Blinc

A GPU-accelerated, cross-platform UI framework for building desktop, mobile, and web applications from a single Rust codebase.

Highlights

• GPU-Accelerated: SDF rendering, glassmorphism, spring physics, flow custom shaders
• Cross-Platform: Desktop (macOS/Windows/Linux), Android, iOS, Web (WebGPU)
• Builder API: Declarative, chainable: div().flex_col().gap(16.0).child(text("Hello"))
• 40+ Components: shadcn/ui-style library with CSS-overridable theming
• 40+ Live Demos: Try them in your browser (WebGPU required)

Quick Start

use blinc_app::prelude::*;
use blinc_app::windowed::WindowedApp;

fn main() -> Result<()> {
    WindowedApp::run(WindowConfig::default(), |ctx| {
        div()
            .w(ctx.width).h(ctx.height)
            .bg(Color::rgb(0.1, 0.1, 0.15))
            .justify_center().items_center()
            .child(text("Hello Blinc!").size(48.0).color(Color::WHITE))
    })
}

The same build_ui function runs on desktop and web and no separate codebase.

The blinc package provides one dependency with blinc::app, blinc::layout and the other framework modules. Components, SVG APIs and icons are exposed through the cn, svg and icons flags.

Running the examples

A fresh clone builds every example with no extra setup — the sibling crates (blinc_canvas_kit, blinc_portal_ui, blinc_node_editor, blinc_game_kit) resolve from their published git pins:

cargo run -p blinc_app_examples --example cn_demo --features cn

Developing the sibling crates

Those four crates live in their own repositories. To edit them from local checkouts, opt in with:

./scripts/use-local-packages.sh   # clones them into packages/ (gitignored)
                                  # and redirects the workspace to those copies

This modifies Cargo.toml locally only — do not commit it (CI's check-no-local-patch.sh guard rejects it). Revert before committing:

./scripts/use-published-packages.sh

Building on low-resource machines

The debug profile is tuned so a workspace build fits comfortably on ~8 GB RAM / a small SSD: dependencies are compiled without debuginfo and workspace crates use line-table backtraces only (file:line still resolves). That is the single biggest lever for both target/ size and peak linker memory — no configuration needed.

If a full-workspace build still thrashes or OOMs on a constrained box (e.g. an 8 GB ASUS NUC), reach for these, in order of impact:

• Build only what you need, not the whole workspace: cargo run -p blinc_app_examples --example cn_demo --features cn.
• Cap parallelism so N rustc processes don't collectively exhaust RAM: CARGO_BUILD_JOBS=4 cargo build (or uncomment jobs in .cargo/config.toml). Start near half your core count.
• Use a faster, lower-memory linker (mold on Linux, lld on macOS) — see the commented target blocks in .cargo/config.toml. Linking is the heaviest single step on low-RAM machines.
• Reclaim SSD with CARGO_INCREMENTAL=0 (smaller target/, slower warm rebuilds), and cargo clean between large feature switches.

Platform Support

Platform	Status	Backend
macOS	Stable	wgpu (Metal)
Windows	Stable	wgpu (DX12/Vulkan)
Linux	Stable	wgpu (Vulkan)
Android	Stable	wgpu (Vulkan)
iOS	Stable	wgpu (Metal)
Web (WASM)	Preview	wgpu (WebGPU) — Chrome 113+, Edge 113+, Firefox 141+, Safari 18+ (macOS Tahoe)
HarmonyOS	In progress	wgpu (Vulkan/OpenGL ES)

Documentation

Blinc Book: comprehensive guide covering layout, styling, animation, widgets, routing, media, and more.

Live Example Gallery: 40+ interactive WebGPU demos running in your browser.

API Reference: rustdoc for all crates.

Skills.md: concise, example-driven reference for AI code agents.

Crates

	Crate	Description
Core	blinc_app	App framework, windowed + web runners
	blinc_core	Signals, state machines, types
	blinc_layout	Flexbox layout, element builders, widgets
	blinc_gpu	SDF rendering, glass, shaders
Rendering	blinc_text	Text shaping, glyph atlas
	blinc_svg	SVG parsing + rasterization
	blinc_image	Image decoding, lazy loading
	blinc_paint	Canvas/paint API
Animation	blinc_animation	Springs, keyframes, timelines
	blinc_theme	Design tokens, light/dark mode
Components	blinc_cn	40+ shadcn/ui-style components
	blinc_icons	Lucide icon set
Platform	blinc_platform	Cross-platform traits
	blinc_platform_desktop	Desktop (winit)
	blinc_platform_android	Android (NDK)
	blinc_platform_ios	iOS (UIKit/Metal)
	blinc_platform_web	Web (WebGPU/WASM)

Roadmap

Current focus:

1. Data grid, and the rest of the planned cn components
2. Zyntax DSL: .blinc domain specific language for UI definitions, with support for live editing and hot reload in the future
3. Accessibility (screen reader semantics; keyboard navigation in menus, overlays and OTP fields)
4. Developer tooling (hot reload, visual inspector)

Planned work is tracked as issues in the repository itself, with git-bug: git-bug bug --status open after a git-bug pull bugs.

Community

Join us on Discord: questions, showcases, design discussion, and roadmap chatter. Also feel free to open a GitHub Discussion for longer-form conversations.

License

Apache License 2.0 - see LICENSE