tenra Ledger

tenra Ledger is a local-first bookkeeping product. The current product direction is desktop-first so the accounting engine, book storage model, and data ownership boundaries can mature before web, sync, or collaboration surfaces are introduced.

The project emphasizes explicit user actions, self-contained books, and correct double-entry accounting over hidden automation.

Operational Purpose

• Maintain local books with user-owned storage.
• Support double-entry accounting, posted transactions, reversals, and corrections.
• Keep each book self-contained for backup, restore, and portability.
• Provide reports and exports through explicit operator actions.

Design Posture

• No mandatory cloud account or online auth.
• One SQLite database per book.
• Immutable posted transactions by correction rather than silent mutation.
• Desktop app as the active v1 surface.
• Web and mobile shells remain inactive placeholders until local accounting behavior is stable.

Architecture

apps/
  desktopapp/   Active Tauri + React bookkeeping app
  webapp/       Placeholder shell
  mobileapp/    Placeholder Expo shell

packages/
  domain/       Bookkeeping models, invariants, reports, and boundaries
  api-contracts/ Frontend/backend DTO contracts
  validation/   Runtime schemas
  config/       App constants and storage helpers
  privacy/      Future export/privacy hooks
  ui/           Shared React primitives
  shared-types/ Shared primitive types

Current State

• The desktop app is the active product surface.
• Books are stored as .ledger folders containing SQLite and metadata.
• Demo book creation supports first-run UI verification.
• Backup is modeled as a zip of the whole book folder.
• Web and mobile apps are intentionally inactive.

Deployment Posture

Ledger is a local desktop product. It is not currently a hosted accounting service. Any future sync or collaboration feature should be designed around the existing self-contained book model and explicit user ownership.

Working Locally

pnpm run bootstrap
pnpm run dev:desktop
pnpm run verify:desktop
pnpm run verify:all
pnpm run doctor

Default book roots follow platform app-data conventions and are documented in the developer guide.

Direction

• Continue hardening accounting invariants and storage boundaries.
• Improve reports, export workflows, and backup/restore checks.
• Keep hidden automation out of core bookkeeping actions.
• Treat sync as a later design problem, not an assumed foundation.

Related Documentation

• Developer Guide
• Repo Map
• Stability Checklist