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Run the desktop catalog

The desktop catalog runs on the jvm() target and is the recommended way to work on stories locally: no browser, no Wasm toolchain, and the fastest iteration loop available.

Requirements​

Your module needs to declare a jvm() target:

kotlin {
    jvm()
}

Running the catalog​

./gradlew runCStoriesDesktop

This opens the catalog as a desktop window.

Hot reload​

For active development, use the hot reload variant instead:

./gradlew runCStoriesDesktopHotReload

This keeps the desktop catalog running and pushes code changes into the live process, without a full restart — much faster than restarting the app after every change.

When to restart manually​

The plain runCStoriesDesktop task does not support hot reload: restart it manually after changes. Prefer runCStoriesDesktopHotReload while iterating on stories, and fall back to runCStoriesDesktop for a clean run.