vtube-studio/README.md

Run locally

Prerequisites: Node.js (16+ recommended)

1. Install dependencies:

   npm install

2. Copy the example env and (optionally) add your Gemini API key:

   cp .env.example .env

   If you set GEMINI_API_KEY, the project can be wired to a real image generation backend. For local development, if the key is empty the app will show a placeholder generated image so the UI remains usable.

3. Start the dev server:

   npm run dev

Run as an Electron app (local desktop)

1. Install dev dependencies (if not already done):

   npm install

2. Start the app in Electron (dev):

   npm run electron:dev

This runs Vite and then launches Electron pointed at the dev server. The renderer will use a preload bridge to ask the main process to perform avatar generation — you can extend the main process to call the @google/genai SDK safely.

Tailwind CSS and production

• The app previously used the Tailwind CDN for convenience. For production we now build Tailwind locally using PostCSS (the project contains tailwind.config.cjs and postcss.config.cjs).

• To build for production (or package with Electron), run:

  npm run build

• If you need to customize Tailwind, edit tailwind.config.cjs and your global styles in src/styles.css.

Electron security note (CSP)

During development Electron warns about a permissive Content-Security-Policy (CSP). This is expected for dev, but before shipping an Electron app you must set a strict CSP and avoid unsafe-eval and unsafe-inline where possible. See: https://electronjs.org/docs/tutorial/security

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Refactor notes

The repository was reorganized so renderer and electron-specific code live under src/:

• src/renderer — React application and browser-only services/components
• src/electron — main process, preload, and GenAI wrapper
• src/shared — types and small shared artifacts

Vite alias @ now points to src/ so you can import shared files as @/shared/types.

Compatibility: root-level electron entry files were kept as small wrappers that forward to the src/electron files so existing scripts should still work.

If you want further adjustments (different folders or moving more files), tell me and I will apply them.