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README.md

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Makepad

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Makepad is an AI-accelerated application development environment for Rust. It combines a high-performance UI runtime, a live-editable design language, and a fast iteration loop so you can build native and web apps with a tight feedback cycle.

This repository contains the core engine, widgets, tools, and examples.

What Makepad Is

  • A cross-platform UI runtime for native and web targets.
  • A Rust-first framework with a scriptable UI DSL.
  • A studio app for running, inspecting, and iterating on examples and projects.
  • An AI-accelerated workflow: structure and tooling aimed at making code generation, refactoring, and iteration faster and safer.

Features

  • Streaming Splash: fast, animated, streaming UI example.
  • Script Engine: live-editable UI DSL and runtime script integration.
  • 3D Rendering: glTF example with GPU rendering.
  • Maps: built-in map rendering with downloadable tiles.
  • Voice Analysis: built-in voice support with Whisper model downloads.
  • GPU-accelerated 2D and 3D rendering.
  • AI automation inside Studio to control and inspect UI.

Prerequisites

  • Rust toolchain (stable works for native).
  • For non-standard targets (iOS, tvOS, Android, wasm), install the Makepad build tool:
bash
cargo install --path=./tools/cargo_makepad

Then install target toolchains as needed:

bash
cargo makepad wasm install-toolchain
cargo makepad apple ios install-toolchain
cargo makepad apple tvos install-toolchain
cargo makepad android --abi=all install-toolchain

Linux Dependencies

Linux build/runtime dependencies are listed in ./tools/linux_deps.sh: Use the apt-get command below, or run the script on Ubuntu/WSL2:

bash
sudo apt-get update && sudo apt-get install -y --no-install-recommends build-essential pkg-config clang ca-certificates libssl-dev libx11-dev libxcursor-dev libxkbcommon-dev libxrandr-dev libxi-dev libxinerama-dev libasound2-dev libpulse-dev libwayland-dev wayland-protocols libegl1-mesa-dev libgl1-mesa-dev libgles2-mesa-dev libglx-dev libdrm-dev libgbm-dev libgl1-mesa-dri mesa-vulkan-drivers mesa-utils mesa-utils-extra x11-apps

Build And Run Makepad Studio

Makepad Studio is the main entry point for exploring examples and iterating on UI.

bash
cargo run -p makepad-studio --release

If you want a local install (note: may lag the repo):

bash
cargo install makepad-studio

Examples

Run a few representative apps directly from the repo:

bash
# Splash (simple animated demo)
cargo run -p makepad-example-splash --release

# 3D rendering (glTF)
cargo run -p makepad-example-gltf --release

# Maps
cargo run -p makepad-example-map --release

Maps And Voice Assets

For built-in maps and voice support, download the assets first:

bash
./download_map.sh
./download_voice.sh

Run A WASM App

  1. Install toolchain:
bash
cargo makepad wasm install-toolchain
  1. Run an example:
bash
cargo makepad wasm run -p makepad-example-splash --release

For smaller shipped wasm output, use the shipping-size optimization pass. It keeps the post-link size reduction behavior and pairs well with the existing small profile:

bash
cargo makepad wasm build -p makepad-example-splash --profile=small --strip

To split the wasm payloads, add --split. Bare --split uses an automatic cold-first policy: it first moves defer-safe cold functions into a secondary wasm so startup can begin on the primary first, and if there are no useful cold candidates it falls back to the normal function split. To override the function-splitting threshold directly:

bash
cargo makepad wasm build -p makepad-example-splash --release --strip --split=200

For maximum size reduction, combine --wasm-opt (Binaryen IR optimization) and --brotli (compression). Install Binaryen for --wasm-opt (e.g. brew install binaryen or apt install binaryen):

bash
cargo makepad wasm build -p makepad-example-splash --release --wasm-opt --strip --split --brotli

Notes:

  • --strip strips custom sections (names, producers, etc.) for smaller binaries.
  • --strip-custom-sections preserves the old behavior when you only want to remove custom sections.
  • --wasm-opt runs Binaryen wasm-opt -Os for IR-level optimization (optional; requires Binaryen).
  • --brotli compresses .wasm and assets with Brotli for delivery.
  • --profile=small uses smaller fonts and pairs well with --strip.
  • --no-threads trims the web thread bridge and thread exports when threading is disabled.
  • The wasm linker packs relocations before the post-link size and split passes.
  • --split emits a primary wasm plus secondary payloads (.secondary.wasm, .data.bin) and implies function splitting.
  • Bare --split uses an automatic cold-first split policy.
  • Auto mode defers the secondary when it finds defer-safe cold functions, otherwise falls back to the normal startup-path split.
  • --split=200 switches to an explicit function-body threshold (bytes).
  1. Open:
text
http://127.0.0.1:8010

Run An Android App

Plug in a device with developer mode enabled, then:

  1. Install toolchain:
bash
cargo run -p cargo-makepad --release -- android --target=all toolchain-install
  1. Run an example:
bash
cargo run -p cargo-makepad --release -- android run -p makepad-example-ironfish

Notes

  • Studio uses cargo-makepad internally for non-standard targets.