Turf

Lightweight web views with message passing between native code (Zig) and JavaScript. Creates native windows with embedded WebKit webviews. Build desktop applications using web technologies.

Features

• Native window management with WebKit integration
• Bidirectional JavaScript ↔ Native communication via Messages
• Cmd-Q works
• Cmd/+ and Cmd/- zoom the window with persitence across reloads
• Native file dialogs

Prerequisites

• Zig 0.14.1
• macOS / Xcode Command Line Tools
• Linux / GTK4/WebKit6.0/JavaScriptCore

Building

# Build the project
zig build

# Run the application
zig build run

# Run tests
zig build test

Usage

# Launch with default page
./zig-out/bin/turf

# Open a URL
./zig-out/bin/turf https://example.com

# Open a local file
./zig-out/bin/turf path/to/file.html

Keyboard Shortcuts

MacOS

• Cmd + : Zoom in
• Cmd - : Zoom out
• Cmd 0 : Reset zoom
• Cmd Q : Quit

Architecture

Turf uses a layered architecture:

• Native Layer (Zig): Window management and application lifecycle

• Bridge Layer

  • MacOS (Objective-C): Platform-specific WebKit integration
  • Linux (C): WebKitGTK6.0/JavaScriptCore (GTK4)

• Web Layer (JavaScript/HTML): User interface and application logic

Communication between layers uses JSON message passing.

Development

See CLAUDE.md for detailed development guidelines and architecture documentation.