web2app-cli

Convert any website into a lightweight cross-platform desktop app (Windows, macOS, Linux) with a single command powered by NeutralinoJS. No Electron bundle and no boilerplate to maintain.

Requirements

• Node.js 14+ and npm
• Neutralino CLI is reused when already installed (NEU_BIN, local node_modules/.bin/neu, or neu on your PATH); if missing, it is installed globally once via npm install -g @neutralinojs/neu

Installation

npm install -g web2app-cli

Usage

web2app <url> [--icon=/path/to/icon] [--name=AppName]

Options

• --icon= path to an .ico, .icns, .png, or .svg file to use as the window icon.
• --name= custom application name; defaults to WebApp.

Example

web2app https://example.com --icon=./icon.ico --name=ExampleApp

Output

• Builds into web2app_build/<appname>/.
• Produces release executables for Windows (-win_x64.exe), macOS (-mac_x64, -mac_arm64, -mac_universal), and Linux (-linux_x64, -linux_armhf, -linux_arm64) with resources embedded (no standalone resources.neu).
• Generates a ready-to-ship <appname>-release.zip alongside the executables, then removes the zip for a clean output (executables stay).
• Downloads Neutralino runtimes into web2app_build/bin on first run, then removes the cache; subsequent builds re-download automatically.
• If a site blocks iframes, the app loads the URL directly; otherwise it uses an embedded iframe.

How it works

• Generates neutralino.config.json and a minimal index.html pointing at your target URL.
• Checks if the site allows embedding (iframe); falls back to direct load when blocked.
• Downloads Neutralino runtimes (all platforms) on first run, calls neu build --release --embed-resources to generate executables, then deletes the temporary bin/ and generated resources/ folder.
• If neu update fails or is blocked, the CLI falls back to downloading the Neutralino release zip directly from GitHub; set WEB2APP_NEU_DIRECT=1 to force that path.
• Installs the Neutralino CLI globally only when no existing installation is found, so it can be reused across projects.

Release Notes

• Automatic scan for an existing Neutralino CLI (NEU_BIN, local node_modules/.bin/neu, PATH, npm global bin) before installing globally.
• Builds release executables for all platforms with embedded resources (no resources.neu alongside the binary); cleans bin/resources/release zip after build.
• Falls back to downloading Neutralino runtimes directly from GitHub if neu update --latest fails (WEB2APP_NEU_DIRECT=1 to force).

License

MIT