Kanvas

Kanvas is a Gradle plugin and native rendering runtime for Kotlin/JVM desktop applications. The goal is to leave application code and Compose UI intact while replacing the final rendering path underneath it.

Kotlin / Compose
      │
      ▼
org.yurie.kanvas
      │
      ├─ runtime provisioning
      ├─ JVM / Skiko instrumentation
      ├─ frame capture + takeover
      ▼
native C / JNI runtime
      │
      ├─ Metal
      ├─ Vulkan
      ├─ OpenGL
      └─ Direct3D 9

Pre-release

Kanvas 0.1.x is pre-1.0. The architecture is functional, but rendering parity and hardware verification are still being expanded.

Browse Kanvas docsTechnical internals

Fast path

plugins {
    id("org.yurie.kanvas") version "0.1.0"
}

kanvas {
    target = ":desktop"
    backend = "auto"
}

Then:

./gradlew kanvasDoctor
./gradlew kanvasRun

Why a Gradle plugin?

The renderer needs information and control from both sides of the application boundary: build/runtime artifacts before launch and JVM/native integration during launch. A Gradle plugin gives Kanvas a project-level integration point without requiring the app's UI code to be rewritten around a Kanvas-specific framework.

See the implementation.