Desktop

Building native-like Elixir apps for Windows, MacOS, Linux, iOS and Android using Phoenix LiveView!

Example

Checkout the example app for a starting point.

Getting Started

Check out the Getting your Environment Ready Guide and Your first Desktop App.

This repo’s .tool-versions pins Erlang and Elixir for contributors; mise and asdf both understand that file. After activating your toolchain, run mix desktop.check_toolchain to confirm the running OTP major and Elixir version match .tool-versions.

Platform backends

desktop routes window, webview, menu, and notification calls through Desktop.Platform to one of three backends. The default is automatic selection (:auto); you can override it in config or via environment variables.

Backend	Typical use
Desktop.Backend.Wx	Native windows on Windows, macOS, and Linux (OTP :wx / wxWidgets)
Desktop.Backend.Json	Android and iOS — JSON/TCP bridge to your native host app (BRIDGE_PORT)
Desktop.Backend.Browser	Headless CI, servers without wx, or local dev without a GUI (NO_WX=1)

Automatic selection (config :desktop, :backend, :auto — the default):

1. Mobile target (config :desktop, :mobile_target, true at compile time, or Desktop.OS.mobile?/0 at runtime) → Json
2. Else NO_WX set or :wx not available → Browser
3. Else → Wx

Explicit override in config/config.exs:

config :desktop, :backend, :wx      # force wxWidgets (desktop)
config :desktop, :backend, :json   # force JSON bridge (e.g. mobile host)
config :desktop, :backend, :browser # force OS-browser fallback
config :desktop, :backend, :auto   # automatic (default)

You can also pass a custom backend module that implements the Desktop.Platform.* behaviour callbacks:

config :desktop, :backend, MyApp.DesktopBackend

Environment variables:

Variable	Effect
NO_WX=1	With :auto, selects the Browser backend (no native window)
BRIDGE_PORT	TCP port for the Json backend’s native host (default 0 = in-process mock for tests)

See the FAQ for mobile bridge setup, headless testing, and capability details.

Status / Roadmap

1. ✅ Run elixir-desktop on Windows/MacOS/Linux
2. ✅ Run elixir-desktop on iOS/Android
3. ✅ Package elixir-desktop based apps for iOS/Android (see example-app repo for iOS and Android)
4. Package elixir-desktop based apps in installers for Windows/MacOS/Linux
5. Update the desktop example app built installers for Windows/MacOS/Linux using GitHub actions
6. Use a repo of pre-compiled Erlang binaries for Windows/MacOS/Linux/iOS/Android when building Apps, so one call of mix desktop.deploy will create installer for all platforms.
7. Integrate Code Signing for Windows/MacOS
8. Build a GitHub actions based auto-update flow

Contributing and Raising Issues

• Please checkout the GitHub repo and raise any issue.
• For questions and comments best to use the Elixir forum or contact me on Slack.

All suggestions are welcome!

Cheers!

Copyright and License

Copyright (c) 2021 Dominic Letz

This work is free. You can redistribute it and/or modify it under the terms of the MIT License. See the LICENSE.md file for more details.