rust

nativeapi for Rust

Rust bindings for nativeapi — unified access to native system APIs: windows, tray icons, menus, displays, keyboard, dialogs, storage and more.

Linux	macOS	Windows
✅	✅	✅

🚧 Work in Progress: this crate is under active development.

Installation

cargo add nativeapi

Building requires CMake and a C++17 compiler (the core library is compiled by build.rs). On Linux, also install:

sudo apt install libgtk-3-dev libx11-dev libxi-dev

The crate is split into nativeapi (safe API) and cnativeapi (raw FFI).

Quick Start

use nativeapi::DisplayManager;

fn main() {
    for display in DisplayManager::get_all() {
        let size = display.size();
        println!("{}: {}x{}", display.name().unwrap_or_default(), size.width, size.height);
    }
}

Examples

The examples are the rust_* directories in the repository's examples/, members of the cargo workspace at the repository root. Each is a crate covering one module:

cargo run -p display_example
cargo run -p window_example
cargo run -p tray_icon_example

shortcut_example and keyboard_example need accessibility permission on macOS — run accessibility_example first.

GPUI

nativeapi_gpui integrates nativeapi with GPUI: the nativeapi Window behind a GPUI window, event delivery to GPUI entities, geometry and color conversions, and DragToMoveArea / DragToResizeArea elements. The gpui_* directories in examples/ are built on it; each is its own cargo workspace (cd examples/gpui_window_example && cargo run).

Contributing

Development happens in nativeapi, which holds every binding and the code generator and checks out the core library as a submodule:

git clone --recursive https://github.com/libnativeapi/nativeapi.git

Files marked AUTO-GENERATED. DO NOT EDIT. are generated from the C++ headers in nativeapi. To change the API, send a pull request there; maintainers regenerate the bindings.

• API requests and native behavior bugs → nativeapi-core issues
• Bugs specific to one binding → nativeapi issues
• Not sure → nativeapi-core issues

License

MIT