Architecture Overview

Rover uses an Electron + sing-box architecture, divided into three layers: the application layer, the core layer, and the system service layer.

Overall Architecture

Rover App (Electron + React + TypeScript)
├── Dashboard / Profiles / Proxies
├── Policies / Rule Sets / Connections
└── DNS Policies / Settings / Logs
        │
        │ IPC Communication (Electron Main Process)
        ▼
┌─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┐
│                     Main Process (Node.js)                   │
│                                                             │
│   ┌─────────────────────────────────────────────────────┐   │
│   │                                                     │   │
│   │              Path 1: Local Mode                      │   │
│   │                                                     │   │
│   │   Rover ──────────────► sing-box (subprocess)      │   │
│   │           Direct Start   (Normal user privileges)   │   │
│   │                                                     │   │
│   └─────────────────────────────────────────────────────┘   │
│                              ▲                              │
│                              │                              │
│   ┌──────────────────────────┼──────────────────────────┐   │
│   │                          │      Path 2: Service Mode │   │
│   │                          │      (Service)            │   │
│   │                          │                           │   │
│   │   Rover ────────────────►│ RoverService (System)    │   │
│   │       HTTP over          │  └── Start/Stop sing-box │   │
│   │   Socket / Named Pipe    │      (Admin privileges)  │   │
│   │                          │                           │   │
│   └──────────────────────────┴──────────────────────────┘   │
│                                                             │
└─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┘

Key Components

Component	Tech Stack	Responsibility
Rover App	Electron + React	UI, data management, config generation
sing-box Core	Go	Proxy forwarding, traffic routing, DNS resolution
RoverService	Go (system service)	sing-box process management, local DoH DNS server, privileged file operations
JSON Data Files	Node.js fs	Store policy rules, DNS policies, settings
sing-box API	HTTP	Runtime status queries, connection management

Data Flow

1. User performs an action in the UI (add rule, switch node, etc.)
2. The action is written to JSON data files
3. The config generator reads from the JSON data and produces a sing-box config
4. The core manager restarts sing-box to load the new config
5. sing-box processes traffic according to the configuration

Why JSON Files?

Rover uses JSON files as its local data storage because: - Simple and intuitive format, easy to debug and manually edit - No extra dependencies — Node.js native support - Human-readable, convenient for backup and migration - Ideal for lightweight single-user desktop application storage

Communication Mechanisms

Method	Direction	Purpose
Electron IPC	Renderer → Main	Passing UI actions to the backend
HTTP API	Main ↔ sing-box (9090)	Status queries, connection management
HTTP/DoH	Main ↔ RoverService	DNS query forwarding
HTTP API	Main ↔ RoverService	sing-box process management (start/stop/restart)