native-sdk

Native SDK

The Native SDK is the complete toolkit for building native desktop applications. The primary authoring path is TypeScript app logic in src/core.ts plus declarative Native markup in .native files. The TypeScript core is checked and compiled ahead of time to native code, so the shipped binary contains no browser, WebView, JS runtime, or interpreter. Zig is how the toolkit itself works and is a first-class, explicitly chosen app-core alternative (--template zig-core); it is not the default inferred from the SDK's implementation. Every app embeds a deterministic automation server, so agents can snapshot, drive, and screenshot the running window. Desktop is the mature surface (macOS deepest, Linux and Windows exercised in CI); mobile embedding is experimental. WebView surfaces coexist as the optional path for embedding web content or hosting an existing web frontend.

Start here

This file is a discovery stub for agents that installed the Native SDK once with a skills installer such as npx skills add native-sdk. Before implementing or explaining Native SDK app work, use the installed CLI to discover and load the current skill content:

native skills list
native skills get core
native skills get native-ui
native skills get ts-core

Use native skills get core for initial orientation. For the default app-authoring path, load both native-ui (views, bindings, the app loop) and ts-core (the TypeScript subset, effects, subscriptions, and modules) before implementing. Load ts-services too when the tree has src/services/ or ordinary TypeScript needs filesystem/process/JSON/regex/Map/Date/class work behind Cmd.request. Use native skills get core --full when work reaches lower-level runtime wiring, WebViews, bridge/security, native capabilities, packaging, or debugging. Use native skills get automation when testing a running app, taking snapshots, requesting reloads, or using the built-in automation server. Use native skills get zig only for an existing Zig core, a toolkit extension, SDK implementation work, or a Zig 0.16 compile error.

Quick orientation

npm install -g @native-sdk/cli
native init my_app
cd my_app
native dev

native init my_app generates the primary three-file app: app.json, src/app.native (the markup view), and src/core.ts (Model, Msg, update). Existing app.zon manifests remain supported. Inspect the tree before editing an existing app and preserve the core language it already uses. src/main.zig means the app explicitly uses the Zig-core template; web-frontend shells additionally carry frontend/ and usually owned build/runtime wiring.