Wails Has a Free API: Build Desktop Apps in Go With Web Frontends

#go #desktop #webdev #wails

Electron uses JavaScript for everything. Tauri uses Rust. Wails uses Go — and if you're a Go developer, it's the obvious choice.

What Is Wails?

Wails builds desktop applications using Go for the backend and any web framework for the frontend. Like Tauri, it uses the OS's native webview instead of bundling Chromium.

wails init -n myapp -t svelte-ts
cd myapp
wails dev

Go ↔ Frontend Communication

// app.go
package main

type App struct {
    ctx context.Context
}

func (a *App) Greet(name string) string {
    return fmt.Sprintf("Hello %s, welcome to Wails!", name)
}

func (a *App) ReadFile(path string) (string, error) {
    data, err := os.ReadFile(path)
    return string(data), err
}

func (a *App) FetchURL(url string) (map[string]any, error) {
    resp, err := http.Get(url)
    if err != nil { return nil, err }
    defer resp.Body.Close()
    var result map[string]any
    json.NewDecoder(resp.Body).Decode(&result)
    return result, nil
}

// Frontend — auto-generated TypeScript bindings!
import { Greet, ReadFile, FetchURL } from '../wailsjs/go/main/App'

const greeting = await Greet("World")
const fileContent = await ReadFile("/path/to/file.txt")
const apiData = await FetchURL("https://api.example.com/data")