A dead simple plain-text editor.

"because everything sucked for this sort of thing"

A bit like TextEdit or Notepad, but even simpler and with fewer features. No hidden text. No formatting. No settings to fiddle with. Just a textarea and your file. Raw bytes in, raw bytes out — UTF-8 by default, no BOM, no line-ending munging.

Two targets, same code:

• Desktop — macOS / Windows / Linux native via Tauri 2 (~5–15 MB installers). Builds are unsigned; on first launch macOS asks you to right-click → Open and Windows SmartScreen needs "More info" → "Run anyway".
• Web at https://dedtxt.app/ — the editor itself, installable as a PWA from any modern browser (including iOS and Android via "Add to Home Screen").

• Node 20+ (see .nvmrc)
• Rust stable (rustup install stable) for desktop builds. Web-only development doesn't need Rust.

npm install
npm start                 # Tauri dev window (Rust toolchain required)
npm run serve:web         # Web build at http://127.0.0.1:5173
npm test                  # JS unit tests (node:test, zero deps)

Rust unit tests:

cargo test --manifest-path src-tauri/Cargo.toml

src/                      The app itself — shared by every platform
  index.html              Single textarea + first-visit welcome dialog
  renderer.js             Editor logic; talks only to platform/
  welcome.js              First-visit dialog (mobile detection, shortcut labels)
  platform/
    index.js              Detects runtime, picks an implementation
    tauri.js              Bridges to Rust via window.__TAURI__ globals
    web.js                File System Access API + download fallback
  sw.js                   Service worker for offline web
  manifest.webmanifest    PWA manifest
src-tauri/                Rust crate — the desktop "main process"
  Cargo.toml              Crate manifest
  tauri.conf.json         Window + bundle config
  src/lib.rs              Menus, dialogs, file I/O, OS events (+ unit tests)
  icons/                  Generated platform icons (32x32.png, icon.icns, etc.)
build/                    Icon source (icon.svg) + master icon outputs
scripts/                  Build scripts (web, icons)
test/                     JS unit tests (node:test)
CNAME                     dedtxt.app custom-domain claim for gh-pages

The renderer is platform-agnostic: it imports platform/index.js, which returns one of two modules with the same interface (tauri.js for the desktop app, web.js for the PWA). Adding a new platform means writing a new module and teaching platform/index.js how to detect it.

Each OS builds its own installers locally (Tauri uses the host platform's build tooling — codesign, nsis, dpkg, etc.):

npm run build:mac         # .dmg + .app.tar.gz (host arch)
npm run build:win         # .msi + NSIS .exe
npm run build:linux       # AppImage + .deb + .rpm

Outputs go to src-tauri/target/release/bundle/. For full cross-platform builds, push a v* tag (or trigger the workflow manually) — the GitHub Actions workflow builds all three on the matching runner OS and attaches them to a Release.

npm run build:web         # produces dist-web/
npm run serve:web         # serve dist-web/ at http://127.0.0.1:5173

dist-web/ is a static site — drop it on any web host. The editor lives at the root; dist-web/app/ is a single-page redirect kept around for the legacy dedtxt.app/app/ bookmark.

Pushes to main redeploy the site to the gh-pages branch automatically via GitHub Actions; the site lives at https://dedtxt.app/.

The app icon lives at build/icon.svg. Edit it, then run:

npm run gen:icons         # regenerates Tauri, PWA, and macOS/Windows icon sets

Drop a file onto the window to open it. The OS "Open with…" menu lists DedTxt for txt/md/log/json/csv/ini/yml/yaml/xml.

There's one Save, not Save / Save As. The first save on an unnamed buffer prompts for a filename; every save after that writes silently to that same file. Open a different file and Save targets the new one — there is no "save as a different file" path.

The tab title is bare "DedTxt" until you've actually opened or saved a real file; after that it's <name> — DedTxt when clean and • <name> • — DedTxt when there are unsaved changes (the dirty bullets flank the filename so the state survives heavy title truncation by the OS window chrome).

Chromium browsers (Chrome, Edge, Brave, Arc, Opera) implement the File System Access API, so opened files have a real writable handle and re-saves are silent. The native save picker only appears the first time you save an unnamed buffer.

Firefox, Safari, and every iOS browser lack the File System Access API — there's no JS path to write to a real file on disk. The first save in a session shows a small in-app prompt asking for a filename; that name is remembered for the rest of the session and reused as the suggested download name on every subsequent save. Each save still creates a fresh download (that's the browser's only writable mechanism), and depending on the user's browser settings the browser itself may also show a "where to save?" dialog. For native-like silent save behavior, use a Chromium browser or the desktop Tauri build.

Shown automatically once per browser / install. After you dismiss it, the auto-open never fires again — not even after a version bump. To re-open: click the icon in the top-right corner of the editor, or press Esc. Pressing Esc again (or clicking outside the card, or typing any character) closes it.

DedTxt keeps itself current — no manual re-download.

Web (dedtxt.app) — a new deploy is picked up by the service worker in the background. Once the fresh assets are cached, the welcome dialog surfaces an "A new version is ready" notice; clicking it reloads into the new version.

Desktop — on launch the app asks dedtxt.app whether a newer web layer has shipped. If the installed build can run it, the welcome dialog offers "Click here to update": the new files are downloaded, each checked against a sha256 in the published manifest, then swapped in place (with a progress bar) and the window reloads — no reinstall, and local state (like the dismissed-welcome flag) carries over. If a release needs a newer native shell than you have installed, it points you to the Releases page for a fresh installer instead.

ISC. See LICENSE.