Skip to content

Welcome to Zhiva

Zhiva is a lightweight framework for building cross-platform desktop applications using modern web technologies (HTML, CSS, JavaScript/TypeScript). It combines the ease and familiarity of web UI development with native system integration, while remaining significantly lighter and faster than alternatives like Electron.

Project Goals

The primary goal of Zhiva is to explore the possibilities of creating minimal, performant desktop applications by leveraging the web ecosystem. It focuses on providing a simple yet powerful bridge between a web-based frontend and native capabilities, without introducing heavy runtime overhead.

Key Features

  • Web technologies for UI: Build your application interface with standard web tools and frameworks.
  • Bun-powered backend: Fast JavaScript/TypeScript runtime for the server and optional application logic.
  • HTTP REST API communication: Simple, familiar REST endpoints instead of complex IPC mechanisms.
  • Serverless mode: Run purely static web apps without writing any backend code.
  • URL-based mode: Load any external URL directly in the app window.
  • Git-based applications: Each app is a standard Git repository (e.g., hosted on GitHub), enabling easy installation, updates, and versioning.
  • Shared dependencies: Core components (native engine, base library, etc.) are installed globally once and shared across all applications — saving disk space and simplifying updates.
  • Standard package.json support: Applications can declare their own dependencies and a "build" script (e.g., for compiling React, Vite, or Svelte projects).

Why Choose Zhiva?

  • Lightweight: Minimal resource usage and small footprint.
  • Fast startup: Thanks to Bun and shared binaries.
  • Familiar tooling: Standard web development workflow.
  • Easy distribution: Share apps as Git repositories.
  • Rapid iteration: Perfect for tools, utilities, prototypes, and internal apps.

Zhiva is an experimental project aimed at pushing the boundaries of what's possible with lightweight web-to-desktop bridges. It prioritizes simplicity, performance, and developer experience.