A New Series on Building Cross-Platform Desktop Applications with Go

I’m excited to announce a new series of blog posts focused on building a multiplatform desktop notification agent using Go. This series will walk you through the architecture, implementation details, and design decisions behind the Go Desktop Agent project. It is meant to be inspirational, and used as a starting point to build your own.

What is the Go Desktop Agent?

The Go Desktop Agent is a cross-platform desktop notification system that uses Redis pub/sub for message delivery and reply handling. It runs as a background service with a system tray presence, allowing applications to send desktop notifications across Windows, macOS, and Linux platforms. We worked on this idea at a client but we used Python libraries and AWS services as backend. Java also came up as an idea, but I also really liked the idea of trying this with Go.

Key Features

The agent provides several powerful features:

Cross-platform desktop notifications - Works seamlessly..(well almost, or at least better than expected!) on Windows, macOS, and Linux
System tray integration - Gopher-branded icon with interactive menu, which is not my best creation (sorry!)
Redis pub/sub messaging - Scalable message delivery using Redis
Interactive notifications - True OK/Cancel dialog buttons with response handling
Reply channel mechanism - Machine-specific response channels based on hostname
Zero configuration - Works out of the box with sensible defaults
Platform-specific native dialogs - Uses native UI components on each platform

Architecture Overview

The agent follows a simple yet effective architecture:

┌─────────────────┐      ┌─────────────────┐      ┌─────────────────┐
│  Notification   │      │                 │      │   Desktop       │
│  Publisher      │────▶ │  Redis Pub/Sub  │─────▶│   Agent         │
│  (Any App)      │      │                 │      │  (This App)     │
└─────────────────┘      └─────────────────┘      └─────────────────┘
                                 ▲                          │
                                 │                          │
                                 │        Reply             │
                                 └──────────────────────────┘

The architecture consists of three main components:

Notification Publisher - Any application that needs to send desktop notifications
Redis Pub/Sub - Acts as the message broker between publishers and agents
Desktop Agent - Runs on the user’s machine, receives messages, and displays notifications

Project Structure

The codebase is organized into focused components:

go-desktop-agent/
├── main.go              # Application entry point & systray integration
├── systray.go           # System tray icon and menu management
├── notification.go      # Message parsing & notification handling
├── redis.go            # Redis pub/sub implementation
├── ui.go               # Cross-platform notification display
├── assets/gopher.ico   # System tray icon (embedded)
├── cmd/demo/main.go    # Testing & demonstration script
└── notification_test.go # Unit tests

Each file has a specific responsibility:

main.go - Coordinates the application lifecycle and system tray setup
systray.go - Manages the system tray icon, menu, and user interactions
notification.go - Parses incoming messages and determines notification types
redis.go - Handles Redis connection, pub/sub subscription, and message receipt
ui.go - Abstracts platform-specific notification displays
icon.go - Embeds the gopher icon as a Go byte array

What’s Coming in This Series

In the upcoming posts, I’ll dive deep into various aspects of the project:

Architecture Deep Dive - Detailed explanation of the design patterns and architectural decisions
Redis Integration - How the pub/sub messaging system works
Cross-Platform UI Challenges - Platform-specific implementations for Windows, macOS, and Linux
System Tray Integration - Building native system tray applications in Go
Testing Strategies - How to test desktop applications effectively
Build and Deployment - Creating distributable binaries for multiple platforms

Why Go for Desktop Applications?

Go might not be the first language that comes to mind for desktop applications, but it offers several compelling advantages:

Single binary deployment - No runtime dependencies to install
Cross-compilation - Build for multiple platforms from a single machine
Performance - Fast startup times and low memory footprint
Concurrency - Built-in goroutines make handling async operations trivial
Growing ecosystem - Libraries like fyne, systray, and robotgo make desktop development viable

Getting Started

If you want to follow along, the complete source code is available on GitLab:

Repository: https://gitlab.com/hocmodo/go-desktop-agent

The repository includes comprehensive documentation:

QUICKREF.md - Quick reference to get started
USAGE.md - Comprehensive usage guide with examples
DOCKER.md - Docker-based testing setup
TESTING.md - Testing guide
SYSTRAY.md - System tray behavior documentation
TROUBLESHOOTING.md - Common issues and solutions

Try It Yourself

Setting up the agent is straightforward:

# Clone the repository
git clone https://gitlab.com/hocmodo/go-desktop-agent.git
cd go-desktop-agent

# Build the agent
go mod download
go build -o desktop-agent .

# Run the agent (requires Redis on localhost:6379)
./desktop-agent

# In another terminal, test with the demo
go run cmd/demo/main.go simple
go run cmd/demo/main.go interactive

You can use the docker-compose.yml to run a container with Redis for testing or your use your own Redis.

Join the Journey

I’m looking forward to exploring the intricacies of cross-platform desktop development with Go in this series. Whether you’re interested in Go, desktop applications, Redis, or system-level programming, there will be something for everyone.

Stay tuned for the first technical deep dive where we’ll examine the architecture and core components of the Go Desktop Agent!