rust-tray-icon

name	rust-tray-icon
description	Expert knowledge for building Rust system-tray apps with tray-icon, winit, and egui — platform-specific setup, native menus, auto-launch, and GUI integration. Use when adding a tray or menu-bar icon, wiring tray menus, configuring auto-launch, or integrating a tray with a winit/egui app.

Rust System Tray Applications

Comprehensive expertise for creating cross-platform system tray applications in Rust using the tray-icon crate ecosystem.

Core Principles

• Use tray-icon by the Tauri team - Most robust and maintained solution
• Pair with winit for event loops - Handles OS-specific windowing requirements
• Embed icons at compile time - Ship single executables with include_bytes!
• Native menus over custom UI - Better OS integration and accessibility
• Handle platform differences explicitly - Each OS has unique tray behaviors

Quick Start

Dependencies

[dependencies]
tray-icon = "0.19"
winit = "0.29"
webbrowser = "1.0"
image = "0.25"

Minimal Example

use tray_icon::{menu::Menu, Icon, TrayIconBuilder};
use winit::event_loop::EventLoop;

fn main() {
    let event_loop = EventLoop::new().unwrap();
    let icon = load_icon(include_bytes!("icon.png"));

    let _tray_icon = TrayIconBuilder::new()
        .with_tooltip("Click me!")
        .with_icon(icon)
        .build()
        .unwrap();

    event_loop.run(move |_event, elwt| {
        // Handle events
    }).unwrap();
}

Platform Requirements

Platform	Build Dependencies	Runtime Requirements	Icon Format
Windows	None	None	ICO/PNG (256x256)
macOS	None	Main thread only	PNG (22x22)
Linux	libgtk-3-dev, libappindicator3-dev	GNOME extension	PNG (varies)

Key Patterns

Hide on Close (Windows)

#![windows_subsystem = "windows"]  // Hide console

// In event handler:
Event::WindowEvent {
    event: WindowEvent::CloseRequested,
    ..
} => {
    window.set_visible(false);  // Don't exit!
}

Icon Loading Helper

fn load_icon(bytes: &[u8]) -> Icon {
    let image = image::load_from_memory(bytes)
        .expect("Failed to parse icon")
        .into_rgba8();
    let (width, height) = image.dimensions();
    Icon::from_rgba(image.into_raw(), width, height)
        .expect("Failed to create icon")
}

Detailed Topics

• Basic Setup - Dependencies, minimal examples, event handling
• Platform Specifics - OS differences, gotchas, requirements
• Menu System - Native menus, checkboxes, submenus, dynamic updates
• Advanced Features - GUI integration, auto-launch, cross-compilation

Common Use Cases

• URL Launcher - Click tray to open website
• Settings Panel - Hide/show configuration window
• Background Service - Monitor with status updates
• Quick Actions - Right-click menu for common tasks

Resources

• tray-icon Documentation
• winit Documentation
• Tauri GitHub