Find the Native SDK guidance needed to build desktop apps with TypeScript and Native markup, a declarative UI format. Covers getting started and locating instructions for interface development, packaging, embedded web content, and running-app automation.
Discovery skill for the Native SDK, the complete toolkit for building native desktop applications. Apps are authored in TypeScript + declarative Native markup (.native) by default and compiled to native code with no JS runtime in the binary; Zig cores are an explicit alternative, and WebViews are the optional web-content path. Use when the user asks what the Native SDK is, how to build a Native SDK app, author native UI, scaffold an app, configure app.json or legacy app.zon, add bridge commands, embed web content, package an app, test a running app, or automate a Native SDK app.
Review the instructions the agent will receive before you install.
The Native SDK is the complete toolkit for building native desktop applications. The primary authoring path is TypeScript app logic in src/core.ts plus declarative Native markup in .native files. The TypeScript core is checked and compiled ahead of time to native code, so the shipped binary contains no browser, WebView, JS runtime, or interpreter. Zig is how the toolkit itself works and is a first-class, explicitly chosen app-core alternative (--template zig-core); it is not the default inferred from the SDK's implementation. Every app embeds a deterministic automation server, so agents can snapshot, drive, and screenshot the running window. Desktop is the mature surface (macOS deepest, Linux and Windows exercised in CI); mobile embedding is experimental. WebView surfaces coexist as the optional path for embedding web content or hosting an existing web frontend.
This file is a discovery stub for agents that installed the Native SDK once with a skills installer such as npx skills add native-sdk. Before implementing or explaining Native SDK app work, use the installed CLI to discover and load the current skill content:
native skills list
native skills get core
native skills get native-ui
native skills get ts-core
Use native skills get core for initial orientation. For the default app-authoring path, load both native-ui (views, bindings, the app loop) and ts-core (the TypeScript subset, effects, subscriptions, and modules) before implementing. Load ts-services too when the tree has src/services/ or ordinary TypeScript needs filesystem/process/JSON/regex/Map/Date/class work behind Cmd.request. Use native skills get core --full when work reaches lower-level runtime wiring, WebViews, bridge/security, native capabilities, packaging, or debugging. Use native skills get automation when testing a running app, taking snapshots, requesting reloads, or using the built-in automation server. Use native skills get zig only for an existing Zig core, a toolkit extension, SDK implementation work, or a Zig 0.16 compile error.
npm install -g @native-sdk/cli
native init my_app
cd my_app
native dev
native init my_app generates the primary three-file app: app.json, src/app.native (the markup view), and src/core.ts (Model, Msg, update). Existing app.zon manifests remain supported. Inspect the tree before editing an existing app and preserve the core language it already uses. src/main.zig means the app explicitly uses the Zig-core template; web-frontend shells additionally carry frontend/ and usually owned build/runtime wiring.
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Test running Native SDK apps by checking readiness, inspecting windows, driving widgets, and checking communication between JavaScript and Zig. Includes repeatable canvas screenshots and basic integration tests to confirm that key app features work.
Build and modify Native SDK apps with guidance on project structure, configuration, native features, packaging, and testing. Explains the default TypeScript and Native markup approach, plus WebViews, embedded web interfaces, and their permissions.
Create Native SDK interfaces with .native markup, connecting layouts, widgets, and user actions to app state and messages. Covers TypeScript core integration, explicit Zig alternatives, menus, scrolling, embedded web panes, and interface verification.
Build Native SDK app logic in TypeScript using explicit state, messages, and update functions. Explains the supported language subset, compiler diagnostics, module organization, and tests for logic that compiles directly into native code.
Guides development of Native SDK TypeScript services for file access, network requests, and other work outside the deterministic core. Covers typed calls, pinned npm dependencies, streaming, cancellation, replay, and process or thread execution.
Fix Native SDK build failures caused by older Zig APIs. Organized by compiler error, this guide shows Zig 0.16 patterns for file access, output, lists, processes, environment variables, clocks, networking, and build configuration.