How CList Desktop Mode Works

Desktop mode runs the same CList files you'd get from the web, but serves them from a small program on your own computer instead of from a website.

A tiny local server. launcher.py starts a plain Python web server bound only to 127.0.0.1 (your own machine — nothing on your network can reach it) and opens it in your browser automatically.
A local stand-in for cross-site requests. Browsers normally block a page from calling a different site's server directly (CORS). The launcher works around this for its own traffic by routing kvstore requests and OAuth token exchanges through itself first, so login, registration, and connecting services like Mastodon work the same as on the hosted site.
Your account works unchanged. There's no separate "desktop account" — it's the same kvstore account, and the same zero-knowledge encryption applies: your password and encryption key are derived and used only in your browser, never sent anywhere in the clear, whether you're running the hosted version or the desktop one.
Nothing is installed system-wide. The launcher only serves files and proxies requests while it's running. Closing it (or Ctrl+C in the terminal) stops it completely.