PerryTS — Native TypeScript Compiler#

Compiles .ts to native binaries via SWC parsing → LLVM code generation. No V8/Node.js.

Use Cases#

Use when writing/debugging PerryTS projects, asking about API usage, or cross-platform compilation.

Installation#

bash

npm install @perryts/perry          # Recommended, requires Node ≥ 16
brew install perryts/perry/perry    # macOS
winget install PerryTS.Perry        # Windows
perry doctor; perry --version       # Verify
perry update                        # Self-update

Prerequisites: macOS xcode-select --install / Linux apt install build-essential / Windows winget install LLVM.LLVM && perry setup windows

CLI#

bash

perry compile main.ts -o app                   # Compile
perry main.ts -o app                           # Shorthand
perry compile app.ts --target ios-simulator    # Cross-compile
perry compile app.ts --print-hir               # Debug HIR
perry compile plugin.ts --output-type dylib    # Compile as shared library
perry run [ios|visionos|android|web]           # Compile + run
perry dev src/main.ts                          # Watch + auto-restart
perry check src/ [--check-deps] [--fix]        # Compatibility check
perry init my-project                          # Create project
perry publish [macos|ios|android|linux]        # Build for distribution
perry setup [ios|android|macos|windows]        # Credentials/toolchain
perry explain U001                             # Error code explanation
perry i18n extract src/main.ts                 # Internationalization extraction
perry native init/list/validate                # Native binding tools

Compile targets: ios-simulator ios visionos-simulator android wasm web windows linux ios-widget watchos-widget wearos-tile

Key flags: --minify --type-check --trace hir,llvm --focus <name> --enable-js-runtime --enable-geisterhand

Language Support#

Full support: variables/functions/classes/enums/interfaces/async/Promise/generators/closures/Map/Set/RegExp/JSON/BigInt/ES modules. Types erased at compile time.

Not supported: eval() new Function() require() await import() Object.setPrototypeOf() prototype mutation, full Proxy/WeakRef

Multi-threading ( perry/thread)#

typescript

import { parallelMap, parallelFilter, spawn } from "perry/thread"

// Data parallelism: auto-detects CPU core count, splits arrays, OS threads, ordered collection
const results = parallelMap(data, (item: T) => transform(item))
// Suitable for large arrays; small arrays (< core count) use zero-overhead in-place processing

// Parallel filter: maintains original order
const filtered = parallelFilter(items, (item) => predicate(item))

// Background thread: returns Promise immediately, main thread not blocked
const result = await spawn(() => heavyComputation())
// Concurrent tasks: await Promise.all([spawn(t1), spawn(t2), spawn(t3)])

Thread safety: Closures cannot capture mutable variables (compile-time rejection), values are deep-copied to worker threads.

Native UI ( perry/ui)#

Declarative TS, compiled to real platform controls (AppKit/UIKit/GTK4/Win32/DOM).

typescript

import { App, VStack, Text, Button, State, ForEach } from "perry/ui"

const count = State(0)

App({
  title: "App", width: 400, height: 300,
  body: VStack(16, [
    Text(`Count: ${count.value}`),                        // Auto-reactive binding
    Button("+", () => count.set(count.value + 1)),
  ]),
})

Controls (all imported from perry/ui)#

ControlSignatureTextText(content) — template strings auto-bind to StateButtonButton(label, onClick)TextFieldTextField(placeholder, (v: string) => void)SecureFieldSecureField(placeholder, onChange)TextAreaTextArea(placeholder, onChange)ToggleToggle(label, (v: boolean) => void)SliderSlider(min, max, (v: number) => void)PickerPicker(onChange) + pickerAddItem(p, label)ProgressViewProgressView()ImageFileImageFile(path)ImageSymbolImageSymbol(name) — macOS/iOS only

Platform-specific: Canvas(w,h) WebView({url,...}) MapView(w,h) Chart(kind,w,h) RichTextEditor PdfView QRCode TreeView Calendar Table CameraView

State#

typescript

const s = State(0); s.value; s.set(42)  // .set() triggers UI re-render
ForEach(count, (i) => Text(items.value[i]))  // Iterate list by count
stateOnChange(s, (v) => cb)                  // Listen for changes
// Object/array state must create new references: s.set({...s.value, k: v})
// Two-way binding: stateBindTextfield(state, field) / stateBindSlider / stateBindToggle

Layout#

VStack(spacing, children) HStack(spacing, children) — Stack containers ZStack() + widgetAddChild — Overlay ScrollView() + scrollviewSetChild — Scrollable LazyVStack(count, render) — Lazy rendering (macOS NSTableView only) NavStack() + navstackPush/pop — Navigation stack Spacer() Divider() — Flexible space/separator SplitView() + splitViewAddChild — Split panel

Child management: widgetAddChild/ widgetAddChildAt/ widgetRemoveChild/ widgetClearChildren

Alignment: stackSetAlignment(stack, 5=Leading|9=CenterX|7=Width) / HStack: 3=Top|12=CenterY|4=Bottom Distribution: stackSetDistribution(stack, 0=Fill|1=FillEqually|2=FillProportionally|3=EqualSpacing)

Stretching: widgetMatchParentWidth widgetMatchParentHeight widgetSetHugging Overlays: widgetAddOverlay(parent, child) widgetSetOverlayFrame(child, x, y, w, h)

Styling#

Inline style (recommended): trailing argument in control constructors

typescript

Button("Save", cb, {
  backgroundColor: "#3B82F6", borderRadius: 8, padding: 12,
  shadow: { color: "#0004", blur: 12, offsetY: 4 },
  tooltip: "Save", enabled: true,
})

Color support: "#3B82F6" / "#3B82F6FF" / "blue" / { r,g,b,a: [0,1] }

Imperative: textSetFontSize(w,24) textSetColor(w,r,g,b,a) setCornerRadius(w,8) widgetSetBackgroundColor(w,r,g,b,a) widgetSetEdgeInsets(w,top,left,bottom,right) widgetSetOpacity(w,0.5) widgetSetEnabled(w,0|1) widgetSetTooltip(w,text) widgetSetControlSize(w,0-3)

Events#

typescript

widgetSetOnClick(w, cb)
widgetSetOnHover(w, cb)           // Desktop/Web only
widgetSetOnDoubleClick(w, cb)
addKeyboardShortcut("n", 1, cb)   // 1=Cmd,2=Shift,4=Option,8=Control(macOS only)
registerGlobalHotkey("F5", 0, cb) // macOS only
clipboardWrite(txt) / clipboardRead()

Dialogs & Menus#

typescript

openFileDialog(cb) / openFolderDialog(cb) / saveFileDialog(cb, name, ext)
alert(title, msg) / alertWithButtons(title, msg, ["Cancel","OK"], (idx)=>...)

const menu = menuCreate()
menuAddItemWithShortcut(menu, "Save", "s", cb)
menuBarAddMenu(menuBar, "File", menu); menuBarAttach(menuBar)
widgetSetContextMenu(widget, menu)  // Context menu

const sheet = sheetCreate(body, w, h); sheetPresent(sheet); sheetDismiss(sheet)

Multi-window#

typescript

const win = Window("Title", 500, 400)
win.setBody(VStack(16, [...])); win.show(); win.hide(); win.close()

App properties: frameless level:"floating"|"statusBar"|"modal" transparent vibrancy activationPolicy:"accessory"

Animation#

typescript

widget.animateOpacity(target, durationSecs)
widget.animatePosition(dx, dy, durationSecs)

Cross-platform#

bash

perry app.ts -o app --target web|windows|linux|android|ios-simulator|...

__platform__: 0=macOS 1=iOS 2=Android 3=Windows 4=Linux 5=Web 6=tvOS 7=watchOS 8=visionOS, compile-time constant folding.

Terminal UI ( perry/tui)#

Ink-style, double-buffered ANSI diff, no Node/React.

typescript

import { Box, Text, useState, useInput, run, exit } from "perry/tui"

run(() => {
  const [n, setN] = useState(0)
  useInput((s: string) => { if (s === "+") setN(n+1); if (s === "q") exit() })
  return Box([Text("count: " + n)])
})

Widgets#

WidgetUsageBoxBox({ flexDirection, gap, padding, ... }, children) — Flexbox containerTextText(content, { color, bold, italic, underline, inverse, dimColor })SpacerSpacer()InputInput(value, cursorPos)TextAreaTextArea(value)ListList(items, selectedIndex?)SelectSelect(items, selectedIndex?)SpinnerSpinner(frame) / AnimatedSpinner({interval, frames})ProgressBarProgressBar(filled, total, width?)TableTable({ headers, rows, selected? })TabsTabs({ tabs, active, body })

Hooks#

useState(init) → [val, setter] | useEffect(fn, deps?) | useMemo(fn, deps) | useRef(init) → .get()/.set() | useApp() → {exit(), waitUntilExit()} | useStdout() → {columns(), rows(), write()} | useFocus(autoFocus, isActive) | useInput(handler) — raw byte callback

Differences from ink: useRef uses .get()/.set() not .current; Box uses function calls not JSX.

Standard Library#

Importing the following packages automatically routes to Rust native implementations, no configuration needed:

HTTP: fastify axios fetch ws node:http/ node:https/ node:http2 (includes WebSocket upgrade) Databases: mysql2 pg better-sqlite3 mongodb ioredis/ redis Crypto: bcrypt argon2 jsonwebtoken crypto ethers Utilities: lodash dayjs uuid nanoid slugify validator commander sharp cheerio nodemailer zlib cron lru-cache decimal.js Files: fs path child_process External: @perryts/tursodb @perryts/iroh @perryts/postgres @perryts/mysql @perryts/mongodb @perryts/redis

compilePackages (pure TS packages compiled natively): set {"perry":{"compilePackages":["pkg"]}} in package.json

Binary size: No stdlib ~300KB / fs+path ~3MB / UI ~3MB / full stdlib ~48MB

Project Configuration#

toml

# perry.toml (minimal)
[project]
name = "my-app"
entry = "src/main.ts"
[build]
out_dir = "dist"

Platform config: [macos] (bundle_id/category/minimum_os/distribute:"appstore"|"notarize"|"both") [ios] (deployment_target/device_family/distribute) [android] (package_name/min_sdk/target_sdk/permissions) [linux] (format:"appimage"|"deb"|"rpm")

Config precedence: CLI flags → environment variables → perry.toml → ~/.perry/config.toml

Type System#

Types erased at compile time. Type inference handles common patterns, --type-check integrates tsgo strict checking. Supports Partial<T> Pick<T,K> Record<K,V> Omit<T,K> ReturnType<T> Readonly<T>. Union/intersection type syntax recognized but does not affect code generation; runtime narrowing uses typeof.

Limitations#

• No eval()/new Function()/dynamic require()/await import()
• No Object.setPrototypeOf()/dynamic prototype mutation
• Decorators: compile-time transforms only + limited legacy compatibility (Reflect.defineMetadata/getMetadata), no Angular/NestJS/TypeORM full runtime support
• Proxy/WeakRef not fully implemented
• JSX parsed but _jsx runtime symbol not linked; use function call form

Decorator Migration#

Angular/NestJS/TypeORM → Remove decorators, use explicit construction:

typescript

// services.ts — single-file dependency wiring
export const api = new ApiService()
export const rating = new RatingService(api)
export const chat = new ChatService(api, rating)

Native Binding Architecture#

Four layers: User TS → Bindings (well-known table + node_modules) → perry-ffi (stable ABI) → perry-runtime

Writing bindings: perry native init → edit src/lib.rs (use perry_ffi types only) → perry native validate → npm publish

npm Package Porting#

compilePackages compiles pure TS/JS packages. Common fixes: reverse-lookahead regex → forward capture; Symbol → string sentinel; Proxy → not portable; WeakMap → replace with Map; computed property keys {[k]:v} → create empty object then assign.

Plugin System#

typescript

// Plugin (--output-type dylib)
export function activate(api: PluginApi) {
  api.setMetadata(name, ver, desc)
  api.registerHook("onRequest", (data) => data)
  api.registerTool("toolName", "desc", (args) => result)
}
export function deactivate() { /* cleanup */ }

// Host
import { loadPlugin, emitHook, invokeTool } from "perry/plugin"
loadPlugin("./plugin.dylib")
emitHook("hookName", data)
invokeTool("toolName", args)

Geisterhand (UI Testing)#

perry app.ts --enable-geisterhand && ./app → HTTP server on 127.0.0.1:7676

bash

GET  /health /widgets[?label=&type=] /screenshot → PNG /chaos/status
POST /click/:handle /type/:handle {"text":"..."} /slide/:handle {"value":0.75}
POST /toggle/:handle /key {"shortcut":"s"} /scroll/:handle {"x":0,"y":100}
POST /chaos/start {"interval_ms":200} /chaos/stop

Control types: 0=Button 1=TextField 2=Slider 3=Toggle 4=Picker 5=Menu 6=Shortcut

i18n#

toml

# perry.toml
[i18n]
locales = ["en", "de"]
default_locale = "en"

bash

perry i18n extract src/main.ts  # Generates locales/{en,de}.json

Compile-time validation + baked into binary, zero runtime overhead. t("Next") / t("Hello, {name}!", {name:"Alice"})

References#

• Website: https://perryts.com | Docs: https://docs.perryts.com/
• GitHub: https://github.com/PerryTS/perry | npm: https://www.npmjs.com/package/@perryts/perry