Skip to main content

Documentation Index

Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://mintlify.com/webviewjs/webview/llms.txt

Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further.

WebviewJS wraps the battle-tested Rust crates tao and wry via NAPI-RS to deliver a native, cross-platform webview experience directly inside Node.js, Deno, and Bun. Because the native addon ships as a pre-built binary for every supported target, most installs require nothing more than a single package-manager command — though Linux users need a couple of system libraries first.

​
System Requirements

Each platform provides the web rendering engine differently. Review the requirement for your OS before installing.
PlatformRequirement
WindowsWebView2 runtime — ships with Windows 11 and Microsoft Edge; auto-installed on Windows 10 via Windows Update
macOSmacOS 10.15 Catalina or later — WebKit is built in, no extra install needed
Linuxlibwebkit2gtk-4.1 and libxdo — must be installed manually (see below)
Node.js >= 24 is required. Check your version with node --version and upgrade via nodejs.org or your preferred version manager if needed.

​
Linux System Dependencies

Linux uses WebKitGTK as the rendering backend and libxdo for window automation. Install the appropriate packages for your distribution before running npm install. 
sudo apt install libwebkit2gtk-4.1-dev libxdo-dev
Skipping the Linux dependencies will cause the native addon to fail at runtime with a missing shared library error. Install them before running your application.

​
Installing the Package

Once system requirements are satisfied, install @webviewjs/webview with your preferred package manager: 
npm install @webviewjs/webview
The install step downloads the correct pre-built native addon for your platform and architecture automatically. No Rust toolchain is required for standard installs.

​
Supported Platform & Architecture Matrix

The following targets ship with pre-built binaries on npm. Experimental and no-CI targets are functional but may receive less frequent updates.
Target TripleOSArchStatus
x86_64-pc-windows-msvcWindowsx64✅ Supported
i686-pc-windows-msvcWindowsx86✅ Supported
aarch64-pc-windows-msvcWindowsarm64✅ Supported
x86_64-apple-darwinmacOSx64✅ Supported
aarch64-apple-darwinmacOSarm64 (M-series)✅ Supported
x86_64-unknown-linux-gnuLinuxx64✅ Supported
aarch64-unknown-linux-gnuLinuxarm64✅ Supported
armv7-unknown-linux-gnueabihfLinuxarmv7✅ Supported
i686-unknown-linux-gnuLinuxx86⚠️ No CI
aarch64-linux-androidAndroidarm64⚠️ Experimental
armv7-linux-androideabiAndroidarmv7⚠️ Experimental
x86_64-unknown-freebsdFreeBSDx64⚠️ No CI
Targets marked No CI are not continuously tested but are expected to work. Targets marked Experimental are under active development and may have missing features.

​
Building from Source

Building from source is only needed when contributing to WebviewJS itself or when targeting a platform that has no pre-built binary. You will need the Rust stable toolchain and Bun.
1

Install prerequisites

Install Rust (stable toolchain) and Bun >= 1.3.0. On Linux, also install the system dependencies listed above.
2

Clone the repository

git clone https://github.com/webviewjs/webview
cd webview
3

Install JavaScript dependencies

bun install
4

Compile the native addon

bun run build
This invokes the NAPI-RS build pipeline, compiles the Rust crate in release mode, and places the resulting .node binary in a platform-specific subdirectory (e.g. win32-x64-msvc/ or linux-x64-gnu/). The index.js loader is updated automatically.
For a faster iteration cycle during development you can use bun run build:debug which skips release optimisations and compiles significantly faster.

Build docs developers (and LLMs) love

Get started for freeTalk to us