Moly: a Rust AI LLM client built atop Robius

Moly is an AI LLM client written in Rust, and demonstrates the power of the Makepad UI toolkit and Project Robius, a framework for multi-platform application development in Rust.

⚠️ Moly is in beta. Please file an issue if you encounter bugs or unexpected results.

The following table shows which host systems can currently be used to build Moly for which target platforms.

Host OS	Target Platform	Builds?	Runs?	Packaging Support
macOS	macOS	✅	✅	.app, .dmg
Linux	Linux	✅	✅	.deb (Debian dpkg), AppImage, pacman
Windows	Windows (10+)	✅	✅	.exe (NSIS)

Building and Running

1. Install Rust.

2. Obtain the source code for this repository:

git clone https://github.com/moxin-org/moly.git

Tip: use moly-runner for easy setup

Tip

On all platforms, you can use our helper program to auto-setup WasmEdge for you and run any cargo command:

cargo run -p moly-runner -- --install    ## finds or installs WasmEdge, then stops.
cargo run -p moly-runner -- cargo build  ## builds Moly
cargo run -p moly-runner -- cargo run    ## builds and runs Moly
cargo run -p moly-runner -- cargo [your-command-here]

macOS

Install the required WasmEdge WASM runtime (or use moly-runner):

curl -sSf https://raw.githubusercontent.com/WasmEdge/WasmEdge/master/utils/install_v2.sh | bash -s -- --version=0.14.0

source $HOME/.wasmedge/env

Then use cargo to build and run Moly:

cd moly
cargo run --release

Linux

Install the required WasmEdge WASM runtime (or use moly-runner):

curl -sSf https://raw.githubusercontent.com/WasmEdge/WasmEdge/master/utils/install_v2.sh | bash -s -- --version=0.14.0

source $HOME/.wasmedge/env

Important

If your CPU does not support AVX512, then you should append the --noavx option onto the above command. If you use moly-runner, it will handle this for you.

To build Moly on Linux, you must install the following dependencies: openssl, clang/libclang, binfmt, Xcursor/X11, asound/pulse. On a Debian-like Linux distro (e.g., Ubuntu), run the following:

sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install libssl-dev pkg-config llvm clang libclang-dev binfmt-support libxcursor-dev libx11-dev libasound2-dev libpulse-dev

Then use cargo to build and run Moly:

cd moly
cargo run --release

Windows (Windows 10, Windows 11 or higher)

1. Download and install the LLVM v17.0.6 release for Windows: Here is a direct link to LLVM-17.0.6-win64.exe, 333MB in size.

Important

During the setup procedure, make sure to select Add LLVM to the system PATH for all users or for the current user.

2. Restart your PC, or log out and log back in, which allows the LLVM path to be properly

   • Alternatively you can add the LLVM path C:\Program Files\LLVM\bin to your system PATH.

3. Use moly-runner to auto-setup WasmEdge and then build & run Moly:

cargo run -p moly-runner -- cargo run --release  ## `--release` is optional

---

Packaging Moly for Distribution

Note: we already have pre-built releases of Moly available for download.

Install cargo-packager:

rustup update stable  ## Rust version 1.79 or higher is required
cargo +stable install --force --locked cargo-packager

For posterity, these instructions have been tested on cargo-packager version 0.10.1, which requires Rust v1.79.

Packaging for Linux

On a Debian-based Linux distribution (e.g., Ubuntu), you can generate a .deb Debian package, an AppImage, and a pacman installation package.

Important

You can only generate a .deb Debian package on a Debian-based Linux distribution, as dpkg is needed.

Note

The pacman package has not yet been tested.

Ensure you are in the root moly directory, and then you can use cargo packager to generate all three package types at once:

cargo packager --release --verbose   ## --verbose is optional

To install the Moly app from the .debpackage on a Debian-based Linux distribution (e.g., Ubuntu), run:

cd dist/
sudo apt install ./moly_0.1.0_amd64.deb  ## The "./" part is required

We recommend using apt install to install the .deb file instead of dpkg -i, because apt will auto-install all of Moly's required dependencies, whereas dpkg will require you to install them manually.

To run the AppImage bundle, simply set the file as executable and then run it:

cd dist/
chmod +x moly_0.1.0_x86_64.AppImage
./moly_0.1.0_x86_64.AppImage

Packaging for Windows

This can only be run on an actual Windows machine, due to platform restrictions.

First, follow the above instructions for building on Windows.

Ensure you are in the root moly directory, and then you can use cargo packager to generate a setup.exe file using NSIS:

cargo run -p moly-runner -- cargo packager --release --formats nsis --verbose   ## --verbose is optional

After the command completes, you should see a Windows installer called moly_0.1.0_x64-setup in the dist/ directory. Double-click that file to install Moly on your machine, and then run it as you would a regular application.

Packaging for macOS

This can only be run on an actual macOS machine, due to platform restrictions.

Ensure you are in the root moly directory, and then you can use cargo packager to generate an .app bundle and a .dmg disk image:

cargo packager --release --verbose   ## --verbose is optional

Important

You will see a .dmg window pop up — please leave it alone, it will auto-close once the packaging procedure has completed.

Tip

If you receive the following error:

ERROR cargo_packager::cli: Error running create-dmg script: File exists (os error 17)

then open Finder and unmount any Moly-related disk images, then try the above cargo packager command again.

Tip

If you receive an error like so:

Creating disk image...
hdiutil: create failed - Operation not permitted
could not access /Volumes/Moly/Moly.app - Operation not permitted

then you need to grant "App Management" permissions to the app in which you ran the cargo packager command, e.g., Terminal, Visual Studio Code, etc. To do this, open System Preferences → Privacy & Security → App Management, and then click the toggle switch next to the relevant app to enable that permission. Then, try the above cargo packager command again.

After the command completes, you should see both the Moly.app and the .dmg in the dist/ directory. You can immediately double-click the Moly.app bundle to run it, or you can double-click the .dmg file to

Note that the .dmg is what should be distributed for installation on other machines, not the .app.

If you'd like to modify the .dmg background, here is the Google Drawings file used to generate the MacOS .dmg background image.