macOS

Vue Native supports building native macOS desktop applications using AppKit. Your Vue.js components render as real native macOS controls — not web views.

Requirements

macOS 15 (Sequoia) or later
Xcode 16+
Swift 6.0+ toolchain

How It Works

Vue Native on macOS uses the same architecture as iOS:

Your Vue 3 components are compiled to an IIFE JavaScript bundle
JavaScriptCore (built into macOS) runs your Vue app
The Vue custom renderer translates virtual DOM operations into native AppKit view operations
A flexbox layout engine positions your views

Quick Start

vue-native create scaffolds a complete macOS host (macos/project.yml plus macos/Sources/), so the whole flow is three commands:

vue-native create my-mac-app
cd my-mac-app
bun install

# watch mode: rebuilds the bundle and pushes it over WebSocket
vue-native dev --platform macos

# generates macos/*.xcodeproj with XcodeGen, then builds and launches the .app
vue-native run macos

XcodeGen is a hard prerequisite (brew install xcodegen): macos/project.yml is the committed source of truth and the generated .xcodeproj is gitignored.

See macOS Setup for the generated host file by file, hot reload, and debugging.

Key Differences from iOS

Aspect	iOS	macOS
Framework	UIKit	AppKit
Entry Point	`VueNativeViewController`	`VueNativeWindowController`
Layout Engine	FlexLayout (Yoga)	LayoutNode (custom flexbox)
Coordinate System	Top-left origin	Top-left via `FlippedView`
Controls	Touch-based	Mouse/keyboard

macOS-Only Components

VToolbar — Native window toolbar
VSplitView — Split pane layout
VOutlineView — Tree view

macOS-Only Composables

useWindow — Window management
useMenu — App and context menus
useFileDialog — File open/save dialogs
useDragDrop — Drag and drop

No-Op Components on macOS

These components exist for cross-platform compatibility but are no-ops on macOS:

VStatusBar — macOS has no app status bar
VKeyboardAvoiding — Desktop keyboards don't cover content
VRefreshControl — No pull-to-refresh on desktop