A Windows desktop app for browsing and managing Cloudflare R2 buckets over the S3 API, built to behave like File Explorer rather than like a web dashboard. Tauri 2 shell, Rust backend (AWS S3 SDK), Vue 3 frontend. R2 credentials never reach the webview, and nothing sits between the app and R2.
Screenshots use example connections, files, and generated placeholder images. No private R2 data is shown.
File browsing and text preview — inspect files beside the listing, with line numbers and wrapping.
Gallery view
Browse files and folders as tiles.
Image preview
View an image alongside the gallery.
Connection manager
Manage connections, credentials, and read-only access.
| Piece | Version used here | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Windows | 10 / 11 x64 | WebView2 runtime ships with Edge; the installer expects it present |
| Node.js | 22.15.0 | 20+ should work |
| pnpm | 11.11.0 | npm/yarn work too, commands below are pnpm |
| Rust | stable, 1.89.0 | x86_64-pc-windows-msvc toolchain |
| Visual Studio Build Tools | 2022 | "Desktop development with C++" workload — needed to link the exe |
| NSIS + WiX | auto-downloaded | tauri build fetches these into %LOCALAPPDATA%\tauri on first bundle |
Check what you have:
node -v; pnpm -v; rustc -V; cargo -Vpnpm install
pnpm tauri devThe first launch opens an "Add R2 Connection" form (see Connecting to R2).
pnpm tauri dev # full app: Vite dev server + debug Rust binary + HMR- Frontend edits hot-reload. Rust edits rebuild and restart the window.
- The webview loads
http://localhost:1420(fixed port —strictPortis on, so something else on 1420 makes dev fail loudly). - Debug binary:
src-tauri\target\debug\aretwo.exe.cargo buildalone embeds whatever is currently indist\, so runpnpm buildfirst if you care about the assets inside it.
Other dev commands:
pnpm dev # Vite only, in a browser — see the note below
pnpm build # vue-tsc --noEmit && vite build (typecheck + dist)
cargo test --manifest-path src-tauri/Cargo.toml # 10 unit tests, offline
node --experimental-strip-types scripts/rows.check.ts # asserts on the pure frontend helperspnpm dev in a plain browser has no Tauri IPC, so the app cannot talk to R2. It now prints that in the window instead of throwing Cannot read properties of undefined (reading 'invoke').
pnpm tauri buildArtifacts, all under src-tauri\target\release\:
| File | Size | Use |
|---|---|---|
aretwo.exe |
~11.6 MB | portable — run it directly, no install |
bundle\nsis\AreTwo - R2 Explorer_0.1.0_x64-setup.exe |
~3.9 MB | installer (per-user, adds Start Menu entry) |
bundle\msi\AreTwo - R2 Explorer_0.1.0_x64_en-US.msi |
~5.7 MB | MSI for managed deployment |
Useful variants:
pnpm tauri build --no-bundle # just the release exe, skips installer tooling
pnpm tauri build --debug # release bundling with a debug binary (faster compile)
pnpm tauri build --bundles nsis # NSIS installer onlyNotes:
- The build embeds
dist\—beforeBuildCommandrunspnpm buildfor you, so never ship a stale frontend. - Builds are unsigned. Windows SmartScreen will warn on first launch of a downloaded copy; that needs a code-signing certificate (not configured yet).
- Installer names come from
productNameinsrc-tauri\tauri.conf.json("AreTwo - R2 Explorer"). The executable isaretwo.exe. - Config lives in
%APPDATA%\R2Explorer\, caches nowhere yet — deleting that folder resets the app.
You need four values from the Cloudflare dashboard (R2 → Manage R2 API Tokens → create a token with Object Read & Write, scoped to the bucket):
| Field in the app | Where it comes from |
|---|---|
| Profile name | Anything you like, e.g. Development |
| Account ID | 32 hex chars, shown in the R2 overview / dashboard URL |
| Access key ID | The token's Access Key ID |
| Secret access key | The token's Secret Access Key (shown once) |
| Endpoint | Leave blank — derived as https://<account-id>.r2.cloudflarestorage.com |
| Default bucket | Optional; the tab opens here |
Two things that bite people:
- The endpoint is a bare host.
https://<account-id>.r2.cloudflarestorage.com/example-bucketis a URL to a bucket, not an S3 endpoint. The dialog strips a pasted/buckettail automatically, and empty means "derive it from the account ID". - A custom domain (e.g.
assets.example.com) is for public delivery. It is not the S3 API and the app ignores it.
Read-only connections: tick the box and every mutating command (upload, create, copy, rename, delete) is refused by a single guard in the Rust layer, not by UI checks.
Browsing — connections, buckets, prefixes-as-folders, tabs (Ctrl+T), per-tab back/forward history, breadcrumb + r2:// address bar, filter, pagination over large prefixes, 26px density, virtualized table (only visible rows exist in the DOM).
Columns — Name, Type, Date Modified, Folders, Files, Size by default; ETag, Storage Class, Extension, Full Key via right-click on the header; drag to resize; sortable; layout persists.
Folder statistics — R2 has no folders, so Folders/Files/Size per row cost a paginated scan. They load lazily for visible rows only, three at a time, cached 30 minutes, with right-click → Calculate / Refresh folder statistics.
Preview — images (fit/100%, data: URLs, oversized files refused before download), text and code with a line-number gutter, wrapping, JSON pretty-print, line/size/type footer, Copy; folder preview shows the same stats as the columns; unknown types fall back to metadata.
Gallery — virtualized tile grid for image-heavy buckets; tiles fetch a capped image only when they scroll into view; memory-bounded cache.
Transfers — queue with three parallel jobs, real byte progress (multipart above 8 MiB), speed/ETA, cancel, retry, pause, clear finished, Windows taskbar progress, drag-and-drop upload from Explorer (folders are walked recursively, symlinks skipped), per-folder download that keeps the structure.
File management — upload, upload folder, download, download folder, new folder, new file, rename (implemented as copy + delete, since S3 has no rename), copy to another prefix, delete (batched 1000 keys per request), multi-select, confirmation dialog for destructive actions.
Search — filter the current listing instantly, or search the whole bucket with wildcards: *.webp, manga/*/01.webp, or plain substrings. Server-side scan, 50-page cap, reports how much it scanned.
Sharing — copy object key, copy r2:// URI, create a presigned GET link (5 min / 1 h / 24 h / 7 days / custom, capped at R2's 7-day maximum).
Properties — size, content type, modified, ETag, storage class, cache-control, custom metadata, plus prefix stats for folders.
| Key | Action |
|---|---|
Enter |
Open folder / preview file |
Backspace, Alt+↑ |
Parent folder |
Alt+←, Alt+→ |
Back / forward |
F5 |
Refresh |
F2 |
Rename |
Delete |
Delete selection (confirms) |
Ctrl+A |
Select all |
Ctrl+F, / |
Focus filter |
Ctrl+L |
Focus address bar |
Alt+Enter |
Properties |
Ctrl+T / Ctrl+W |
New tab / close tab |
Ctrl+Shift+T |
Reopen closed tab |
Ctrl+Tab / Ctrl+Shift+Tab |
Cycle tabs |
↑ / ↓ |
Move selection |
Esc |
Dismiss the context menu / close an open dialog |
| middle-click | Close tab |
Offline (always safe):
cargo test --manifest-path src-tauri/Cargo.toml # unit tests incl. prefix maths, copy-source encoding, wildcard search, DPAPI round trip
node --experimental-strip-types scripts/rows.check.ts # pure frontend logic
pnpm build # types + bundle
pnpm test # frontend helpers + file icon mappings/assetsLive smoke test against a real bucket (writes and then deletes objects):
$env:R2_PROFILE_ID = "your-profile-id" # a saved profile id from %APPDATA%\R2Explorer\profiles.json
$env:R2_BUCKET = "your-test-bucket"
cargo test --manifest-path src-tauri/Cargo.toml -- --ignored --nocapture live_It walks a bucket, scans one prefix, searches *.webp, uploads/downloads a small file and a 10 MiB file (multipart), fetches a presigned URL with curl and asserts HTTP 200, copies a key containing spaces and Japanese characters, and deletes everything it created under _r2explorer-smoketest/. It is skipped unless --ignored is passed.
Both environment variables are required; the test has no default account or bucket. Use a dedicated test bucket. UI checks use mocked R2 data; live operations require your own credentials.
| Symptom | Cause | Fix |
|---|---|---|
Cannot read properties of undefined (reading 'invoke') |
UI opened without the Tauri shell (browser tab, dist/index.html) |
run pnpm tauri dev or the built exe |
403, SignatureDoesNotMatch, NoSuchBucket on connect |
endpoint includes a bucket path, wrong account ID, or a read-only token used for a write | blank the endpoint, re-check the 32-char account ID, check the read-only flag |
| Presigned link stops working | expired (max 7 days) or the object was renamed | create a new link |
pnpm tauri dev fails: port in use |
something else owns 1420 | stop it, or change server.port in vite.config.ts |
| Window is blank on a fresh machine | WebView2 runtime missing (rare on Win10/11) | install the Evergreen WebView2 runtime |
First cargo build seems hung |
it is compiling aws-sdk-s3 + tauri |
let it run (~13 min), later builds are incremental |
| SmartScreen warning on the installer | unsigned build | sign it (pnpm tauri signer) or run anyway |
| Rename/copy fails on keys with spaces or CJK | would be a bug in encode_copy_source |
it is unit-tested and live-verified; report it |
| Uploads show 0% then 100% | files under 8 MiB go as a single PutObject | real byte progress starts at 8 MiB (multipart) |
- No PDF / XLSX / DOCX / archive preview — images, text, code and metadata only.
- No on-disk thumbnail cache and no SQLite metadata index; folder stats and search rescan R2 (cached in memory for 30 minutes).
- Pause is queue-level; a transfer in flight can only be cancelled and retried.
- No cut/paste shortcut — a "move" is Copy to… followed by deleting the source.
- No drag-out to Explorer, no code signing, no auto-update.
- UI is dark-only and English-only.
VS Code + Vue - Official + Tauri + rust-analyzer.
AreTwo is licensed under the MIT License.
File-type SVG icons are from Material Icon Theme by Material Extensions, used under the MIT license. The unmodified subset is included in public/icons/material, with the full copyright and license notice. App branding and toolbar icons are separate from this set.