Elit.js is a TypeScript toolkit for building browser UIs, dev servers, SSR pages, tests, desktop WebView apps, and small file-backed backends. It ships as independently versioned @elitjs/* packages — install only what you import.

npm create elit@latest my-app
cd my-app
npm install
npm run dev

Other package managers: yarn create elit, pnpm create elit, bun create elit, deno run -A npm:create-elit.

Manual (pick only what you need):

npm install @elitjs/core @elitjs/el @elitjs/dom @elitjs/state

For native desktop mode, install Cargo.

Lower-level adapters: @elitjs/http, @elitjs/https, @elitjs/ws, @elitjs/wss, @elitjs/fs, @elitjs/path, @elitjs/mime-types, @elitjs/chokidar, @elitjs/runtime.

import { div, h1, button } from '@elitjs/el';
import { createState, reactive } from '@elitjs/state';
import { render } from '@elitjs/dom';

const count = createState(0);

const app = div(
  { className: 'app' },
  h1('Hello Elit.js'),
  reactive(count, (value) =>
    button({ onclick: () => count.value++ }, `Count: ${value}`),
  ),
);

render('#app', app);

Run with npx elit dev. Build with npx elit build --entry ./src/main.ts --out-dir dist.

import { ServerRouter, cors, logger } from '@elitjs/server';

export const api = new ServerRouter();
api.use(cors());
api.use(logger());

api.get('/api/hello', async (ctx) => {
  ctx.res.json({ message: 'Hello from Elit.js' });
});

ServerRouter accepts async (ctx) => ... or async (req, res) => ... handlers and use(middleware) / use('/prefix', middleware). For programmatic dev server, WebSocket endpoints, SSR, and shared server/client state, see the examples/correct-config reference.

The CLI is published as the elit bin from @elitjs/cli:

npx elit dev                                 # dev server
npx elit build --entry ./src/main.ts         # production bundle
npx elit preview                             # preview built output
npx elit test                                # test runner

npx elit desktop ./src/main.ts               # desktop (hybrid or native)
npx elit mobile init && npx elit mobile run android
npx elit native generate android ./src/screen.ts --name HomeScreen

npx elit pm start --script "npm start" --name my-app
npx elit wapk pack . && npx elit wapk run ./app.wapk

Run npx elit <command> --help for the full flag list (desktop runtimes, mobile targets, WAPK locking, PM health checks, native CSS subset).

Elit loads elit.config.{ts,mts,js,mjs,cjs,json} from the project root. Keys: dev, build (single or array), preview, test, pm, mobile, desktop, wapk. See examples/correct-config for a minimal full-stack setup.

Only VITE_-prefixed env variables are injected into client bundles. Env load order: .env.{mode}.local, .env.{mode}, .env.local, .env.

• Browser code imports @elitjs/* packages directly — environment boundaries are explicit in the import path.
• Desktop APIs only exist inside the elit desktop runtime, not in plain browsers.
• The internal HMR / shared-state socket uses /__elit_ws; don't reuse that path.
• When copying index.html into builds, point it at the built JS (e.g. /main.js), not the dev-only /src/*.ts path.

• CHANGELOG.md — release notes
• examples/ — runnable samples: correct-config, universal-app-example, android-native-example, desktop-typescript-example/, wapk-example