Build Stealth Rustdesk

Build stealth RustDesk from source (macOS, Apple Silicon)

Produce a signed RustDesk.app with three stealth surfaces suppressed in the binary — the menu-bar (tray) icon, the Dock icon, and the CM panel (the connection-management window that floats top-right during a session) — while remote keyboard still works. The built app is the artifact; deploy it as an unattended service with the deploy-stealth-rustdesk skill.

Why build from source: the obvious shortcut — the hide-tray=Y custom-client flag — springs the daemon trap. It makes RustDesk install as a LaunchDaemon, which runs outside the user's GUI session and silently kills remote keyboard input (rustdesk#10709); on macOS 26 such clients may not even launch. The only path that is both invisible and controllable keeps RustDesk a LaunchAgent (user session) and just skips drawing the tray icon — a one-line patch. Installing as a LaunchAgent is deploy-stealth-rustdesk's job; this skill compiles the patch in.

Each surface needs a different mechanism — there is no single toggle:

Upstream restricts the hide-CM feature to Pro / custom-client builds (is_custom_client() is just get_app_name() != "RustDesk"), so on a vanilla from-source build no config value alone will hide the CM panel — the ipc.rs hunk removes that gate. The gate removal only pays off when deploy sets its three config options (approve-mode + verification-method + allow-hide-cm); without them the CM panel still shows. That coupling is the interface to deploy-stealth-rustdesk.

Pins — RustDesk 1.4.8, Apple Silicon. Version drift is the top build-failure cause; match exactly. For any other tag, re-derive them first (REFERENCE.md → "Re-deriving pins").

• Rust 1.81 · Flutter 3.24.5 (exact) · vcpkg @120deac3062162151622ca4860575a33844ba10b · cargo-expand 1.0.95 · flutter_rust_bridge_codegen 1.80.1
• vcpkg triplet arm64-osx · build features flutter,hwcodec,unix-file-copy-paste · full Xcode (not just Command Line Tools)

Set once, used throughout ($SKILL_DIR = this skill's folder):

BUILD=~/rustdesk-build
export VCPKG_ROOT="$BUILD/vcpkg"
export PATH="$BUILD/flutter-sdk/flutter/bin:$HOME/.cargo/bin:$PATH"
APP="$BUILD/rustdesk/flutter/build/macos/Build/Products/Release/RustDesk.app"

Step 1 — Maintain the private fork (source of truth)

Keep a private fork of rustdesk/rustdesk with the two stealth.patch hunks committed on top of the upstream release tag. Version bumps then become a git rebase/cherry-pick — not the "re-locate the two sites by hand" that a raw git apply forces when upstream code moves. Use the private-fork-sync skill for the generic "make the fork private + keep it fast-forward-synced with upstream" mechanics; the stealth-specific part is below.

First-time setup:

# Fork rustdesk/rustdesk -> your account, make it private + wire upstream (private-fork-sync skill).
# (Alternative: a detached private mirror — bare-clone rustdesk, push to a fresh private repo — if
#  you don't want a GitHub "fork" object; it sidesteps the fork-network privacy caveats.)
git clone git@github.com:<you>/rustdesk.git "$BUILD/rustdesk-fork" && cd "$BUILD/rustdesk-fork"
git remote add upstream https://github.com/rustdesk/rustdesk.git && git fetch upstream --tags
git checkout -b stealth-1.4.8 1.4.8
git apply "$SKILL_DIR/assets/stealth.patch"
git commit -am "STEALTH BUILD PATCH: hide tray + un-gate hide-cm (tray.rs, ipc.rs)"
git push origin stealth-1.4.8

Version bump (e.g. 1.4.8 → 1.4.9):

git fetch upstream --tags
git rebase --onto 1.4.9 1.4.8 stealth-1.4.8   # or cherry-pick the stealth commit onto 1.4.9
# conflicts localize to src/ipc.rs + src/tray.rs; resolve, re-derive the pins (REFERENCE.md), retag:
git branch -m stealth-1.4.9 && git push -u origin stealth-1.4.9

Only src/ipc.rs and src/tray.rs change — both main-repo files, so submodules (hbb_common, vcpkg) resolve to their own upstreams and need no fork. Two other stealth fixes live OUTSIDE the fork and are re-applied per build (window_manager, Step 4) or per deploy (agent KeepAlive, in deploy-stealth-rustdesk). Note: privatizing a fork blocks PRs to the public parent (fine — these are never upstreamed) and drops prior collaborators.

Done when: git ls-remote --heads origin stealth-1.4.8 returns a ref, and git show stealth-1.4.8:src/tray.rs | grep -c 'STEALTH BUILD PATCH' is 1.

Step 2 — Pin the toolchain

Install/verify every pin above. Full Xcode must be the active developer dir: sudo xcode-select -s /Applications/Xcode.app/Contents/Developer && sudo xcodebuild -license accept && sudo xcodebuild -runFirstLaunch. rustup install 1.81; download Flutter 3.24.5 exact from the Flutter release archive (NOT brew install flutter — that is latest and will break codegen); brew install nasm cmake pkg-config cocoapods; clone vcpkg into $VCPKG_ROOT, git checkout the pinned commit, ./bootstrap-vcpkg.sh -disableMetrics; cargo +1.81 install cargo-expand --version 1.0.95 --locked and cargo +1.81 install flutter_rust_bridge_codegen --version 1.80.1 --features uuid --locked.

Done when: flutter doctor shows Xcode ✓, $VCPKG_ROOT/vcpkg version runs, and flutter_rust_bridge_codegen --version prints 1.80.1.

Step 3 — Clone the stealth source

Primary — clone your fork's stealth branch (patch already committed):

git clone --depth 1 --branch stealth-1.4.8 --recurse-submodules --shallow-submodules \
  git@github.com:<you>/rustdesk.git "$BUILD/rustdesk"
cd "$BUILD/rustdesk" && rustup override set 1.81

Fallback (no fork) — clone upstream and apply the patch directly:

git clone --depth 1 --branch 1.4.8 --recurse-submodules --shallow-submodules \
  https://github.com/rustdesk/rustdesk.git "$BUILD/rustdesk"
cd "$BUILD/rustdesk" && rustup override set 1.81 && git apply "$SKILL_DIR/assets/stealth.patch"

The patch is the only source change — two small hunks (either path yields an identical tree):

• src/tray.rs::make_tray() — forces the tray's existing "start the event loop but don't create the status item" path on macOS. Keeping the event loop is what lets the --server process retain its main run loop → capture + input survive. Do not early-return start_tray() instead — the --server macOS branch depends on that loop.
• src/ipc.rs (get_config "hide_cm") — removes the is_pro() || is_custom_client() gate so hide_cm() is honored on this build. Without it, deploy-stealth-rustdesk's config is silently ignored and the CM panel shows on every connect.

Done when: grep -rc 'STEALTH BUILD PATCH' src/tray.rs src/ipc.rs reports 1 for each file.

Step 4 — pub get, patch window_manager (Dock fix), generate the FRB bridge

flutter pub get fetches the window_manager plugin, whose setSkipTaskbar calls setActivationPolicy(.regular) when a window shows — the one thing that defeats LSUIElement and puts a Dock icon up on connect. Patch it to stay .accessory. Then run the FRB codegen — build.py does not run it, and skipping it makes Step 5 fail with file not found for module bridge_generated + EventToUI: IntoIntoDart (errors that look unrelated to the real cause).

cd "$BUILD/rustdesk/flutter" && flutter pub get && cd ..
# Dock-icon fix (pub-cache path varies by pinned ref, so find it):
WM=$(find ~/.pub-cache -path '*window_manager*/macos/Classes/WindowManager.swift' | head -1)
sed -i '' 's|setActivationPolicy(isSkipTaskbar ? .accessory : .regular)|setActivationPolicy(.accessory) // STEALTH: never take a Dock icon|' "$WM"
flutter_rust_bridge_codegen --rust-input ./src/flutter_ffi.rs \
  --dart-output ./flutter/lib/generated_bridge.dart \
  --c-output ./flutter/macos/Runner/bridge_generated.h

The window_manager patch lives in pub-cache, not the RustDesk repo, so it is not in assets/stealth.patch and cannot live in the fork — re-apply it here on every fresh clone / pub get.

Done when: src/bridge_generated.rs exists (~5k lines) and grep -c '\.regular' "$WM" is 0. Missing bridge_generated.rs is the most common reason the build "mysteriously" fails at Step 5 — verify before moving on.

Step 5 — Build

cd "$BUILD/rustdesk"
MACOSX_DEPLOYMENT_TARGET=10.14 python3 build.py --flutter --hwcodec --unix-file-copy-paste

These are the exact features of the official 1.4.8 macOS release, so the result differs from stock only by the tray + ipc patches. First build is 30–60 min (vcpkg compiles aom/ffmpeg).

Done when: "$APP/Contents/MacOS/RustDesk" --version prints 1.4.8.

Step 6 — Codesign

build.py copies the service binary in after Xcode signs, so re-sign the whole bundle. Sign in the build dir (writable) before staging for deploy.

codesign --force --deep --sign - "$APP"

Ad-hoc (-s -) works, but it binds deploy-stealth-rustdesk's TCC grants to this exact binary: every rebuild changes the cdhash and silently breaks them (symptom Connected, waiting for image on the deploy side). Building from a maintained fork means you will rebuild on updates — so sign with a stable self-signed identity instead, and the deploy's grants survive rebuilds. See REFERENCE.md → "Stable signing identity". This signing choice is the second interface to deploy-stealth-rustdesk (its TCC step).

Done when: codesign --verify --deep --strict "$APP" passes and prints "satisfies its Designated Requirement".

The artifact (output contract) and hand-off

This skill's output is the signed bundle at $APP. Compiled in: tray icon suppressed (tray.rs), Dock icon suppressed (LSUIElement + window_manager), CM Pro/custom-client gate removed (ipc.rs). Not yet done here: the CM panel is not hidden at runtime, no password, no services installed, no TCC grants — all of that is deploy-stealth-rustdesk. In particular the CM panel only actually hides once deploy sets approve-mode + verification-method + allow-hide-cm. The stealth payoff is verified at deploy time, not here — this skill's checks are artifact-level (--version, codesign --verify, patch markers in source).

Hand off to each target Mac: stage the signed $APP and the two launchd plists src/platform/privileges_scripts/{daemon.plist,agent.plist} (they are not inside the .app bundle) into one folder laid out the way deploy-stealth-rustdesk reads by default — APP=~/.stealth-rustdesk/RustDesk.app, PLISTS=~/.stealth-rustdesk/privileges_scripts — then copy that folder to each target and run deploy-stealth-rustdesk there:

STAGE=~/.stealth-rustdesk                      # distinct from $BUILD; matches deploy's default paths
mkdir -p "$STAGE/privileges_scripts"
cp -R "$APP" "$STAGE/RustDesk.app"
cp "$BUILD/rustdesk/src/platform/privileges_scripts/"{daemon,agent}.plist "$STAGE/privileges_scripts/"
# copy $STAGE to each target Mac (scp -r / AirDrop / USB), then run deploy-stealth-rustdesk there

deploy-stealth-rustdesk Step 1 then consumes this folder unchanged: RustDesk.app → /Applications, daemon.plist → LaunchDaemons, agent.plist → LaunchAgents.

Maintenance & troubleshooting

Build failures, re-deriving pins for a new tag, the fork rebase-on-bump, and setting up a stable signing identity are in REFERENCE.md. Deploy/connection issues live in the deploy-stealth-rustdesk skill.