PlusUI

Build C++ desktop apps with web tech. Like Tauri, but for C++.

Quick Start

# Install CLI globally
npm install -g plusui-cli

# Create a new project
plusui create myapp
cd myapp

# Install dependencies
npm install

# Run in development mode (with HMR)
npm run dev

# Build for production
npm run build

Project Structure

myapp/
├── src/
│   ├── main.cpp          # C++ backend
│   ├── index.html        # Frontend entry
│   └── ...
├── plusui-core/         # Framework (git submodule)
├── package.json
└── CMakeLists.txt

C++ API

#include <plusui/app.hpp>

int main() {
    auto wv = plusui::createApp()
        .title("My App")
        .width(1024)
        .height(768)
        .build();

    // Navigate to frontend
    wv.navigate("file://${CMAKE_CURRENT_SOURCE_DIR}/src/index.html");

    // Listen for events from frontend
    wv.on("greet", [](const std::string& name) {
        std::cout << "Hello, " << name << "!" << std::endl;
    });

    // Run the app
    plusui::createApp().run();
    return 0;
}

TypeScript API

import { createPlusUI } from '@plusui/core';

const plusui = createPlusUI();

// Call C++ function
const result = await plusui.invoke<number>('add', [1, 2]);

// Listen for events
plusui.on('server-event', (data) => {
    console.log('Received:', data);
});

// Emit event to C++
plusui.emit('greet', 'World');

// One-time listener
plusui.once('ready', () => {
    console.log('App ready!');
});

Events vs Invoke

| Method | Direction | Use Case | |--------|-----------|----------| | invoke() | Frontend → Backend | Request/response | | emit() | Frontend → Backend | Fire-and-forget | | on() | Bidirectional | Subscriptions |

Configuration

const plusui = createPlusUI({
    title: 'My App',
    width: 800,
    height: 600,
    resizable: true,
    devtools: true,
});

Building

# Development (auto-rebuild + HMR)
npm run dev

# Production build
npm run build

# Run built app
npm run start

# Regenerate connection bindings manually (app-level)
npm run connect

Connection generation runs per app project and scans for connect.emit() / connect.on() usage. dev and all build commands auto-refresh connection bindings first.

Requirements

• Windows: WebView2 Runtime (pre-installed on Win10/11)
• macOS: Xcode Command Line Tools
• Linux: WebKit2GTK (sudo apt install libwebkit2gtk-4.0-dev)

Architecture

┌─────────────────────────────────────┐
│           Frontend (Web)            │
│    React / Vue / Svelte / Vanilla   │
└─────────────────┬───────────────────┘
                  │ Events / Invoke
┌─────────────────▼───────────────────┐
│         TypeScript SDK              │
│       @plusui/core                 │
└─────────────────┬───────────────────┘
                  │ JSON IPC
┌─────────────────▼───────────────────┐
│         C++ Core                    │
│    plusui::createApp()             │
│         webview.h                   │
└─────────────────┬───────────────────┘
                  │
┌─────────────────▼───────────────────┐
│        Native WebView               │
│   Windows: WebView2 (Edge)         │
│   macOS: WKWebView (WebKit)        │
│   Linux: WebKitGTK                 │
└─────────────────────────────────────┘

License

MIT