OpenSlides

OpenSlides is a free, open-source desktop application built by CodeWithThiha that turns source code into polished presentation slides. It runs entirely offline using a Tauri 2 + Rust shell over a local SQLite database, requiring no account, subscription, or internet connection. The project is released under the MIT license and is positioned as a direct alternative to the commercial codeslides.app.

What It Is

OpenSlides is a code-presentation tool designed for developers, educators, content creators, and conference speakers who want to walk an audience through code visually. Rather than screensharing a static editor, users build slide decks where each slide contains code, and "highlight steps" let them dim unrelated lines and bring specific sections forward — advancing through the sequence with arrow keys. Magic Move transitions animate tokens between slide states so identifiers visually travel from one code version to the next instead of hard-cutting.

Tech Stack and Architecture

The app is built with a modern, deliberately chosen stack:

• Desktop shell: Tauri 2 and Rust
• Interface: Svelte 5 (runes), TypeScript, Vite 7, and Tailwind CSS 4
• Code rendering: Shiki (run in a shared web worker) and shiki-magic-move
• Local storage: SQLite via sqlx on the Rust side, running in WAL mode
• Motion and drag-and-drop: Svelte transitions/springs, svelte-dnd-action, and custom pointer drag-and-drop

The editor surface is an uncontrolled textarea rather than a heavy code-editor component, which keeps slide-switching instant. Caret positions are stored outside React/Svelte state, and all writes go through a shared save queue that serializes and debounces per slide.

Offline-First Design

Every piece of durable state — projects, slides, thumbnails, and the full-text search index — lives on disk as a local SQLite file. The syntax-highlighting worker, themes, and language grammars are bundled and loaded lazily from the local app rather than fetched at runtime. This means OpenSlides works on a plane, on a stage with unreliable venue Wi-Fi, or in any environment with no network access at all.

Highlight Steps and Presentation Features

A slide in OpenSlides is a sequence, not just a static code block. Key presentation capabilities include:

• Stepped highlights: Select code, create a highlight step, and dim everything outside the selection during presentation. Number keys 1–9 jump to a step; 0 returns to the clean slide.
• Magic Move transitions: Token-level animation between slide states, with highlight geometry computed in TypeScript using a monospace path with a DOM Range fallback.
• Autoplay: Advances by each slide's configured duration; highlight steps consume extra navigation steps before moving to the next slide.
• Full-screen presentation mode: Keyboard-isolated from the editor so presenting never accidentally triggers edit shortcuts.
• SQLite FTS5 search: Slides are indexed with full-text search, kept in sync by database triggers, with a JavaScript substring fallback when the backend is unavailable.

Update: v1.2.1 (July 2026)

The latest release, v1.2.1 (published 2026-07-25), is the most recent in a rapid release sequence that began in mid-July 2026. Notable milestones:

• v1.2.0 was the first major release built from a Svelte 5 rewrite of the earlier React app, delivering significantly more stable preview, highlight, and code-transition rendering.
• v1.2.1 switched build tooling from npm to Bun, added a macOS Universal binary covering both Apple Silicon and Intel, and fixed a dashboard visual glitch.
• Platform coverage now includes macOS (Apple Silicon, Intel, Universal), Windows (x64, ARM64), and Linux (.deb and .rpm packages).

Open-Source Deployment Model

OpenSlides is available as prebuilt installers from GitHub Releases or can be built from source using Bun and a stable Rust toolchain with Cargo. The MIT license allows forking, modification, and redistribution without restriction. All project data is stored as a local SQLite file that users own outright — copyable, version-controllable, and fully portable.