Acestar Nexus

Acestar Nexus

A personal desktop companion widget built for daily use. Sits on your desktop like a Rainmeter skin — always visible, always current. Click to expand into a full dashboard.

> Built for a developer who forgets things, loses focus after gaming sessions, and needs a persistent cue to stay on track.

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Why I Built This

Nexus gave me developer metrics but I still forgot reminders, internship follow-ups, and personal goals. I wanted something that stayed visible on the desktop and surfaced one priority at a time — not another dashboard I had to remember to open.

Acestar Nexus is my personal adaptation of Nexus focused on daily execution rather than developer analytics.

What I Learned

• Packaging Python sidecars with PyInstaller and wiring them into a Tauri desktop app
• Managing local-first data with SQLite + SQLModel across dev and production environments
• Building MCP servers as modular, swappable data providers
• Cross-platform desktop integration — OS notifications, window management, startup behavior
• Designing a persistent UI that's useful without being distracting

What it does

Widget (compact, always-on-top):

• Shows the single most urgent item right now — a firing reminder, a follow-up due, a goal falling behind
• Live snapshot: LeetCode progress, GitHub commits, exercise status, pending reminders and todos
• Refreshes every 5 minutes, manual refresh available

Dashboard (click to expand):

• Overview — metric cards for GitHub, LeetCode, fitness, and pipeline counts at a glance
• Reminders — with priority levels (High/Medium/Low), alarm times, and OS notifications
• Bucket List — longer-term todos without strict deadlines
• Internships — track applications with status flow, detail panel, and next-action callouts
• Goals — progress tracking with weekly pace calculation and behind/on-track indicators
• Fitness — daily workout logging with streak tracking

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Stack

| Layer | Tech | |-------|------| | Shell | Rust + Tauri | | Backend | Python + FastAPI + SQLModel | | Database | SQLite (persists to ~/.acestar_nexus/) | | Frontend | React + TypeScript | | Data Sources | MCP servers — LeetCode, GitHub, Fitness | | Notifications | Tauri notification plugin |

The Python backend runs as a sidecar process spawned by Tauri. MCP servers handle external API calls via stdio transport. All data is local — no cloud, no accounts.

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Architecture

acestar_nexus/
├── backend/          # FastAPI app — CRUD routers, focus engine, metrics aggregator
├── frontend/         # React/TS — widget, dashboard, snapshot context
├── mcp-servers/      # Standalone MCP servers for LeetCode, GitHub, fitness
└── src-tauri/        # Rust shell — window management, sidecar spawn, notifications

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Screenshots

Widget

Dashboard

Goals

Internship

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Dev Setup

Prerequisites: Rust, Node.js 18+, Python 3.12+, MSVC Build Tools (Windows) or gcc (Linux)

git clone https://github.com/Acestar21/acestar_nexus.git
cd acestar_nexus

# Python dependencies
python -m venv venv
source venv/bin/activate  # Windows: venv\Scripts\activate
pip install -r requirements.txt

# Frontend dependencies
cd frontend && npm install && cd ..

# Copy env
cp .env.example .env
# Fill in LEETCODE_USERNAME, GITHUB_USERNAME, GITHUB_TOKEN

Run in dev mode:

# Windows
start.bat

# Linux
./start.sh

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Building from Source

1. Build Python sidecars

pip install pyinstaller

# Backend
cd backend
pyinstaller --onefile --console --name acestar-backend main.py

# MCP providers
cd ../mcp-servers/github
pyinstaller --onefile --noconsole --name github-provider server.py

cd ../leetcode
pyinstaller --onefile --noconsole --name leetcode-provider server.py

cd ../fitness
pyinstaller --onefile --noconsole --name fitness-provider server.py

2. Copy to src-tauri/bin/ with platform triple

Windows:

acestar-backend-x86_64-pc-windows-msvc.exe
github-provider-x86_64-pc-windows-msvc.exe
leetcode-provider-x86_64-pc-windows-msvc.exe
fitness-provider-x86_64-pc-windows-msvc.exe

Linux:

acestar-backend-x86_64-unknown-linux-gnu
github-provider-x86_64-unknown-linux-gnu
leetcode-provider-x86_64-unknown-linux-gnu
fitness-provider-x86_64-unknown-linux-gnu

3. Build

cargo tauri build

Installer outputs to src-tauri/target/release/bundle/.

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Environment Variables

LEETCODE_USERNAME=your_username
GITHUB_USERNAME=your_username
GITHUB_TOKEN=your_personal_access_token

GitHub token needs read:user scope for contribution data.

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Data

All user data lives in ~/.acestar_nexus/:

• nexus.db — SQLite database (reminders, goals, internships, todos)
• fitness.json — workout log

No data leaves your machine.

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Related

• Nexus — the open-source developer intelligence dashboard this project branches from

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License

[MIT](LICENSE)

Source & license

This open-source MCP server is cataloged on AgentStack and links to its original source — we do not rehost the code.

• Author: Acestar21
• Source: Acestar21/acestar_nexus
• License: MIT

Install and usage instructions live in the source repository linked above.