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For developers

Kite Ground Control is free, open-source software (GPL-3.0-or-later) and contributions are welcome. This section is for people who want to build Kite from source, understand how it's put together, or contribute code, translations or documentation.

  • Architecture overview — the tech stack and how the backend, frontend and protocol layers fit together.
  • Building from source — prerequisites and the build/run workflow on Windows, Linux and macOS.
  • UI framework & theme — the shared UI building blocks and the dark theme every panel uses.
  • Contributing — the branching model, coding conventions, the i18n and licensing rules, and how to submit changes.

At a glance

  • Desktop app built with Tauri 2.0 — a Rust backend with a Svelte 5 / SvelteKit / TypeScript frontend rendered in the system WebView.
  • Maps: Leaflet (2D) and CesiumJS (3D globe).
  • Autopilots: INAV over MSP, ArduPilot & PX4 over MAVLink, plus passive (listen-only) telemetry decoding.
  • Storage: a local SQLite database (via rusqlite) for the flight log, vehicle and battery libraries.
  • Platforms: Windows (primary), Linux (x86 / ARM) and macOS (universal). Android and iOS / iPadOS ports live on development for a release after 1.0.

Source code

The project lives on GitHub: b14ckyy/Kite-GC. Issues and pull requests are the best way to get involved.

Internal design notes

The detailed internal design history — the full architecture record, ADRs, the roadmap and the per-feature implementation plans — is kept in a separate private repository. The pages here are the curated, public-facing subset aimed at building and contributing. If you're working on a change and need deeper context, open an issue and ask.