vite server; use npm start to launch the working desktop app with its native host.

Verification

npm run lint
npm run format:check
npm test
npm run verify:release-contract
npm run build:frontend
npm run verify:production-target
cargo fmt --manifest-path src-tauri/Cargo.toml --all -- --check
cargo clippy --manifest-path src-tauri/Cargo.toml --locked --all-targets -- -D warnings
npm run test:rust

Renderer/component tests and native Rust tests are complementary: the renderer suite tests the UI and Tauri bridge, while Rust tests exercise the serial, profile, preflight, flight-log, and handoff code.

The ignored hardware checks are read-only. Close or disconnect other serial clients first, then explicitly select the connected Vega and an existing log:

$env:CATS_VEGA_PORT = "COM4"
$env:CATS_VEGA_LOG_PATH = "E:\fl016.cfl"
npm run test:hardware

These checks include 50 connect/disconnect cycles. They do not reset the board, save configuration, delete onboard logs, or run a simulation. The separate simulation check requires development firmware; production firmware may report the command unavailable.

Packaging and CI

npm run build

Packages are written under src-tauri/target/**/release/bundle/:

• Windows x64: NSIS installer
• macOS: Intel and Apple Silicon application bundles and DMGs
• Linux x64: AppImage and Debian package

CI installs from package-lock.json, checks both codebases, and builds all four platform/architecture targets. Version tags publish the native artifacts; tags containing a prerelease suffix create GitHub prereleases. Pushing a branch does not publish a release. Native macOS/Linux device acceptance is still required.

See the release policy.

Open source

CATS Configurator is licensed under the GNU General Public License v3 and can be used free of charge without warranty.