GTKX
The React framework for Linux, built on GTK.
Write native GTK4 desktop applications with React and TypeScript.
Real GTK widgets, the GNOME stack, and standard web tooling.
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---
The Tasks app you build in the tutorial.
## Demo
The intrinsic elements in this snippet render GTK4 widgets, and ordinary React hooks and events drive them:
```tsx
import * as Gtk from "@gtkx/gi/gtk";
import { GtkApplication, GtkApplicationWindow, GtkBox, GtkButton, GtkLabel } from "@gtkx/jsx/gtk";
import { createRoot, quit } from "@gtkx/react";
import { useState } from "react";
const Counter = () => {
const [count, setCount] = useState(0);
return (
Welcome to GTKX!
{`Count: ${count}`}
setCount((c) => c + 1)}
cssClasses={["suggested-action", "pill"]}
/>
);
};
const App = () => (
);
createRoot().render();
```
This is the [`hello-world`](https://github.com/gtkx-org/gtkx/tree/main/examples/hello-world) example, with `app.tsx` and `index.tsx` combined into a single snippet. `@gtkx/gi` and `@gtkx/jsx` are per-project bindings generated by the CLI, not packages you install from npm.
## Why GTKX
### A declarative layer for the GNOME stack
GTK4 is mature, and GtkBuilder XML can lay out a static interface, but nothing re-renders that interface when your application state changes, and nothing hot-reloads it as you work. GTKX adds that missing layer, and the tooling around it, on top of the stack you already know:
- a React reconciler that exposes every GObject as a JSX element,
- a CLI for scaffolding, development, and production builds,
- a dev server with Fast Refresh that patches your running UI in place,
- CSS-in-JS styling, React Hook Form-powered Adwaita controls, gettext-backed react-i18next localization, React Spring animations, React Navigation stack, tab, drawer, and split view navigators, and high-level list, grid, and dialog components,
- a Testing Library-style API for querying and driving your widgets in tests,
- and a Model Context Protocol (MCP) server that exposes your live app to AI agents.
### The full GNOME API surface
React Native and similar frameworks hide the native toolkit so one API can run everywhere. GTKX exposes it: GTK4, Adwaita, and any other GObject-Introspection library on your system. Linux-only by design.
### Why Node.js, and why generated bindings
GTKX runs on Node.js, which puts native modules, the npm ecosystem, and the tooling built for Node.js APIs within reach. GJS is GNOME's own runtime, built on SpiderMonkey rather than V8; node-gtk runs on Node.js but is lightly maintained, on the older nan/V8 ABI rather than N-API, and still centered on GTK3. The [Why GTKX guide](https://gtkx.dev/guide/why-gtkx) covers what running on Node.js means day to day.
GTKX generates the TypeScript types and the native FFI calls from the same GObject-Introspection data, so the types cannot drift from the calls they back. Codegen covers the whole GTK4 and Adwaita surface.
At runtime, the native Rust core calls straight into the system GTK4, Adwaita, and GLib libraries through libffi, without loading libgirepository at all.
## Quick start
GTKX is Linux-only and needs Node.js 24 or later. See [Requirements](#requirements).
Scaffold a new app with the `create-gtkx` initializer:
```sh
npm create gtkx
```
The same command works with other package managers: `pnpm create gtkx` or `yarn create gtkx`.
Then run your new app:
```sh
cd my-app
npm run dev
```
To go further, follow the [tutorial](https://gtkx.dev/tutorial/).
## Documentation
The documentation at **[gtkx.dev](https://gtkx.dev)** includes a step-by-step tutorial that builds a complete GNOME app, from scaffolding to packaging and shipping, plus guides and a full API reference.
**[Read the docs →](https://gtkx.dev/guide/why-gtkx)**
## Requirements
GTKX is Linux-only. You need:
- Linux with the GTK4 (4.20 or later) and GLib development libraries, plus Adwaita (1.8 or later) once your project binds `Adw-1`
- Node.js 24 or later
The `@gtkx/native` addon ships prebuilt for x64 and arm64 glibc Linux; other targets need to build it from the GTKX repository, which requires a Rust toolchain.
## Examples
Explore the [example apps](https://github.com/gtkx-org/gtkx/tree/main/examples):
- [`hello-world`](https://github.com/gtkx-org/gtkx/tree/main/examples/hello-world): the counter above.
- [`gtk-demo`](https://github.com/gtkx-org/gtkx/tree/main/examples/gtk-demo): a React port of the official GTK4 widget showcase, covering lists, dialogs, gestures, CSS, and OpenGL.
- [`browser`](https://github.com/gtkx-org/gtkx/tree/main/examples/browser): a WebKitWebView-based web browser.
- [`animations`](https://github.com/gtkx-org/gtkx/tree/main/examples/animations): a tour of `@gtkx/animated`, React Spring animations driven by the GTK frame clock.
- [`navigation`](https://github.com/gtkx-org/gtkx/tree/main/examples/navigation): a tour of `@gtkx/navigation`, React Navigation's stack, tab, and drawer navigators rendered with libadwaita.
- [`tutorial`](https://github.com/gtkx-org/gtkx/tree/main/examples/tutorial): the Tasks app the documentation builds.
## Status
GTKX is stable and ready for production use.
## Contributing
Contributions are welcome. See [CONTRIBUTING.md](https://github.com/gtkx-org/gtkx/blob/main/CONTRIBUTING.md), the [Code of Conduct](https://github.com/gtkx-org/gtkx/blob/main/CODE_OF_CONDUCT.md), and the [security policy](https://github.com/gtkx-org/gtkx/blob/main/SECURITY.md). Building the repo needs Node.js 24 or later, pnpm, and a Rust toolchain.
## License
GTKX is licensed under [MPL-2.0](https://github.com/gtkx-org/gtkx/blob/main/LICENSE).