Gooey: A GPU-accelerated UI framework for Zig
Key takeaways
- A GPU-accelerated UI framework for Zig, targeting mac OS (Metal), Linux (Vulkan/Wayland), and Browser (WASM/Web GPU).
- Example app built with Gooey — chat-zig, an Anthropic Claude client using the Zig 0.16 std.Io stack for async HTTP:
- Gooey has zero external Zig package dependencies — build.zig.zon lists no dependencies.
A GPU-accelerated UI framework for Zig, targeting mac OS (Metal), Linux (Vulkan/Wayland), and Browser (WASM/Web GPU).
Example app built with Gooey — chat-zig, an Anthropic Claude client using the Zig 0.16 std.Io stack for async HTTP:
GPU Rendering - Metal (mac OS), Vulkan (Linux) with MSAA anti-aliasing (Web GPU/WASM is blocked upstream on Zig 0.16 — see WASM) Declarative UI - Component-based layout with ui.* primitives and flexbox-style system Cx/UI Separation - Cx for state, handlers, and focus; ui.* for layout primitives Pure State Pattern - Testable state methods with automatic re-rendering Animation System - Built-in animations with easing, animateOn triggers Entity System - Dynamic entity creation/deletion with auto-cleanup Retained Widgets - TextInput, TextArea, Checkbox, Scroll containers Text Rendering - CoreText (macOS), FreeType/HarfBuzz (Linux), Canvas (WASM) Custom Shaders - Drop in your own Metal/GLSL shaders Drag & Drop - Type-safe drag sources and drop targets with pointer_events control Liquid Glass - macOS 26.0+ Tahoe transparent window effects Actions & Keybindings - Contextual action system with keymap Theming - Built-in light/dark mode support Images & SVG - Load images and render SVG icons with styling File Dialogs - Native file open/save dialogs (macOS, Linux, WASM) Clipboard - Native clipboard support on all platforms IME Support - Input method editor for international text input Accessibility - Built-in screen reader support (VoiceOver, Orca, ARIA) with semantic roles and live regions Zero Dependencies - No external Zig packages; builds against system frameworks/libraries only (the Objective-C runtime bindings are vendored in-tree) Quick Start Requirements: Zig 0.16.0+