Architecture
Overview
The application consists of 4 modules: server, frontend, plugin runtime and settings.
Plugin Runtime
Gauntlet plugins are written in TypeScript. As JavaScript runtime Deno is used. Each plugin runtime runs in a separate Deno Worker in a separate OS process and communicates with server using inter-process communication. Deno Workers are sandboxed using Deno's permission model. Each plugin must define permissions in Plugin Manifest what external resources it needs: filesystem, network, environment variables or subprocess execution, some Gauntlet-specific permissions, etc.
Plugins can use React to create UI that will be rendered by frontend. This is implemented using custom React Reconciler (similar to React Native).
The Deno runtime is kept alive by the always running event loop that handles incoming events from frontend/server
Plugins are distributed inside the same Git repository which contains the plugin code. There is no central distribution system currently. Plugins are installed using the Git repository URL
Due to limited resources, security measures for Gauntlet application are implemented on a best-effort basis and are not guaranteed
Frontend
As GUI framework iced-rs is used. Frontend runs inside the same OS process as server.
Server
The server is fairly straightforward Tokio runtime. All requests or events from frontend to plugin runtime and vice versa go through the server. Server state is stored inside SQLite database
Settings
Settings UI also uses iced-rs as a GUI framework. It is run in separate OS process which communicates with server using inter-process communication