I rebuilt VS Code on Tauri instead of Electron. 5,687 files later. 85% smaller.

VS Code is an incredible editor, but it ships an entire copy of Chromium and Node.js with every install. That's why the download is 130MB+ and it drinks RAM like water.

I wanted to know: what happens if you rip all of that out and rebuild it on Tauri?

Turns out you get the same editor in a 15MB Size. It's called SideX.

This isn't a "VS Code inspired" toy editor. This is the actual VS Code source tree—all 5,687 TypeScript files, 335 CSS files, and 82 bundled language extensions—running on Tauri v2 with a Rust backend instead of Electron.

Why this matters, especially for AI:
AI coding agents (Cursor, Copilot, Cline, etc.) are all building on top of VS Code's Electron stack. That means every AI-powered editor inherits a 130MB+ base that ships its own Chromium. On a machine running multiple dev tools, that adds up fast. A 15MB Tauri-based foundation changes the equation entirely: lighter installs, lower memory baseline, and a Rust backend that's actually fast.

What the Rust backend replaces:
The Tauri side isn't just a thin wrapper. It's 49 commands across 9 modules, including a full terminal (real PTY via portable-pty, replacing node-pty), 17 git commands (status, diff, log, branch, stash, push/pull, clone, the works), file system management (read, write, stat, watch via notify crate), SQLite storage (replacing @vscode/sqlite3), text and file search (recursive with smart filtering), an extension host (Node.js sidecar so VS Code extensions still work), and an HTTP proxy (CORS bypass for the Open VSX extension marketplace).

The extension marketplace points to Open VSX instead of Microsoft's proprietary gallery, so it's fully open.

In terms of numbers, SideX comes in at around 15 MB compared to VS Code's 130 MB+ download size. While VS Code bundles Chromium and Node.js, SideX carries no bundled browser engine or JS runtime, utilizing your OS's native webview and a Rust backend instead.

The secret is simple: Tauri uses your OS's native webview (WebKit on macOS, WebView2 on Windows) instead of shipping Chromium. That one architectural change is responsible for most of the size difference.