KELD

The desktop framework that replaces Electron without requiring a full app rewrite. Rust core · Bun-powered JS/TS main process · system webviews · security by default. By GYLDLAB.

Status: pre-alpha — this checkout contains implementation and tracked architecture specs. The generated Current/Target/Evidence ledger is the canonical repository-status view; private research is optional evidence in a separate nested repository.

The idea in 30 seconds

Keld starts from Electron's observable API and process contracts, measures them against a versioned app corpus, and keeps unsupported behavior explicit. Median apps should migrate through configuration; demanding apps may drive targeted runtime, host or app patches behind the same compatibility facade.

The following is the target product flow. migrate and build are not implemented in the current pre-alpha CLI:

cd my-electron-app
bunx keld migrate   # analyzes your app, generates config, aliases electron → @keld/electron
bunx keld dev       # no bundled Chromium/Node executable; exact gaps reported
bunx keld build     # signed installers + kilobyte-scale delta updates

The target architecture replaces Electron's architecture, not its API:

• A prebuilt Rust host owns windows, webviews, and every native API — you never install a Rust toolchain.
• Your JS/TS main process and named compatibility roles run on Bun as supervised, strict-profile principals — npm/Node behavior is corpus-tested, ambient OS access is denied, and a child crash does not take your windows down.
• System webviews by default (WebView2 / WKWebView / WebKitGTK) with a polyfill pack and per-platform engine policy.
• Typed binary IPC (schema-first and backpressured; optional per-role shared-memory bulk lanes only after workload and sandbox measurements justify them).
• Default-deny permissions generated from your code, reviewed like a lockfile.
• Delta updates (bsdiff+zstd, signed) and cross-target-assembled installers; signing/notarization remains an exercised per-platform credential flow.

The current implementation is a vertical slice, not the target product. See the generated product-status ledger for the exact crate, package, phase, platform, and evidence split. Architecture documents continue to own target design; Linear owns live execution state.

Workspace layout

crates/   keld-core · keld-wv · keld-ipc · keld-guard · keld-native · keld-runtime
          keld-update · keld-pack · keld-compat · keld-host (bin) · keld-cli (bin)
packages/ @keld/electron; planned package surfaces are classified in the status ledger

Development

See AGENTS.md for engineering rules and verification gates.

cargo nextest run --workspace --profile ci
just hello    # launch the diagnostic hello backend for the current platform

License

MIT OR Apache-2.0 — LICENSE, LICENSE-MIT, LICENSE-APACHE, and workspace Cargo.toml. See CONTRIBUTING.md and SECURITY.md.