arkdown

arkdown is a Rust-based build tool for OpenHarmony projects. It builds ArkTS/TypeScript projects into HAP, HSP, and HAR artifacts, using OXC for source transforms and Rolldown for bundling. packages/arkdown is the only supported entry point and provides both the npm CLI and Node.js API.

Architecture

flowchart LR
    A["packages/arkdown<br/>npm CLI / Node.js API"] --> B["BuildCoordinator"]
    B --> C["BuildSession<br/>config, SDK, project snapshots"]
    C --> D["Resolve and transform<br/>arkdown-resolver + OXC"]
    D --> E["Bundle<br/>Rolldown + built-in plugins"]
    B --> F["Profile and resources"]
    E --> G["ABC bytecode"]
    F --> H["Package and sign"]
    G --> H
    H --> I["HAP / HSP / HAR"]

The Rust crates under crates/ are internal implementations of the individual build domains. packages/arkdown owns the public entry point and performs coarse build orchestration through BuildCoordinator.

Benchmark

Measured on July 20, 2026. arkdown was invoked through its only supported entry point, the packages/arkdown Node.js API, with a release-mode native binding. hvigor was invoked through hvigorw with daemon mode disabled. Both tools ran their default Debug HAP build against the same source tree. Project build directories and tool-specific project caches were removed before every sample; cleanup time is not included.

Environment

| Item | Configuration | | --------------- | ----------------------------------------------------- | | Device | MacBook Pro (Mac14,10) | | CPU | Apple M2 Pro, 12 cores (8 performance + 4 efficiency) | | Memory | 16 GB | | OS | macOS 15.6.1, arm64 | | Node.js | 22.21.1 | | OpenHarmony SDK | 6.1.0.31, API 23 | | arkdown | 0.0.1-beta.0 | | hvigorw | 6.21.1 |

Anonymous project scale

Dependency directories, build outputs, .hvigor, and .git are excluded from the source scan.

| Language | Files | Physical lines | | ---------- | --------: | -------------: | | ArkTS | 1,772 | 182,027 | | TypeScript | 149 | 14,410 | | JavaScript | 80 | 31,849 | | Total | 2,001 | 228,286 |

Clean build comparison

| Sample | arkdown wall time | hvigor wall time | arkdown peak RSS | hvigor peak RSS | | ---------- | ----------------: | ---------------: | ---------------: | --------------: | | 1 | 89.60 s | 1465.45 s | 1.24 GiB | 1.86 GiB | | 2 | 78.84 s | 835.35 s | 1.27 GiB | 2.52 GiB | | 3 | 86.15 s | 895.28 s | 1.17 GiB | 2.66 GiB | | Median | 86.15 s | 895.28 s | 1.24 GiB | 2.52 GiB |

At the median, hvigor took 10.39 times as long. arkdown reduced wall time by 90.38% and peak RSS by 50.91% for this project and environment.

Results are representative of this device and project scale; other SDK, hardware, and project configurations may differ.

Usage

Prerequisites

• Node.js 18 or later
• An OpenHarmony or HarmonyOS SDK
• OHOS_SDK_HOME, OHOS_BASE_SDK_HOME, or DEVECO_SDK_HOME pointing to the SDK root

Install

npm install @ohos-rs/arkdown

CLI

Build a HAP from an OpenHarmony project:

npx arkdown build --project ./my-app --target hap --mode debug

--target accepts hap, hsp, or har; --mode accepts debug or release. Use --module, --product, or --build-target-name to select a more specific build configuration. Run npx arkdown build --help for the complete option list.

Node.js API

const { build } = require("@ohos-rs/arkdown");

const result = await build({
  project: "./my-app",
  target: "hap",
  mode: "debug",
});

console.log(result.artifacts);

Build from source

cd packages/arkdown
pnpm install
pnpm build
pnpm test

The package is distributed as UNLICENSED.