Gooey: GPU-accelerated UI framework for Zig targets Metal, Vulkan, and WebGPU

Gooey is an early-stage UI framework for Zig that renders through native GPU APIs: Metal on macOS, Vulkan on Linux/Wayland, and WebGPU in the browser via WASM (the WASM backend is currently blocked on upstream Zig 0.16 work). It ships with declarative, flexbox-style layout primitives, a state/handler separation pattern via a Cx context object, retained widgets like TextInput and Checkbox, animations, drag-and-drop, custom Metal/GLSL shaders, IME, and screen-reader accessibility hooks.

The project leans on zero external Zig package dependencies, linking only to system libraries such as CoreText, FreeType, HarfBuzz, and Fontconfig. Notable platform-specific features include macOS 26 Tahoe’s Liquid Glass transparent window effects and native file dialogs across all targets. The repo includes a sizable demo set, from a Pomodoro timer and code editor with syntax highlighting to virtualized lists and tables handling 10,000 rows.

The API is explicitly described as evolving, and the included todo example shows the intended pattern: pure, UI-free state structs driven by handlers, with widget bindings flowing one direction and commands reaching back into framework state when needed. A companion app, chat-zig, exercises the framework as an Anthropic Claude client built on Zig 0.16’s new std.Io async stack.