node-gtk
GTK bindings for NodeJS
Usage · Installing · Documentation · Contributing
`node-gtk` lets you build native GTK apps on **linux**, **macOS** and **windows**
with full **ESM**, **TypeScript** and **CSS hot-reload** support. Prebuilt binaries
are available for Node.js versions **22**, **24** and **26**.
## Usage
The **create** tool generates a complete, ready-to-run GTK/Adwaita project, so you
can start building immediately after [installing GTK4](#installing):
```sh
npx node-gtk create
```
Also see our [hello world](./examples/hello-world.mjs), [web browser](./examples/browser.mjs)
or [system monitor](./examples/system-monitor.mjs) examples.
## Installing
There are two steps:
1. Install `node-gtk` itself (*done by the create tool*)
2. Install the native libraries you use (see examples per platform below)
#### Linux
```sh
# archlinux
pacman -S gtk4 libadwaita
# fedora
dnf install gtk4 libadwaita
# ubuntu
# Already installed :)
```
#### macOS
```sh
brew install gtk4 libadwaita adwaita-icon-theme
```
#### Windows
```sh
# Already installed :)
```
> [!NOTE]
> Windows doesn't have the dependencies we need in a package manager, therefore
> `node-gtk` ships prebuilt versions of GTK 4 / Adwaita, so `npm install node-gtk`
> is all you need **if** your dependency is in our
> [list of prebuilt libraries](./windows/runtime-libraries.txt).
### build from source
Building from source, or [contributing](./doc/contributing.md)? See [Building from source](./doc/building.md).
## Documentation
[Read our documentation here](./doc/index.md)
## Other notes
`node-gtk` is a [gobject-introspection](https://gi.readthedocs.io/en/latest) library
for nodejs. It makes it possible to use any introspected C library, such as GTK,
usable. It is similar in essence to [GJS](https://wiki.gnome.org/action/show/Projects/Gjs)
or [PyGObject](https://pygobject.readthedocs.io).
[MIT License](./LICENSE)