go-appdeploymenttoolkit

A Go port of PSAppDeployToolkit (PSADT) v4 — a toolkit for building Windows application deployments. It provides deployment session management, CMTrace logging, localized user dialogs, deferral logic, MSI helpers and a broad set of Windows system utilities, as an importable Go SDK plus a CLI runner.

Windows-only at runtime. The toolkit targets GOOS=windows (amd64/arm64). It cross-compiles and unit-tests its portable logic on any platform; the syscall layers only execute on Windows.

Function parity

Every exported function is a 1:1 port of the PSADT PowerShell function of the same name with the hyphens removed, so existing deployment scripts translate mechanically:

PowerShell (PSADT)	Go (adt)
Open-ADTSession	adt.OpenADTSession
Start-ADTMsiProcess	adt.StartADTMsiProcess
Show-ADTInstallationWelcome	adt.ShowADTInstallationWelcome
Copy-ADTFile	adt.CopyADTFile
Set-ADTRegistryKey	adt.SetADTRegistryKey

PowerShell-runtime plumbing (Initialize-ADTFunction, New-ADTErrorRecord, …) has no Go counterpart; the *-ADTModuleCallback family is replaced by SessionHooks, and New-ADTTemplate is provided by adt new.

Authoring a deployment

A deployment is a small Go program describing its phases — the analogue of PSADT's Invoke-AppDeployToolkit.ps1:

package main

import (
    "context"

    "github.com/deploymenttheory/go-appdeploymenttoolkit/adt"
)

func main() {
    (&adt.Deployment{
        Session: adt.SessionOptions{
            AppVendor:  "VideoLAN",
            AppName:    "VLC media player",
            AppVersion: "3.0.23",
            AppProcessesToClose: []adt.ProcessObject{{Name: "vlc", Description: "VLC media player"}},
        },
        PreInstall: func(ctx context.Context, s *adt.DeploymentSession) error {
            _, err := adt.ShowADTInstallationWelcome(ctx, adt.ShowADTInstallationWelcomeOptions{
                CloseProcesses: s.Options().AppProcessesToClose, AllowDefer: true, DeferTimes: 3,
            })
            return err
        },
        Install: func(ctx context.Context, s *adt.DeploymentSession) error {
            _, err := adt.StartADTMsiProcess(ctx, adt.StartADTMsiProcessOptions{
                Action: "Install", Path: "vlc.msi",
            })
            return err
        },
    }).Run(context.Background())
}

Build it for Windows and run it with the standard PSADT frontend flags:

GOOS=windows go build -o Invoke-AppDeployToolkit.exe
Invoke-AppDeployToolkit.exe -DeploymentType Install -DeployMode Interactive

CLI

The adt command is the analogue of Invoke-AppDeployToolkit.exe:

• adt run <package-dir> — run a deployment package. When Files/ holds a single MSI, it drives the zero-config install/uninstall/repair flow with no author code.
• adt new <dir> --name MyApp — scaffold a package (Files/, SupportFiles/, Config/, Strings/, Assets/, a go.mod and a deployment main.go).

go install github.com/deploymenttheory/go-appdeploymenttoolkit/cmd/adt@latest
adt run ./MyPackage --deployment-type Install --deploy-mode Silent

Configuration & localization

• Package config lives in Config/config.yaml, mirroring PSADT's config.psd1 section structure (Assets, MSI, Toolkit, UI); embedded defaults are used when it is absent.
• String tables ship for all 26 PSADT cultures plus English; override via Strings/strings.yaml.

UI

Interactive dialogs render through Microsoft Edge WebView2 (via the CGo-free jchv/go-webview2), with a native MessageBox/TaskDialog fallback when the WebView2 runtime is absent. Deployments running as SYSTEM show dialogs in the interactive user session via a same-binary client re-exec over anonymous pipes.

Package layout

adt/          public SDK — all ~169 ported functions (one file per category)
internal/     domain implementations behind portable seams
cmd/adt/      CLI runner (run / new / client)
examples/     runnable deployment programs
tools/        the psd1→YAML converter for config and string tables

Status

All five porting phases are complete: core session engine, system domains (registry, filesystem, INI, process, MSI, services, shortcuts, users), UI and cross-session client-server, CLI runner, and the long tail. See docs/windows-smoke.md for the manual Windows verification checklist (the syscall layers are cross-compiled and linted here but only execute on Windows).

Supporting libraries

• go-bindings-win32 — generated Win32 API bindings (MSI, WTS, registry, shell, tasks, …).
• go-bindings-wmi — typed WMI runtime (ConfigMgr TriggerSchedule, Win32_QuickFixEngineering).

License

See LICENSE.