Aether

WireGuard, refined.

A standalone Linux desktop app for managing WireGuard VPN connections. Pick any workspace folder, import provider configs, and connect with one click.

Screenshots

  

Home — one-click connect with live status  ·  Configurations — import, regenerate, and manage servers

Features

• User-chosen workspace directory (any folder on disk)
• Native Rust config generator (no Node.js required at runtime)
• Auto-detect WiFi/Ethernet and generate split smart*-wifi / smart*-eth configs
• Home and Config pages with synchronized connection state
• System tray with quick connect/disconnect
• Dark modern UI with live status, transfer stats, and handshake info
• Optional one-time elevation so connect/disconnect skip password prompts

Install

From a release (recommended)

Download the latest release for Linux x86_64:

Format	Use case
.deb	Debian/Ubuntu install
.AppImage	Portable executable, no install

Debian / Ubuntu

sudo dpkg -i Aether_*.deb
sudo apt-get install -f   # if dependencies are missing

AppImage

chmod +x Aether_*.AppImage
./Aether_*.AppImage

Runtime dependencies

• wireguard-tools (wg, wg-quick)
• PolicyKit (pkexec) — only until you use Authorize once

sudo apt install wireguard-tools policykit-1

Workspace layout

Pick any folder that contains provider WireGuard .conf files directly:

/your/workspace/
├── provider-smart1.conf   # provider configs (scanned from this folder only)
├── provider-smart2.conf
├── smart1-wifi.conf       # generated by Aether
├── smart1-eth.conf
└── ...

Generated smart*-wifi.conf / smart*-eth.conf files are ignored when listing servers.

Settings are stored in ~/.config/aether/settings.json.

Development

Prerequisites

• Rust 1.88+ (pinned in rust-toolchain.toml)
• Node.js 20+
• Tauri Linux deps:

sudo apt install \
  libwebkit2gtk-4.1-dev \
  libayatana-appindicator3-dev \
  librsvg2-dev \
  build-essential

Run locally

npm install
npm run tauri dev

Production build

npm run tauri build

Bundles are written to src-tauri/target/release/bundle/ (.deb, AppImage, and the standalone binary).

CI / Releases

Workflow	Trigger	Output
Build	Push / PR to master	.deb + AppImage artifacts (90-day retention)
Release	GitHub Release published	Bundles attached to the release + changelog summary

Cut a release

git tag v0.1.0
git push origin v0.1.0

Create and publish the release on GitHub from that tag. The release workflow builds Linux x86_64 bundles, appends a What's Changed section, and uploads the files.

See CHANGELOG.md for version history.

Optional: passwordless elevation

Aether does not store your sudo password. Use Authorize once in the sidebar — this installs a narrow sudoers + PolicyKit rule for Aether's bundled wgctl.sh only (one password prompt).

Or manually:

sudo cp polkit/aether.rules /etc/polkit-1/rules.d/50-aether.rules

Architecture

Component	Role
src-tauri/src/generator.rs	Regenerates smart*-wifi/eth.conf from provider configs
src-tauri/src/wg.rs	Parses wg show output for live status
src-tauri/src/commands.rs	Tauri commands, elevation, wgctl orchestration
scripts/wgctl.sh	Connect / disconnect / restart (bundled with releases)
Svelte frontend	UI, workspace picker, server cards, tray

License

MIT © Ali Sawari. See LICENSE.

The license is also bundled with installed builds (LICENSE in app resources; package metadata on .deb / AppImage).

Author

Ali Sawari — github.com/AliSawari