API

nsh/desktop

nsh/desktop holds what only desktops have: the window and its title bar, the application menu and context menus. It works on macOS, Windows and Linux. Rust code draws a title bar of its own and closes the window with nsh_core::ui::desktop (set_title_bar, title_bar, close_window) and marks draggable views with .window_drag(true); TSX imports nsh/desktop, which holds the window’s other functions and the menus too. The module can be imported on every platform, so one bundle runs everywhere: on iOS and Android its functions do nothing, and isAvailable tells you whether you are on a desktop.

use nsh_core::{
    desktop::TitleBarStyle,
    ui::{
        desktop::{close_window, set_title_bar, title_bar},
        prelude::*,
    },
};

#isAvailable

const isAvailable: boolean;

true on macOS, Windows and Linux; false elsewhere. Rust: os().is_desktop().

#Window

const Window: {
  setTitle(title: string): void;
  setTitleBar(style: "default" | "hidden", height?: number): void;
  minimize(): void;
  toggleMaximize(): void;
  toggleFullScreen(): void;
  setFrame(frame: {
    origin?: Partial<Point>;
    size?: Partial<Size>;
    animated?: boolean;
    anchorTop?: boolean;
  }): void;
  setLevel(level: "normal" | "floating" | "desktopIcon"): void;
  orderFront(): void;
  close(): void;
};

The Rust column names the functions of nsh_core::ui::desktop.

MemberRustDescription
setTitle(title)The window’s title: the title bar, the taskbar or Dock, the window switcher.
setTitleBar(style, height?)set_title_bar(TitleBarStyle::Hidden, Some(px(height)))"hidden" removes the system’s title bar: the app fills the window up to its top edge and draws a title bar of its own. The system’s window controls stay (macOS’s traffic lights, Windows’ minimize / maximize / close buttons, GTK’s window buttons). height is your bar’s height in points: the controls are centered in it (Windows’ caption buttons fill it; on macOS height selects compact chrome up to 44 points and regular chrome above; size your bar using the actual height from titleBar().height, and AppKit places the traffic lights during live resizing. An embedding app’s existing toolbar keeps its own style and height); without it they take the platform’s height. "default" brings the system’s title bar back (Rust: set_title_bar(TitleBarStyle::Default, None)).
minimize()Minimizes the window.
toggleMaximize()Maximizes the window, or restores it when it is maximized.
toggleFullScreen()Enters or leaves full screen.
setFrame(frame)Moves and sizes the window in points; omitted fields keep their values. On macOS and Windows, size (width, height) includes window decorations; on Linux it sets GTK’s default window size. origin (x, y) is the bottom left corner in macOS screen coordinates and the top left on Windows. animated: true enables macOS’s resize animation (default: false). anchorTop: true keeps the top edge where it is when height changes without a y: the window grows and shrinks at its bottom edge.
setLevel(level)On macOS and Windows, "floating" keeps the window above normal windows and "normal" restores the normal level. "desktopIcon" selects macOS’s desktop icon level (the window also sits on every space, out of Mission Control and Cmd+`); on Windows it moves the window to the bottom of the current z-order, where later activation can raise it.
orderFront()Brings the window to the front of its level and focuses it (the app activates; macOS deminiaturizes, Windows restores minimized windows and sets foreground, GTK presents). The window keeps its level. On macOS, desktop-level surfaces stay behind other windows. GPUI activates its window; the window manager controls foreground requests on Linux.
close()close_window()Closes the window; the app ends with it.

Window sizing is supported on macOS, Windows and Linux; positioning and levels on macOS and Windows. Linux’s window manager controls placement and stacking. GPUI’s host configures window bounds and level when opening the window.

When sizing a window from content measured with onLayout, allow room for window decorations on macOS and Windows. width and height accept positive finite numbers; x and y accept finite numbers. Invalid fields keep their previous values.

#A title bar of your own

With the title bar hidden, the app draws its own bar and says which parts of it move the window, with .window_drag(true) in Rust and desktop={{ windowDrag: true }} in TSX:

use nsh_core::{
    desktop::TitleBarStyle,
    ui::{
        desktop::{set_title_bar, title_bar},
        prelude::*,
    },
};

#[component]
fn TitleBar() -> impl IntoElement {
    set_title_bar(TitleBarStyle::Hidden, Some(px(40.0))); // a bar 40 points tall
    view()
        .window_drag(true)
        .h(move || match title_bar().top {
            top if top > px(0.0) => top,
            _ => px(40.0),
        })
        .pl(move || title_bar().left + px(8.0)) // macOS's traffic lights
        .pr(move || title_bar().right + px(8.0)) // the caption buttons on Windows, GTK's buttons
        .flex_row()
        .items_center()
        .child(text("My App"))
        .child(view().flex_1())
        .child(input().placeholder("Search").w(px(180.0)))
}

Pressing a view with windowDrag drags the window as the system’s title bar would: a double click maximizes it (or does what the user set: on macOS, “Double-click a window’s title bar to”), and on Windows and Linux a right click opens the window menu.

  • The nearest view that sets windowDrag decides: .window_drag(false) (desktop={{ windowDrag: false }}) keeps a part of a draggable view clickable.
  • Text fields and views with press or touch handlers (onPress, onTouch*, responders) inside a draggable view stay clickable without it: the search field and any buttons in the example above work as usual.
  • windowDrag also works with the system’s title bar: a sidebar or toolbar can move the window too.

#titleBar

const titleBar: Accessor<{ height: number; left: number; right: number }>;

The hidden title bar’s area, in points (reactive): its height, and the widths the system’s window controls take at its left and right ends. Lay your bar out with it so that nothing goes under the controls. All three are 0 while the system shows its title bar (and in full screen, and off desktops). Rust: title_bar() -> Edges<Points>, whose top is the height and left and right the controls’ widths; reading it subscribes to changes.

heightleftright
macOSheight, else the title bar’s (28 or 32, by macOS version)The traffic lights’ width0
Windowsheight, else 320The three caption buttons (138)
Linuxheight, else the header bar’sThe window buttons at the start (the desktop’s button layout)The window buttons at the end

On Windows the caption buttons are drawn by NSH in Windows 11’s style and follow the app’s appearance; hovering the maximize button shows Windows 11’s snap layouts. The window keeps its resize borders, shadow and rounded corners on every platform.

const Menu: {
  setApplicationMenu(items: MenuItem[] | null): void;
  popup(items: MenuItem[], at?: Point): Promise<void>;
};
MemberDescription
setApplicationMenu(items)Sets the application menu: one submenu per top-level item (File, Edit, …). On macOS it is the menu bar, whose first menu is the app menu (AppKit titles it with the app’s name). On Windows and Linux it is the window’s menu bar, which is not shown while the title bar is hidden; its shortcuts still work, and a title bar of the app’s own can open its menus with Menu.popup. null restores the platform’s default menu.
popup(items, at?)Shows a context menu with its top left corner at at (the window’s coordinates, in points: an onContextMenu’s e.pagePosition), or at the pointer. The promise resolves once the menu closes, whether an item was chosen or not: a button that opened it can stay pressed until then.

Call setApplicationMenu again to change the menu. Inside an effect it follows the signals it reads: a check mark or a disabled state that depends on app state stays current.

type MenuItem =
  | { type: "separator" }
  | {
      label?: string;
      role?: MenuRole;
      shortcut?: string;
      disabled?: boolean;
      checked?: boolean;
      onSelect?: () => void;
      submenu?: MenuItem[];
    };
FieldDescription
labelWhat the item shows. A role’s item has a label of its own without it.
onSelectCalled when the item is chosen, by a click or its shortcut.
shortcutIts keyboard shortcut: modifiers and one key joined by +, such as "mod+n", "mod+shift+z", "alt+f4" or "f11". The modifiers are in the table below. Keys are letters, digits and punctuation, written as the character the key types on a US keyboard without Shift (,, /; "shift+/" for ?), or a name: plus (the = / + key, also =), minus (also -), space, enter (return), escape (esc), tab, backspace, delete (del), insert, the arrows up, down, left, right (arrowup, …), home, end, pageup, pagedown, f1–f24. Case does not matter ("Mod+Shift+N" is "mod+shift+n"; a capital letter is the same key, not Shift), and lowercase is the recommended style. An invalid shortcut ("mod-n", "mod++", "mod+?") throws an error that gives the right spelling. nsh/keymap takes the same keystrokes. Menus show it in the platform’s own style (⇧⌘N on macOS, Ctrl+Shift+N on Windows).
disabledtrue grays the item out (default false).
checkedSet (to true or false) for an item with a check mark.
submenuMakes the item a submenu (it needs a label).
roleA standard item the platform carries out (below).

null, undefined and false items are left out, so cond && { … } works in a list.

Modifiers:

ModifiermacOSWindowsLinux
mod (also cmdorctrl)Command (⌘)CtrlCtrl
cmd (also command, meta, super, win)Command (⌘)Windows keySuper
ctrl (also control)Control (⌃)CtrlCtrl
alt (also option, opt)Option (⌥)AltAlt
shiftShift (⇧)ShiftShift

Use mod for an app’s own shortcuts: it is the key each platform’s apps use for them (⌘N on macOS, Ctrl+N on Windows and Linux), so one spelling fits everywhere. The Windows key and Super mostly belong to the system (Win+E, the GNOME overview), so cmd is rarely right outside macOS.

Roles:

RoleDoesPlatforms
about, hide, hideOthers, showAllThe app menu’s standard itemsmacOS (left out elsewhere)
quitQuits the appAll
undo, redo, cut, copy, paste, selectAllEdit the focused text field (its own shortcuts stay its own)All
minimize, zoom, toggleFullScreen, closeThe windowAll

A role’s item has the platform’s label and shortcut unless it sets its own (macOS adds the app’s name to about, hide and quit).

Menu shortcuts come first, as in native apps: a key an item takes never reaches the focused text field or NSH’s own keys. Only a binding of nsh/keymap of the same keystroke comes before them. So give the editing shortcuts (mod+c, mod+v, mod+x, mod+a, mod+z) only to the edit roles, which pass them to the text field, and avoid keys without a modifier (escape, the arrows, letters), which would take them from text fields and from back navigation.

import { effect, signal } from "nsh";
import { platform } from "nsh/device";
import { Menu } from "nsh/desktop";

const mac = platform.os === "macos";
const wrap = signal(true);

effect(() => {
  Menu.setApplicationMenu([
    mac && {
      label: "My App",
      submenu: [{ role: "about" }, { type: "separator" }, { role: "hide" }, { role: "hideOthers" }, { type: "separator" }, { role: "quit" }],
    },
    {
      label: "File",
      submenu: [
        { label: "New", shortcut: "mod+n", onSelect: () => createDocument() },
        { label: "Open…", shortcut: "mod+o", onSelect: () => openDocument() },
        !mac && { type: "separator" },
        !mac && { role: "quit", label: "Exit" },
      ],
    },
    {
      label: "Edit",
      submenu: [{ role: "undo" }, { role: "redo" }, { type: "separator" }, { role: "cut" }, { role: "copy" }, { role: "paste" }],
    },
    {
      label: "View",
      submenu: [
        { label: "Word Wrap", checked: wrap(), onSelect: () => wrap.update((w) => !w) },
        { role: "toggleFullScreen" },
      ],
    },
  ]);
});

A context menu, from a button’s press:

<View
  onPress={() =>
    Menu.popup([
      { label: "Rename", onSelect: rename },
      { label: "Duplicate", onSelect: duplicate },
      { type: "separator" },
      { label: "Delete", onSelect: remove },
    ])
  }
>
  <Text>More</Text>
</View>