lat

Alat is a set of services and applications aimed at providing a seamless interface common to all devices to connect them together. Its work is greatly inspired by KDE Connect, though they don't have any direct relationship.

For it to work, Alat exposes features to paired devices through services, which you can configure and control.

⚠️ Early Development Notice: Alat has barely started its development, and very breaking changes are expected.

Architecture Overview

Alat operates on a peer-to-peer (P2P) model where each device acts as both a client and server, enabling seamless bidirectional communication and service sharing.

┌─────────────────┐    gRPC/Protocol Buffers    ┌─────────────────┐
│   Desktop App   │◄──────────────────────────►│   Mobile App    │
│                 │                              │                 │
│ ┌─────────────┐ │                              │ ┌─────────────┐ │
│ │P2P Server   │ │          Discovery           │ │P2P Server   │ │
│ │- sysinfo    │ │◄────────(mDNS/Local)───────►│ │- sysinfo    │ │
│ │- rcfile     │ │                              │ │- rcfile     │ │
│ │- media      │ │                              │ │- media      │ │
│ └─────────────┘ │                              │ └─────────────┘ │
│ ┌─────────────┐ │                              │ ┌─────────────┐ │
│ │P2P Client   │ │         Service Calls        │ │P2P Client   │ │
│ │- discovery  │ │◄──────────────────────────►│ │- discovery  │ │
│ │- pairing    │ │                              │ │- pairing    │ │
│ └─────────────┘ │                              │ └─────────────┘ │
└─────────────────┘                              └─────────────────┘
         ▲                                                ▲
         │                                                │
         ▼                                                ▼
┌─────────────────┐                              ┌─────────────────┐
│ Headless Server │                              │  Other Devices  │
│                 │                              │   (TV, IoT...)  │
└─────────────────┘                              └─────────────────┘

Service-Based Architecture

Each Alat node exposes services that other paired devices can consume:

• sysinfo: System information and monitoring
• rcfile: Remote file operations
• media: Media playback control
• notifications: Cross-device notifications
• clipboard: Shared clipboard functionality
• (More services planned...)

Project Structure

alat/
├── proto/              # gRPC and Protocol Buffer definitions
├── pkg/                # Shared Go packages
│   ├── core/          # Core P2P runtime, services, client/server
│   └── mobile_bridge/ # Go-Dart FFI bridge for mobile
├── apps/
│   ├── desktop/       # Wails + SvelteKit desktop app
│   ├── mobile/        # Flutter mobile app
│   └── server/        # Headless server (planned)
├── logo/
│   ├── animated/      # Animated SVG logos
│   └── static/        # Static SVG and PNG logos
├── go.work           # Go workspace configuration
└── manage.fish       # Development automation scripts

Features (Planned)

• 🔗 Seamless P2P Connection: Automatic device discovery and pairing
• 🔒 Secure Communication: Encrypted gRPC channels
• 🎛️ Service Framework: Modular, extensible service system
• 🖥️ Cross-Platform: Desktop (Linux/Windows/macOS) and Mobile (Android/iOS)
• ⚙️ Configurable: Per-device and per-service configuration
• 🔄 Real-time Sync: Live service state synchronization

Building

The app should be pretty easy to build. Make sure you have the Go programming language installed, then use it to install the Wails CLI (check https://wails.io), then just build as a normal Wails application or using the manage.fish scripts.

Prerequisites

• Go 1.21+
• Wails CLI
• For mobile: Flutter SDK

Quick Start

# Build and run desktop app
./manage.fish desktop build
./manage.fish desktop dev

# Build mobile app (development)
./manage.fish mobile dev

# Generate protocol buffer code
./manage.fish proto

Notice: The dev commands are targeted for devices running Ubuntu 25.04 on amd64.

Development Scripts

The root manage.fish script orchestrates common development tasks:

• ./manage.fish proto - Compile protobuf files to Go and Dart
• ./manage.fish desktop <command> - Desktop app operations
• ./manage.fish mobile <command> - Mobile app operations
• ./manage.fish server <command> - Headless server operations

Contributing

Alat is structured as a Go workspace with a core package and multiple applications. A more detailed explanation of how the project works internally can be found in ./GEMINI.md.

Current Status

• ✅ Project structure and architecture defined
• ✅ gRPC protocol definitions
• 🚧 Desktop app (Wails + SvelteKit + TypeScript + Sass)
• 🚧 Mobile app (Flutter with Go FFI bridge)
• 📋 Headless server (planned)
• 📋 Core services implementation

Tech Stack

• Backend: Go with gRPC
• Desktop: Wails + SvelteKit + TypeScript + Sass
• Mobile: Flutter + Dart with Go FFI bridge
• Protocol: Protocol Buffers over gRPC
• Architecture: Peer-to-peer with service-oriented design

Thanks for your interest in Alat! 🚀