zero-native

Zero-native is Vercel Labs' attempt at a smaller Electron. Build a native desktop app with a web UI on top, except the native shell is written in Zig and uses the platform's WebView (WKWebView on macOS, WebKitGTK on Linux). The result is small binaries, low memory, fast rebuilds, and an explicit security model for the JavaScript-to-Zig bridge. There's also a CEF (Chromium) option when you need consistent rendering across platforms.

Install is `npm install -g zero-native`. Scaffold a project with `zero-native init my_app --frontend next` and Vercel's preferred web stack drops into the frontend. `zig build run` compiles the native shell. Configuration is a single `app.zon` manifest. macOS, Linux, and Windows build paths are supported.

Solo developers and small teams already in the Vercel/Next.js ecosystem: this is the lightest desktop wrapper that doesn't force you into React Native or wrestle Electron. Large teams shipping commercial desktop products: wait for it to leave pre-release. The Tauri ecosystem is more mature today.

The catch: pre-release. The Zig native layer is genuinely lightweight but the ecosystem around it doesn't have Tauri's plugin coverage or Electron's depth of tooling. You're an early adopter if you ship with this.