Wails — Desktop Apps with Go and Web Frontend

Overview

Wails, the Go framework for building desktop applications with web frontends. Helps developers build lightweight, fast desktop apps where the backend is Go and the frontend is any web framework (React, Vue, Svelte), communicating through auto-generated TypeScript bindings.

Instructions

Project Setup

# Install Wails CLI
go install github.com/wailsapp/wails/v2/cmd/wails@latest

# Check system dependencies
wails doctor

# Create a new project (React + TypeScript)
wails init -n my-app -t react-ts
cd my-app

# Development mode (hot reload for frontend + backend)
wails dev

# Build production binary
wails build                         # Outputs to build/bin/
wails build -platform darwin/amd64  # Cross-compile
wails build -nsis                   # Windows installer

Go Backend

// app.go — Application backend with methods exposed to frontend
// Methods on the App struct are automatically callable from JavaScript.

package main

import (
    "context"
    "database/sql"
    "fmt"
    "os"
    "path/filepath"

    _ "modernc.org/sqlite"
)

// App struct — any exported method becomes available in the frontend
type App struct {
    ctx context.Context
    db  *sql.DB
}

// startup is called when the app starts — initialize resources here
func (a *App) startup(ctx context.Context) {
    a.ctx = ctx

    // Open SQLite database in user's app data directory
    homeDir, _ := os.UserHomeDir()
    dbPath := filepath.Join(homeDir, ".my-app", "data.db")
    os.MkdirAll(filepath.Dir(dbPath), 0755)

    db, err := sql.Open("sqlite", dbPath)
    if err != nil {
        fmt.Printf("Failed to open database: %v\n", err)
        return
    }
    a.db = db

    // Create tables
    a.db.Exec(`CREATE TABLE IF NOT EXISTS notes (
        id INTEGER PRIMARY KEY AUTOINCREMENT,
        title TEXT NOT NULL,
        content TEXT NOT NULL DEFAULT '',
        created_at DATETIME DEFAULT CURRENT_TIMESTAMP,
        updated_at DATETIME DEFAULT CURRENT_TIMESTAMP
    )`)
}

// Note is a data model — returned to frontend as typed TypeScript interface
type Note struct {
    ID        int64  `json:"id"`
    Title     string `json:"title"`
    Content   string `json:"content"`
    CreatedAt string `json:"createdAt"`
    UpdatedAt string `json:"updatedAt"`
}

// GetNotes returns all notes — callable from frontend as GetNotes()
func (a *App) GetNotes() ([]Note, error) {
    rows, err := a.db.Query("SELECT id, title, content, created_at, updated_at FROM notes ORDER BY updated_at DESC")
    if err != nil {
        return nil, err
    }
    defer rows.Close()

    var notes []Note
    for rows.Next() {
        var n Note
        rows.Scan(&n.ID, &n.Title, &n.Content, &n.CreatedAt, &n.UpdatedAt)
        notes = append(notes, n)
    }
    return notes, nil
}

// CreateNote creates a new note — frontend calls CreateNote(title)
func (a *App) CreateNote(title string) (*Note, error) {
    result, err := a.db.Exec("INSERT INTO notes (title) VALUES (?)", title)
    if err != nil {
        return nil, err
    }
    id, _ := result.LastInsertId()
    return &Note{ID: id, Title: title, Content: ""}, nil
}

// UpdateNote saves note content — called on every edit
func (a *App) UpdateNote(id int64, title, content string) error {
    _, err := a.db.Exec(
        "UPDATE notes SET title = ?, content = ?, updated_at = CURRENT_TIMESTAMP WHERE id = ?",
        title, content, id,
    )
    return err
}

// DeleteNote removes a note
func (a *App) DeleteNote(id int64) error {
    _, err := a.db.Exec("DELETE FROM notes WHERE id = ?", id)
    return err
}

// OpenFile opens a native file dialog and returns the file content
func (a *App) OpenFile() (string, error) {
    selection, err := runtime.OpenFileDialog(a.ctx, runtime.OpenDialogOptions{
        Title: "Open File",
        Filters: []runtime.FileFilter{
            {DisplayName: "Text Files", Pattern: "*.txt;*.md"},
        },
    })
    if err != nil {
        return "", err
    }
    data, err := os.ReadFile(selection)
    return string(data), err
}

Frontend (React + TypeScript)

// frontend/src/App.tsx — React frontend with auto-generated bindings
// Wails generates TypeScript types from Go structs and functions.

import { useState, useEffect } from "react";
// These imports are auto-generated by Wails from Go code
import { GetNotes, CreateNote, UpdateNote, DeleteNote } from "../wailsjs/go/main/App";
import { main } from "../wailsjs/go/models";

function App() {
  const [notes, setNotes] = useState<main.Note[]>([]);
  const [selectedNote, setSelectedNote] = useState<main.Note | null>(null);

  useEffect(() => {
    loadNotes();
  }, []);

  async function loadNotes() {
    const result = await GetNotes();       // Calls Go method, returns typed Note[]
    setNotes(result || []);
  }

  async function handleCreate() {
    const note = await CreateNote("Untitled");  // Go returns *Note, TS gets main.Note
    if (note) {
      setNotes([note, ...notes]);
      setSelectedNote(note);
    }
  }

  async function handleSave(id: number, title: string, content: string) {
    await UpdateNote(id, title, content);  // Calls Go, saves to SQLite
    loadNotes();
  }

  async function handleDelete(id: number) {
    await DeleteNote(id);
    setSelectedNote(null);
    loadNotes();
  }

  return (
    <div className="app">
      <aside className="sidebar">
        <button onClick={handleCreate}>+ New Note</button>
        <ul>
          {notes.map((note) => (
            <li
              key={note.id}
              className={selectedNote?.id === note.id ? "active" : ""}
              onClick={() => setSelectedNote(note)}
            >
              <strong>{note.title}</strong>
              <small>{note.updatedAt}</small>
            </li>
          ))}
        </ul>
      </aside>

      <main className="editor">
        {selectedNote ? (
          <NoteEditor
            note={selectedNote}
            onSave={handleSave}
            onDelete={handleDelete}
          />
        ) : (
          <p>Select or create a note</p>
        )}
      </main>
    </div>
  );
}

System Tray and Menus

// main.go — Native menus and system tray
package main

import (
    "embed"
    "github.com/wailsapp/wails/v2"
    "github.com/wailsapp/wails/v2/pkg/menu"
    "github.com/wailsapp/wails/v2/pkg/options"
    "github.com/wailsapp/wails/v2/pkg/options/assetserver"
)

//go:embed all:frontend/dist
var assets embed.FS

func main() {
    app := &App{}

    appMenu := menu.NewMenu()
    fileMenu := appMenu.AddSubmenu("File")
    fileMenu.AddText("New Note", keys.CmdOrCtrl("n"), func(_ *menu.CallbackData) {
        // Emit event to frontend
        runtime.EventsEmit(app.ctx, "menu:new-note")
    })
    fileMenu.AddSeparator()
    fileMenu.AddText("Quit", keys.CmdOrCtrl("q"), func(_ *menu.CallbackData) {
        runtime.Quit(app.ctx)
    })

    err := wails.Run(&options.App{
        Title:     "My Notes",
        Width:     1024,
        Height:    768,
        MinWidth:  600,
        MinHeight: 400,
        AssetServer: &assetserver.Options{
            Assets: assets,
        },
        OnStartup: app.startup,
        Menu:      appMenu,
        Bind:      []interface{}{app},
    })
    if err != nil {
        panic(err)
    }
}

Installation

# Prerequisites: Go 1.21+, Node.js 16+
go install github.com/wailsapp/wails/v2/cmd/wails@latest

# macOS also needs Xcode command line tools
xcode-select --install

# Linux needs webkit2gtk
sudo apt install libgtk-3-dev libwebkit2gtk-4.0-dev

Examples

Example 1: Setting up Wails with a custom configuration

User request:

I just installed Wails. Help me configure it for my TypeScript + React workflow with my preferred keybindings.

The agent creates the configuration file with TypeScript-aware settings, configures relevant plugins/extensions for React development, sets up keyboard shortcuts matching the user's preferences, and verifies the setup works correctly.

Example 2: Extending Wails with custom functionality

User request:

I want to add a custom go backend to Wails. How do I build one?

The agent scaffolds the extension/plugin project, implements the core functionality following Wails's API patterns, adds configuration options, and provides testing instructions to verify it works end-to-end.

Guidelines

1. Go for backend, web for UI — Keep business logic, file I/O, database access in Go; keep UI rendering in the frontend
2. Auto-generated bindings — Never write API boilerplate; Wails generates TypeScript types from Go structs automatically
3. Embed assets — Use //go:embed to bundle the frontend into the binary; single-file distribution
4. Events for async — Use runtime.EventsEmit for Go→frontend communication (progress updates, background task results)
5. Native dialogs — Use Wails' runtime dialogs (file picker, message box) instead of HTML modals for native feel
6. SQLite for local data — Ship with SQLite for offline-first apps; it's a single file in the user's app data directory
7. Dev mode for iteration — wails dev provides hot reload for both Go and frontend; iterate fast
8. Cross-compile — Build for all platforms from one machine with wails build -platform; test on each OS before release