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UI Migration — PySide6 → Tauri + React

Decision

The old PySide6 desktop UI has been removed. The future desktop UI is a Tauri + React + TypeScript frontend under ./desktop.

Design approach — redesign from scratch

The new Tauri/React UI is a fresh redesign, not a visual or structural port of the old PySide6/Qt GUI.

  • Do not recreate old PySide6 screens, layouts, dialogs, widget hierarchies, or visual structure.
  • Deleted PySide6 files (gui_desktop_qt*.py, gui_review_workbench_qt.py, gui_similar_comparison_qt.py, gui_desktop_tk.py, gui_app.py) are historical reference only. Their visual patterns should not be copied.
  • Remaining core/gui_qt_* modules are functional inventory and headless contract references only. Their naming (gui_qt_*) is an artifact of the old architecture and does not imply a design direction. Use them to understand what data contracts exist, not how screens should look.

New UI principles

  • Modern desktop-app patterns: clear navigation/sidebar, dashboard overview, focused workflows, card/detail layouts.
  • Fewer modal dialogs. Prefer inline panels, drawers, or dedicated pages over stacked modals.
  • Readable spacing and typography. Follow shadcn/ui defaults.
  • Consistent design system built on shadcn/ui + Tailwind CSS.
  • Backend workflows preserved: scanning, duplicate detection, similar media review, decisions/actions, reports/history, settings.
  • English-first product language.

What to preserve from the old architecture

  • Functional inventory: which backend operations exist and what they do.
  • Data contracts: JSON schemas for reports, plans, reviews, run artifacts.
  • Safety boundaries: preview-before-apply, confirmation gates, dry-run contracts.
  • Workflow sequences: scan → plan → review → apply → journal → undo.

Boundary

Python backend (src/media_manager/)          Tauri/React frontend (desktop/)
├── core/   — scanning, duplicates,       ├── src/   — React components
│             decisions, metadata,        ├── src-tauri/ — Rust shell
│             organizer, renamer,         └── public/
│             people, workflows
├── cli*.py — CLI entrypoints
└── (no UI imports)
  • Python core/CLI owns: scanning, duplicate detection, decisions, file operations, reports, metadata extraction, people recognition, organizer, renamer, workflows.
  • Tauri/React owns: desktop presentation, window management, navigation, UI state.
  • Integration: through a stable backend boundary (future design). Do not import UI code into core. Do not import PySide6/Qt anywhere.
  • Headless core modules under core/gui_qt_* are pure-data planning/blueprint modules. They do not import PySide6. They remain as reference designs for the new UI.

What was removed

  • gui_desktop_qt_v2.py — PySide6 GUI v2
  • gui_desktop_qt.py — PySide6 GUI + headless wrappers
  • gui_review_workbench_qt.py — Qt widget builder
  • gui_similar_comparison_qt.py — Qt widget builder
  • gui_desktop_tk.py — deprecated Tkinter shim
  • gui_app.py — media-manager-gui entrypoint
  • gui/gui-qt optional dependencies (PySide6)
  • Tests that imported deleted modules

What remains

  • All CLI entrypoints (media-manager, media-manager-app, etc.)
  • All core modules (scanner, organizer, renamer, people, workflows, etc.)
  • Headless gui_qt_* blueprint modules in core/ — pure data, no PySide6. Functional inventory and contract reference only. Not a design direction. The gui_qt_* naming prefix is a legacy artifact.
  • ./desktop — Tauri + React + TypeScript + shadcn/ui frontend (fresh redesign)