How SideX Replaces VS Code’s Electron Core with Tauri + Rust to Shrink Install Size to 16 MB

Background

VS Code’s official installer is about 797 MB and the runtime consumes over 1 GB of RAM on launch, leading to high CPU usage and fan noise.

SideX Overview

SideX re‑implements the VS Code architecture with Tauri + Rust while keeping the original TypeScript workbench as the front‑end.

Installer size reduced from 797 MB to 16 MB (≈96 % shrinkage).

Target idle memory on macOS is under 200 MB.

Core Replacement Strategy

Chromium → system WebView (WKWebView on macOS, WebView2 on Windows).

Node.js API → Rust standard library.

node‑pty → portable-pty.

sqlite3 → rusqlite.

IPC → Tauri invoke.

Implemented Features

Editor : Monaco with syntax highlighting and basic IntelliSense.

File Management : Open, create, delete, rename, and file‑watching.

Terminal : Full PTY support via portable-pty, automatic shell detection, window resize, and signal handling.

Git : Status, diff, log, stage, commit, branch, push/pull/fetch, stash, reset (covers roughly 90 % of daily operations).

Search : Full‑text search backed by a Rust index using dashmap, rayon, and regex for parallel execution.

Themes : Built‑in VS Code themes.

Extensions : Install from the Open VSX registry.

Storage : SQLite via rusqlite with auto‑save, undo/redo.

Features Still Under Development

Extension host.

Debugger.

Rust’s Role in SideX

File System : std::fs for read/write; notify crate for file watching (macOS uses FSEvents).

Terminal (PTY) : portable-pty provides a real shell, interactive sessions, automatic shell detection, and resize events.

Git Layer : Implements a complete Git command set covering the majority of everyday development tasks.

Search System : Parallel search using dashmap + rayon + regex, with a fast Rust‑based backend index.

Local Storage : SQLite accessed through rusqlite.

Local Deployment (Step‑by‑Step)

Environment Preparation : Install Rust, Node.js, and Tauri dependencies. Platform‑specific tools:

Windows → Visual Studio Build Tools

macOS → Xcode CLI

Linux → webkit2gtk, SSL, etc.

Clone Repository :

git clone https://github.com/Sidenai/sidex.git
cd sidex
npm install

Run in Development Mode : npm run tauri dev On Linux, if a white screen appears, use:

WEBKIT_DISABLE_DMABUF_RENDERER=1 npm run tauri dev

Build (increase Node memory):

# macOS / Linux
NODE_OPTIONS="--max-old-space-size=12288" npm run build
# Windows (PowerShell)
$env:NODE_OPTIONS="--max-old-space-size=12288"
npm run build
npx tauri build

First Rust compilation takes 5–10 minutes.

Front‑end compilation requires >12 GB RAM.

No pre‑compiled binaries are provided; build from source.

Performance Comparison: SideX vs. Electron

Installer size : VS Code 797 MB → SideX 16 MB.

Browser engine : VS Code uses built‑in Chromium; SideX uses the system WebView.

Backend : VS Code runs on Node.js; SideX runs on Rust.

Idle memory target : VS Code >1 GB; SideX <200 MB on macOS.

Key Advantages

Installation size reduced by 96 %.

Faster startup.

Multiple applications can share the system WebView kernel.

Rust backend offers more predictable performance.

Repository

https://github.com/Sidenai/sidex