Bake

Bake is a lightweight, blazing-fast, and developer-friendly cross-platform desktop application bundler built with Bun and Webview. It empowers frontend developers to build, debug, and package native desktop apps using pure JavaScript/TypeScript and web technologies—offering a compelling alternative to Electron and Tauri with smaller bundle size and faster startup.

Features

• Minimal footprint: Bundled apps typically range from 5MB to 60MB, significantly smaller than Electron-based apps.
• Super fast startup: Thanks to Bun’s high-performance JavaScript runtime and native Webview rendering.
• Familiar web tech: Use HTML, CSS, and TypeScript/JavaScript to build your UI and app logic.
• Seamless system API access: Easily extend system integrations like clipboard, file dialogs, notifications via Bun’s native bridge.
• Simple bundling: One command bundles your app into a native executable for Windows/macOS/Linux.
• Easy scaffolding: Start a new project with a simple CLI, no complex Rust or C knowledge needed.

Why Bake?

| Feature | Electron | Tauri | Bake (Bun + Webview) | | ------------------------- | ------------------ | ------------------------------ | --------------------------- | | Runtime | Node.js + Chromium | Rust + Webview | Bun + Webview | | Bundle size | 100MB+ | 5-30MB | ~5-60MB | | Startup speed | Moderate | Fast | Very fast | | Development stack | JS/Node + web tech | Rust + web tech | Pure JS/TS + web tech | | Complexity | Medium | High (Rust knowledge required) | Low (only JS/TS and Bun) | | Cross-platform | Yes | Yes | Yes | | System APIs | Rich, but large | Rich, Rust-powered | Growing, JS + native bridge | | Community & Ecosystem | Mature, large | Growing, smaller | Emerging, innovative |

Inspiration

Bake draws inspiration from:

• Electron: The most popular desktop app framework, providing rich APIs but heavyweight.
• Tauri: A Rust-based, lightweight alternative with excellent system integration but steep learning curve.
• webview-bun: Demonstrated the power of Bun + Webview for desktop apps with high performance and small size.

Bake aims to combine the best of these worlds: speed, simplicity, and small size—while fully embracing JavaScript/TypeScript and modern web tooling.

Roadmap

• [x] Core Bun + Webview integration to launch native windows
• [x] Basic JS/TS bridge for calling system APIs (clipboard, file dialogs, notifications)
• [x] Simple CLI scaffolding for new projects
• [x] Cross-platform build pipeline for Windows/macOS/Linux
• [ ] Advanced system API wrappers (tray, shortcuts, multi-window support)
• [ ] Plugin system to extend Bake’s capabilities easily
• [ ] Rich documentation and examples
• [ ] Continuous integration & automated releases

Getting Started

bun create bake my-app
cd my-app
bun run build

Contribution

Contributions are welcome! Feel free to open issues or submit pull requests.

License

MIT License