Install wails with Homebrew, MacPorts, Nix

Project links

• Homepage
• Repository
• Upstream docs
• Package manager page

Commands and aliases

• wails

Project history

Creator and maintainer Lea Anthony traced the idea to wanting an HTML, JavaScript, and CSS interface for Restic without making users run a web server in a browser, then discovering the cross-platform WebView library. The early problem Wails set out to solve was the hard synchronization boundary between a native Go backend and a web frontend.

The first public code appeared on GitHub on May 1, 2019 after roughly a year and a half of private development. Wails v1 was announced on December 10, 2019 as the stable-API milestone after nearly two years of work; the v1 post also listed the path toward v2, including replacing WebView as the windowing library, more desktop integration, and a broader refactor.

Wails v2 was released on September 22, 2022 after about 18 months from the first v2 alpha and about a year from the first beta. The v2 release was a major transition: it added modern templates, Vite-powered live development, Windows WebView2 support, native menus and dialogs, TypeScript model generation, packaging improvements, and a runtime aimed at richer desktop applications.

The v3 roadmap, published in January 2023, framed the next major cycle around a more programmatic API, better multi-window support, static-analysis-based bindings generation, and a more transparent build system. As of July 2, 2026, the GitHub repository metadata showed more than 35,000 stars, active development on the master branch, v2 as the stable line, and v3 alpha releases in progress.

Adoption history

Wails grew from a Go-community project into one of the best-known Go desktop frameworks. The v1 announcement reported about 1,300 GitHub stars and around 10,000 documentation-site users in late 2019, while the v2 announcement credited roughly 2,200 commits by 89 contributors between the initial alpha and v2 release.

The project positions itself for developers who want native-feeling desktop applications without Electron's bundled-browser footprint. The docs emphasize templates for Svelte, React, Preact, Vue, Lit, and vanilla JavaScript, plus native menus, dialogs, theming, WebView2 on Windows, and platform packaging.

How it is used

A typical Wails project uses the `wails` CLI to create, develop, build, and package an app. Developers write Go methods in the backend, call them from JavaScript, and let Wails generate TypeScript models for Go structs so frontend and backend can share data shapes.

During development, `wails dev` runs a native desktop shell while serving frontend assets from disk and reloading as Go or frontend files change. For release builds, Wails bundles frontend assets into a native executable and can package platform-specific app artifacts.

Why package nerds care

In package terms, Wails is important because it represents the Go ecosystem's native-webview answer to Electron-style desktop development. It turns a Go toolchain plus frontend build into a single distributable desktop app, so packagers and developers often compare it with Electron, Tauri, Fyne, WebView, and Lorca-like approaches.

Timeline

• May 1, 2019: the first public Wails code was released on GitHub, according to Lea Anthony's v1 history post.
• December 10, 2019: Wails v1 was announced as the stable-API milestone.
• September 22, 2022: Wails v2 was released after a long alpha and beta cycle.
• January 17, 2023: the project published the Road to Wails v3, outlining multi-window and build-system changes.
• July 2, 2026: GitHub API metadata showed the repository still actively maintained with more than 35,000 stars.

Related projects

• Wails is usually discussed alongside Electron and Tauri because all three let developers build desktop software with web technologies. It also has roots in the WebView project and in the Go ecosystem's desire for desktop apps that do not require shipping a separate browser runtime.

Sources

• https://api.github.com/repos/wailsapp/wails
• https://medium.com/@lea.anthony/wails-v1-eaa5924fc94d
• https://wails.io/blog/the-road-to-wails-v3/
• https://wails.io/blog/wails-v2-released/
• https://wails.io/docs/introduction/