A desktop launchpad for R and Shiny applications, with package apps, staged Shiny source apps, and hosted HTTPS URLs. Click a tile to select it; double-click or press Enter to launch it in its own native window.
0.2.0-rc.1 is an unpublished release candidate. See the qualification record for executed platform checks and the remaining final-release requirements.
Install R ≥ 4.2 separately for package and source apps, then select it in R Runtime → Point to existing R if discovery does not find it. There is no managed R download. Hosted URLs do not need local R. See the getting-started guide.
Each section's + tile opens the registration form:
- Packages: choose CRAN or GitHub, the package name and its exported launcher function. The launcher is called as
pkg::fun(). - Shiny apps: choose a folder, ZIP file, HTTPS ZIP URL, gist or GitHub source repository containing
app.Rorui.Randserver.R. Local files are copied into staging; editing the original does not update the staged app. - Hosted URLs: enter an HTTPS address. These windows use temporary sessions; persistent login storage is not offered.
Select a tile before using native menu actions. Close a running app window or use Stop to request process shutdown. Repeated launches focus an existing app window. Quitting requests shutdown of owned processes, including supervised descendants.
Only install sources you trust. R packages and Shiny source execute code with your operating-system account's permissions. A managed package library is not a sandbox. Hosted applications can transmit entered data to their operators and third-party services.
Packages share a library scoped by R version and architecture. They do not have independent renv environments. Declared dependencies are requirements; inferred references are advisory. When the pak preference is enabled, the installer prefers pak::pkg_install for CRAN and GitHub, with the available fallback path. Package uninstall must respect other registered apps using the package.
Reinstall replaces staged source files. Keep databases, uploads and other durable app data outside the staged source directory and back them up before reinstalling. Transactional replacement protects the last usable source from an installation failure; it is not a backup service for app-written data.
The Electron userData directory typically lives at %APPDATA%/shinylaunchR (Windows), ~/Library/Application Support/shinylaunchR (macOS), or ~/.config/shinylaunchr (Linux). It contains registry and settings JSON, recovery backups, cached icons, logs, apps/ staging, running-pids.json, the versioned R library beneath r-runtime/, and encrypted credential storage when available. Paths may differ with system configuration.
Package icons are resolved from installed help/figures/logo.* and other supported locations. User-selected icons take priority. The interface uses the R-blue #75AADB accent.
GitHub tokens use Electron safeStorage when a usable OS encryption backend is available. Linux basic_text is treated as unavailable. The encrypted token file is local; this does not protect against code running as your account. Legacy keytar tokens can be imported through fixed native OS helpers without shipping keytar: macOS security, Linux secret-tool, and Windows Credential Manager via PowerShell. Linux may require installation of the libsecret tools package. Missing helpers produce a warning and leave the old OS item untouched; enter the token again or restore the helper to migrate it. Locked stores and failed deletions are reported. Linux migration and encrypted persistence have been checked with synthetic credentials in an isolated OS store; Windows/macOS native credential-store qualification remains pending.
App windows use sandboxed renderers without Node integration. Main-process IPC handlers validate requests and sender identity; browser permission requests are denied by default. Token redaction is defense in depth, not a guarantee that arbitrary app output cannot expose secrets. See SECURITY.md and PRIVACY.md.
Use Node.js 24 LTS and the committed lockfile:
npm ci
npm run dev
npm run typecheck
npm run lint
npm test
npm run build
npm run package:dirpackage:dir creates an unpacked application for the host platform and verifies its Electron fuse policy. Run node scripts/smoke-packaged.mjs <packaged-executable> to exercise the isolated smoke mode; Linux CI uses Xvfb. No smoke run should use the normal user-data directory.
PR CI runs checks, packaging and smoke on Linux, Windows and macOS. Dependencies and workflow action pins receive weekly update PRs. The current compatible toolchain and dated audit evidence are described in dependency-advisories.md. npm's production-only audit excludes Electron and bundled renderer libraries because they are build dependencies; it is not a complete shipped-artifact assessment.
The release workflow builds installers on version tags without publishing from individual platform jobs. Only after all platform checks and host-architecture packaged smoke runs pass does a separate job create a draft; candidate versions are marked prerelease. A maintainer must review and publish the draft. Tag and package/lockfile/CITATION/Zenodo versions must agree. Before tagging, review the qualification evidence, align package/CITATION/Zenodo/changelog metadata, and assign the actual publication date. This candidate has no assigned release date or new DOI. Existing archived software is available at Zenodo; that DOI is not asserted to describe this unpublished candidate.
Builds are unsigned unless signing credentials are configured. Unsigned software may trigger OS warnings; that is not evidence of safety. macOS uses MAC_CSC_LINK, MAC_CSC_KEY_PASSWORD, APPLE_ID, APPLE_APP_SPECIFIC_PASSWORD, and APPLE_TEAM_ID; Windows uses WIN_CSC_LINK and WIN_CSC_KEY_PASSWORD. Certificate and notarization behavior require separate signed-artifact testing. Never commit certificates or tokens.
Packaging removes sourcemaps and sets Electron fuses to disable RunAsNode, NODE_OPTIONS and CLI inspection, while requiring ASAR loading and enabling embedded ASAR integrity where supported. The macOS entitlement set is reduced to JIT; signed macOS qualification is still pending.
Managed R installation, per-app renv libraries, persistent hosted sessions, frameless windows and automatic updates are not offered in this candidate.
Copyright © 2026 Raban Heller (ORCID). Licensed under Apache-2.0; see LICENSE, NOTICE, LICENSING.md, and third-party notices. R and Shiny are separate installations; their packages and applications have their own licenses. This project is independent of the R Foundation and Posit.
For the unpublished candidate, cite version 0.2.0-rc.1 and its eventual revision identifier rather than an invented release date. The published archive has DOI 10.5281/zenodo.21889984:
@software{heller_shinylaunchr,
author = {Heller, Raban},
title = {{shinylaunchR}: Desktop launchpad for {R} and {Shiny} applications},
doi = {10.5281/zenodo.21889984},
url = {https://github.com/CTTIR/shinylaunchR}
}