u/Alexwing_

▲ 4 r/tauri

Local Tapo Control + Ambilight Desktop App

I built a desktop app to control a TP-Link Tapo L530E smart bulb locally and add a real Ambilight-style effect.

  • Control power, brightness, color, and temperature from the PC.
  • Includes a screen-color capture mode that updates the bulb in real time.
  • Works over LAN only, with no TP-Link cloud involved.

How it’s built

  • UI in React/Vite with dedicated tabs for Normal, Streaming/Ambilight, and Settings.
  • Backend in Tauri + Rust, handling the local KLAP protocol, animation pipeline, and device state.
  • Includes a local HTTP/WebSocket API plus Windows system tray support.
  • Ambilight logic captures screen frames, computes the average color, and rate-limits updates so the bulb stays smooth.

Built with a bit of vibeconding and refined with help from Claude.

Download it at: https://github.com/alexwing/TapoController

u/Alexwing_ — 4 days ago