FAQ

Do I need to know Rust?

No. The native host is prebuilt and downloaded by @tynd/host’s postinstall — tynd-full / tynd-lite binaries ship as GitHub Releases. You write only TypeScript.

Why Bun, not Node?

Tynd is Bun-first — the CLI, bundler, dev server, and full runtime all run on Bun. Reasons:

• Fast: Bun’s bundler is ~10× faster than Node + esbuild for the typical backend bundle.
• Pure Bun primitives: Bun.file, Bun.hash.wyhash drop dozens of polyfill dependencies from the CLI.
• Bun is a single binary we can pack into full binaries with zstd compression.

Your app’s users don’t need Bun — the runtime is packed into the distributed binary.

Can I use Node instead of Bun?

Not currently. Could the CLI run under Node? Probably, with porting work. Is it on the roadmap? No. Tynd embraces Bun-first defaults.

Why two runtimes?

• lite — ~6.5 MB binary. QuickJS + Web standards + all 26 Tynd OS APIs. Perfect for the 80 % of desktop apps that don’t need the full Node/Bun surface.
• full — ~44 MB binary. Bun subprocess + JIT + full npm ecosystem (including native bindings). Use when you need sharp, better-sqlite3, a CPU-bound JS hot path, or a full Intl.*.

One-line switch in tynd.config.ts. Same source code runs on both.

Does Tynd support mobile (iOS / Android)?

No. Desktop only. If you need mobile, look at Tauri v2 (its big differentiator).

What’s the binary size?

Your frontend + backend + sidecars add to this. The Bun binary in full is zstd-compressed inside TYNDPKG, extracted on first launch.

Is it production ready?

Phase-1 features (OS APIs, IPC, streaming RPC, TYNDPKG, installers, signing, updater) are solid and tested — see Production Checklist. Some advanced surfaces (mobile, cross-compile, macOS .app auto-updater install, capability ACLs) aren’t implemented. See the vs Tauri/Electron matrix for specifics.

What’s the license?

Apache-2.0. Ship commercial apps, modify the source, no royalties.

Can I use my existing frontend?

If it builds to a pure SPA, yes. Run tynd init in the project. Compatible: Vite + React / Vue / Svelte / Solid / Preact / Lit / Angular, CRA, Parcel, Rsbuild, Webpack. Blocked: SSR frameworks (Next.js, Nuxt, SvelteKit, Remix, Gatsby, SolidStart, Astro, Qwik City, …). Use the SPA variant.

How does Tynd compare to Tauri?

Same IPC stack (wry + tao). Different backend language — TypeScript vs Rust. Smaller binary option (lite). No mobile, no capability ACLs, no 30-plugin ecosystem. Full detail: vs Tauri.

How does it compare to Electron?

~25× smaller binary. Native WebView, not bundled Chromium. Zero-codegen typed RPC out of the box. No desktopCapturer, no printToPDF, no Chrome extensions — those are Chromium-bundled features. Full detail: vs Electron.

How do I sign my app?

Declare bundle.sign in tynd.config.ts. Windows uses signtool, macOS uses codesign + optional notarytool. See the Code Signing guide.

How does auto-update work?

Ed25519-signed manifests (Tauri-compatible format). Tynd ships tynd keygen / tynd sign — no third-party signing tool needed. The public key is baked into your app; a compromised manifest server can’t serve an unverifiable binary. See the Auto-Updates guide.

Can I bundle a native binary (ffmpeg, etc.)?

Yes — sidecars in tynd.config.ts. See Sidecars guide and the Embed a Sidecar recipe.

Does it work offline?

Yes — the WebView serves your frontend from the tynd:// custom scheme (no network required). Your app’s logic can still call fetch / http.get for online features when connectivity is available.

How do I store secrets?

Use keyring — OS Keychain / Credential Manager / Secret Service. Never put tokens / passwords / session cookies in store (plain JSON on disk).

Can I open DevTools in production?

No. DevTools are compiled out of release builds. Use tynd dev or build debug artifacts for troubleshooting on your own machine.

How do I debug on a user’s machine?

Ship a “Export diagnostics” feature: output of os.info(), app.getVersion(), recent logs from a file sink. See the Debugging guide.

Can I cross-compile (build Windows from Linux)?

No. tynd build targets the host OS only. Use a GitHub Actions matrix with windows-latest + macos-latest + ubuntu-latest runners.

Does the IPC touch the network?

No. tynd:// + tynd-bin:// are native custom schemes — no TCP, no loopback port, no firewall prompt. See IPC model.

How do I test my app?

bun test for unit tests. Mock OS APIs at the module boundary. Smoke-test the built binary in CI (spawn, wait 2 s, expect no crash). No Playwright / WebdriverIO support — tynd:// isn’t a browser-reachable URL. See Testing guide.

Can I use server-sent events / WebSockets?

Yes — both work. EventSource is built on fetch streaming (both runtimes). WebSocket is available as the Web standard (new WebSocket(url)) and as the richer Tynd API (websocket.connect).

My lite app complains about Buffer / process.*

You imported a npm lib that uses Node globals. Options:

1. Find a browser-compatible alternative. See Alternatives .
2. Polyfill Buffer (the buffer npm package is ~5 KB).
3. Switch to full runtime.

How do I deploy the docs themselves?

docs/ is a Next.js + Nextra site. Build with bun run build, static-export to Cloudflare Workers. CI is already wired: a GitHub Actions workflow deploys docs after every release. See the repo’s .github/workflows/deploy-docs.yml.

Where do I report bugs?

GitHub Issues . Include the output of tynd info --verbose and tynd validate.

Where do I ask questions?

GitHub Discussions .

Can I contribute?

Yes — see CONTRIBUTING.md  in the repo. The monorepo is hybrid Bun + Cargo; contributions to both sides welcome.