CasparCG Server GUI

A Windows desktop app for running and configuring CasparCG Server 2.5.0. It is a profile-based configuration editor and a launcher: it starts and supervises the server and its media scanner, streams the console log into the window, and speaks AMCP to the running instance. It also exposes the DeckLink SDK directly — device setup, live signal status, and a direct SDI key/fill test that drives the card itself, bypassing CasparCG’s GPU mixer.

Built with Tauri 2 (Rust) and React + TypeScript + Tailwind CSS.

Platform: Windows. The DeckLink integration and the process supervision use Windows-only facilities, and the app is only built and tested on Windows. The Tauri/React shell is portable in principle, but macOS/Linux are not supported.

Features

Profiles — save, load and switch CasparCG configurations. Channel validation is the single source of truth and blocks launching an invalid config (impossible options are greyed out, Start is gated on errors).
Launch & supervise — Start/Stop/Restart casparcg.exe; the launcher also runs the media scanner and keeps both alive: it restarts the scanner if it dies and restarts the server on a crash, with a crash-loop guard so an unrenderable config cannot thrash. The console log is embedded and colour-coded by severity; AMCP reconnects automatically after a restart.
DeckLink — enumerate devices, set duplex mode and persistent labels, read live signal status, and run a direct-SDK SDI test (Fill / Key / Stop) that drives the card’s output directly, bypassing CasparCG’s GPU mixer.
AMCP — auto-connect to the running server for version and status, and send ad-hoc commands.
Media scanner — launched alongside the server on a free loopback port (never 8000), with the matching <amcp><media-server> written into the config so CLS/TLS/THUMBNAIL listings work.
System info — versions for CasparCG, the DeckLink driver, NDI and the scanner; the Server panel shows the host’s primary IP and AMCP port for connecting a remote client.

Panels: Server, Paths, Channels, Preview, DeckLink, System.

Quick start

Requirements

Node.js 18+ with pnpm
Rust (stable, MSVC toolchain)
Tauri prerequisites for Windows (WebView2, Visual Studio Build Tools)
The Blackmagic DeckLink SDK is required only for the decklink feature.

Development

pnpm install
pnpm tauri dev

Build

# Installer without DeckLink support
pnpm tauri build --bundles nsis

# With DeckLink support (requires the SDK and the MSVC toolchain)
pnpm tauri build --features decklink --bundles nsis

The DeckLink integration is gated behind the decklink Cargo feature and compiled in only when requested.

Project structure

caspar-server-gui/
├── src/                        # React + TypeScript front end
│   ├── App.tsx                 # Shell: tabs, app-level log/event listeners
│   ├── components/             # Server, Paths, Channels, Preview, DeckLink,
│   │                           #   System panels + setup wizard, profile
│   │                           #   sidebar, tab bar, status bar
│   ├── lib/                    # types, Tauri wrappers, Zustand store, validation
│   └── styles/
├── src-tauri/                  # Rust back end
│   ├── src/
│   │   ├── lib.rs              # Tauri commands + server/scanner supervisor
│   │   ├── main.rs             # Entry point
│   │   ├── amcp/               # AMCP TCP client
│   │   ├── config/             # Global Config <-> casparcg.config (XML)
│   │   ├── decklink/           # DeckLink SDK: enumeration, status, SDI test
│   │   ├── http_server/        # Local test server for the preview/colour test
│   │   └── system/             # version + primary-IP detection
│   ├── Cargo.toml
│   └── tauri.conf.json
└── package.json

Configuration format

The GUI stores each profile as a Global Config JSON file that wraps the CasparCG configuration with metadata, and generates a standard casparcg.config (XML) from it at launch:

{
  "version": "1.0",
  "name": "Studio A - Main Playout",
  "created": "2026-01-20T12:00:00Z",
  "modified": "2026-01-20T14:30:00Z",
  "caspar": {
    "paths": {
      "media": "C:\\Users\\Operator\\Videos",
      "template": "template/",
      "log": "log/",
      "data": "data/"
    },
    "channels": [
      {
        "videoMode": "1080i5000",
        "consumers": [
          { "type": "decklink", "device": 1, "embeddedAudio": true }
        ]
      }
    ]
  },
  "decklink": {
    "devices": [
      {
        "persistentId": "0x12345678",
        "modelName": "DeckLink SDI Micro",
        "label": "Graphics Fill",
        "duplexMode": "half"
      }
    ]
  }
}

Tauri commands

The Rust backend exposes Tauri commands grouped by area: configuration and profiles, server/scanner process control, DeckLink (enumeration, labels, duplex, status, SDI test), AMCP, the preview test server, system info and primary-IP, GUI settings, and file dialogs. The authoritative list is the generate_handler! block in src-tauri/src/lib.rs.

Technology stack

Component	Technology
Desktop framework	Tauri 2
Frontend	React 19, TypeScript 5.8
Styling	Tailwind CSS 4
State management	Zustand 5
XML	quick-xml
Async runtime	Tokio
DeckLink	direct SDK access behind the `decklink` Cargo feature

Licence

MIT

David Thåst · thåst.se · FiLORUX