Positron

Build cross-platform desktop apps with React and Python

Positron is an Electron-like framework that lets you create desktop applications using React for the UI and Python for the backend. It uses real browser engines (WebView2/WebKit) to render your React apps natively.

from positron import App, BrowserWindow

app = App()

def create_window():
    win = BrowserWindow({'width': 800, 'height': 600})
    win.load_url('http://localhost:5173')

app.when_ready(create_window)
app.run()

Features

• Familiar API: If you know Electron, you know Positron
• React Support: Full support for modern React with Vite
• Python Backend: Access to the entire Python ecosystem
• IPC Communication: Bidirectional messaging between React and Python
• Native Windows: Real native window management with Tkinter
• Cross-Platform: Works on Windows, macOS, and Linux

Why Positron?

Use Python Instead of Node.js

• Leverage Python's rich ecosystem (AI/ML, data science, automation)
• Write backend logic in Python instead of JavaScript
• Access native system APIs through Python

Electron-like Developer Experience

• Same API structure as Electron
• Hot reload during development
• Familiar project structure

Lightweight Alternative

• Uses system webview instead of bundled Chromium
• Smaller bundle sizes
• Lower memory footprint

Comparison with Electron

Supported Technologies

Frontend (via pywebview)

• ✅ Full React support - Modern React with hooks, ES modules, everything!
• ✅ HTML5 / CSS3
• ✅ Modern JavaScript (ES6+)
• ✅ Any modern web framework (Vue, Angular, Svelte)
• ✅ WebView2 (Windows), WebKit (macOS), GTK WebKit (Linux)

Backend (Python)

• ✅ Any Python library
• ✅ Machine Learning (TensorFlow, PyTorch)
• ✅ Data Science (NumPy, Pandas)
• ✅ Web Scraping (Requests, BeautifulSoup)
• ✅ Automation (Selenium, PyAutoGUI)
• ✅ Database (SQLite, PostgreSQL, MongoDB)

Roadmap

• Core architecture (Main + Renderer processes)
• BrowserWindow API
• App lifecycle management
• IPC communication
• React/Vite integration
• Menu API
• Dialog API
• Tray API
• Notifications
• Auto-updater
• Application packaging
• More examples

License

MIT License - see LICENSE file for details

Credits

Built on top of:

• pywebview - Cross-platform webview wrapper
• Inspired by Electron