Zlack

A focused Slack desktop client powered by Tauri.
Native notifications, reliable window restoration, and multi-workspace switching
without shipping a full Chromium bundle.

Why Zlack · Install · Customize · Development · 한국어

Zlack keeps the familiar Slack web experience and adds the desktop behavior that matters: native operating-system integration, dependable notification routing, and low-overhead packaging through the system WebView.

Download the latest package from GitHub Releases, install it, then sign in to your Slack workspace.

Place any of these optional files beside Zlack.exe (or the Zlack executable on your platform):

Zlack
├── zlack.css          # CSS injected into the Slack client
├── zlack.png          # preferred runtime window and tray icon
├── zlack.ico          # fallback runtime icon
└── zlack-taskbar.png  # optional Windows taskbar-only icon

The embedded application and installer icons do not change until Zlack is rebuilt.

The default Windows setup uses the shared system WebView2 runtime. To isolate Zlack from that shared installation:

1. Download a Fixed Version runtime from Microsoft's WebView2 page.
2. Extract it into a webview2-runtime directory beside Zlack.exe.
3. Confirm that the executable exists at webview2-runtime/msedgewebview2.exe.

Zlack.exe
└── webview2-runtime/
    ├── msedgewebview2.exe
    └── ...

Unless WEBVIEW2_BROWSER_EXECUTABLE_FOLDER is already set, Zlack uses the private runtime when present and falls back to the shared runtime otherwise.

flowchart LR
    A["Slack web client"] --> B["preload.js bridge"]
    B -->|"notification + channel context"| C["Tauri / Rust core"]
    B -->|"unread + workspace state"| C
    C --> D["Native notification"]
    C --> E["Tray, title, and taskbar badges"]
    C --> F["Native activation and channel navigation"]

The preload bridge observes Slack's notification telemetry and unread state, then sends only the required context to the Rust core. The native layer owns notification delivery, system tray behavior, workspace windows, window focus, and external-link handling.

• Remote Tauri IPC is scoped to Slack domains and Zlack-managed workspace windows. New workspace windows accept only credential-free HTTPS URLs on slack.com and its subdomains.
• Zlack's external-link command accepts only credential-free HTTP(S) URLs and rejects file and custom protocols.
• The remote Slack page receives neither Tauri's general shell capability nor its built-in notification API. Native alerts use Zlack's narrow notification command instead.

• Node.js 18 or newer
• Rust and Cargo
• Tauri 1 system prerequisites

npm install
npm run tauri dev

The pretauri hook synchronizes the version from package.json into the Rust and Tauri manifests before each Tauri command.

src/
└── index.html              # bundled fallback splash
src-tauri/
├── preload.js              # Slack-to-Tauri bridge
├── src/
│   ├── main.rs             # app lifecycle and workspace orchestration
│   ├── icons.rs            # runtime and unread badge icons
│   ├── platform.rs         # platform notification/runtime integration
│   └── security.rs         # URL and external-link boundaries
├── Cargo.toml
└── tauri.conf.json
scripts/
└── update-version.js       # manifest version synchronization

Issues and focused pull requests are welcome. For behavior changes, describe the target platform and include steps that reproduce the current behavior.

• Open an issue
• Read the changelog

Zlack is available under the MIT License.

Slack is a trademark of Salesforce, Inc. Zlack is an independent project and is not affiliated with or endorsed by Slack or Salesforce.