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Brix

Brix: Lightweight CLI tool that packages web apps into standalone Windows executables using native WebView2.

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🚀 Overview

Brix is a high-performance CLI designed to transform modern web projects into lightweight, standalone Windows applications. By leveraging the native WebView2 runtime, Brix eliminates the overhead of Electron while providing a professional, branded host for your code.

Features include:

  • Custom protocol asset serving
  • Embedded backend support
  • SHA-256 verification
  • Installer generation

🪟 Platform

Brix is a Windows-only runtime — the native host is built on the system WebView2 engine and Win32 APIs, and the crate refuses to compile on any other OS (#![cfg(not(windows))] compile_error!). This is a deliberate stance, not a gap:

  • Build from anywhere. The brix CLI is plain Node, and Brix ships a prebuilt stub.exe, so you can produce Windows .exe files from Windows, macOS, or Linux CI — only the resulting app runs on Windows.
  • Run on Windows 10/11. The evergreen WebView2 runtime is already present on consumer Windows; for offline/locked-down machines pin it with webview2.fixedRuntimePath.

📁 File Directories & Project Information

When using Brix, your app's structure revolves around a .brix configuration file. After building, the compiled executable lands in a designated output folder.

Runtime files

Location Contents
%LOCALAPPDATA%\brix_<name> WebView2 user data, backend.log + backend-error.log (sidecar output)
%LOCALAPPDATA%\brix\brix-crash.log Startup failures (also logged with --verbose)
%TEMP%\brix_<name> Server-mode extraction + backend working directory
next to the exe nothing — works when installed to read-only locations like Program Files

🛠️ Quick Start

Just two commands — Brix stages, bundles, brands, and stitches everything for you.

1. Install (once)

npm install -g brixpackager

2. Build

From anywhere, point Brix at your project (the folder containing .brix — or pass the .brix file directly):

brixpack build my-project

Your branded, standalone .exe lands in my-project\Brix_Works\ — your source folder stays completely untouched (no staging folders, no stray files).

Command What it does
brixpack init [project] Scan a project and write a .brix config.
brixpack build [project] Bundle project into a standalone exe.
brixpack build [project] --out <dir> Write the exe to <dir>.
brixpack build [project] --list Dry run: print every file that would be bundled.
brixpack init installer [project] Interactive wizard: pick an installer type.
brixpack make [zip|inno|nsis|msi] Build the installer.

💡 Both brixpack and brix command names work.


📘 Documentation & References

Explore the full potential of Brix, including window customization and deep framework integration.


💎 Built by HaadiAli

Brix is created by a solo developer, HaadiAli, building this for fun and optimized for the modern web.

GitHub · NPM Registry

© 2026 HaadiAli (https://github.com/haadiali242)

About

Brix is a high-performance CLI designed to transform modern web projects into lightweight, standalone Windows applications. By leveraging the native WebView2 runtime, Brix eliminates the overhead of Electron while providing a professional, branded host for your code.

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