Supported Operating Systems
A detailed overview of operating systems supported for Tauri 2 development, including version requirements, platform-specific dependencies, and how to verify your setup.
Before you install Tauri, your development machine must meet the operating system requirements. Tauri’s toolchain builds native desktop applications, so it relies on system libraries that ship with the OS. If your operating system is too old, these libraries won't be available and the build will fail.
Tauri 2 officially supports development on Linux, macOS, and Windows. Each platform has a minimum version requirement and one or two critical system dependencies you'll need to install before creating a project.
Ready to proceed:
If your machine runs a supported operating system and you've installed the key system dependency for your platform, you can move on to the detailed setup guides for your OS.
Platform Requirements at a Glance
The table below summarises the minimum version and the primary system dependency for each platform. The following sections explain why each version is required and what to look for when checking your own machine.
| Platform | Minimum Version | Key System Dependency |
|---|---|---|
| Linux | Varies by distribution (modern releases) | webkit2gtk-4.1 and additional packages specific to your package manager |
| macOS | Catalina (10.15) | Xcode or Xcode Command Line Tools |
| Windows | 7 (SP1) | Microsoft C++ Build Tools and WebView2 Runtime |
Tauri supports development on most modern Linux distributions. There is no single minimum kernel or release version because the real constraint is the availability of the WebKitGTK 4.1 library. If your distribution's package repository ships webkit2gtk-4.1, you can develop with Tauri.
You'll also need standard build tools (gcc, make, pkg-config) and a handful of other shared libraries. The exact package names and the install command depend on your package manager — the Linux Setup section covers Debian, Arch, Fedora, Gentoo, openSUSE, Alpine, NixOS, and others in detail.
Why These Minimum Versions Exist
The minimum OS version is not arbitrary — it directly corresponds to the introduction or stabilisation of a core technology that Tauri needs at runtime.
macOS Catalina (10.15): Apple's WKWebView API on Catalina added support for modern JavaScript engines and better process isolation. Older macOS versions either lack these capabilities or ship a WebView that behaves inconsistently. Xcode 11, the minimum toolchain that can link against Catalina‑era frameworks, also becomes a hard requirement.
Windows 7 (SP1): Tauri's renderer on Windows is Edge WebView2, which is distributed as an evergreen runtime. The Evergreen Bootstrapper supports Windows 7 and up, so the minimum is not about Windows internals but about where Microsoft ships the WebView2 installer. The C++ Build Tools are needed because Rust's msvc toolchain uses the same linker and libraries that Visual Studio provides.
Linux (any distro with webkit2gtk-4.1): Tauri links against webkit2gtk-4.1 at compile time. This library became the stable WebKitGTK release in the 2.36 series and is now the standard on actively maintained distributions. Older LTS releases (for example, Ubuntu 20.04) may still package an older 4.0 version, which Tauri 2 does not support. The version jump from 4.0 to 4.1 included breaking API changes that Tauri depends on.
Verifying Your Operating System Version
Before diving into the detailed setup, confirm that your machine meets the minimum version for your platform. Run the appropriate command below in your terminal or PowerShell:
lsb_release -a
The output shows your distribution name and release number. If the command is not found, install lsb-release via your package manager. What you really need to check, however, is that your package repositories contain webkit2gtk-4.1. The presence of that package is the definitive test — the distribution version alone is not enough.
Unsupported versions will not compile:
If your macOS version is older than 10.15 or your Windows version predates 7, the Tauri CLI will either refuse to scaffold a project or fail during the build with missing-symbol errors. There is no workaround — the required system libraries simply do not exist on those older releases.
Mobile Development Targets
The requirements above cover the development machine itself. Tauri can also produce applications for Android and iOS, but those build targets require additional operating‑system‑specific toolchains and configuration. The setup for mobile targets is covered separately in the "Configure for Mobile Targets" section later in the prerequisites. For now, focus on getting your desktop host ready.