Desktop Applications

Build cross-platform desktop applications with ColdBox and the BoxLang Desktop runtime.

ColdBox applications can run as fully functional desktop apps through the BoxLang Desktop runtime — same handlers, models, and views you already know, packaged for Windows, macOS, and Linux.

🚀 BoxLang only.

📖 Runtime documentation: BoxLang Desktop Applications

Quick Start

Use the official starter template:

# Create a new desktop app from the template
coldbox create app name=myDesktopApp skeleton=https://github.com/coldbox-templates/boxlang-desktop

The boxlang-desktop template wires the BoxLang runtime, an embedded webview, and the build pipeline for packaging installers.

How It Works

A BoxLang Desktop app is a ColdBox app served by the embedded runtime, rendered in a native webview window:

• Your ColdBox app runs locally — no external server needed

• Views render in a system webview (your existing HTML/CSS/JS works)

• BoxLang gives you OS-level access (filesystem, dialogs, menus) from the same codebase

• Package installers per platform with the template's build scripts

When to Use It

• Internal tools that need offline capability

• Kiosk or point-of-sale applications

• Cross-platform utilities where a JVM is acceptable but a browser tab isn't

• Reusing an existing ColdBox codebase on the desktop

See Also

• Application Templates

• Deployment

• BoxLang Desktop docs