Run GUIs as Scripts
Hi there, Zero Stars here. I recently published some new work to Hokusai Pocket, which is a cross-platform binary made on top of raylib and MRuby that runs GUIs from ruby scripts. License? MIT! How does it work? The binary is available on the GitHub releases page: https://github.com/skinnyjames/hokusai-pocket/releases/tag/0... You can download the binary on x86 Windows, OSX, or Linux, and run your GUI application with hokusai-pocket run:target="" For a little bit of a hello world, I started a photoshop clone…
In plain words
Hokusai Pocket is a cross-platform binary that enables developers to build and run graphical user interfaces using Ruby scripts. Built on raylib and MRuby, it works on Windows, macOS, and Linux. Users write GUI applications in Ruby and execute them with a simple command-line interface. The tool is open-source under the MIT license, with binaries available on GitHub and documentation in development.
written from the facts on this page · September 2026
From the sources
In the maker’s words, at launch
Hi there, Zero Stars here. I recently published some new work to Hokusai Pocket, which is a cross-platform binary made on top of raylib and MRuby that runs GUIs from ruby scripts. License? MIT! How does it work? The binary is available on the GitHub releases page: https://github.com/skinnyjames/hokusai-pocket/releases/tag/0... You can download the binary on x86 Windows, OSX, or Linux, and run your GUI application with hokusai-pocket run:target="<your_hokusai_app.rb>" For a little bit of a hello world, I started a photoshop clone https://github.com/skinnyjames/hokusai_demo_paint Also a little game https://github.com/skinnyjames/pocket-squares Docs / Help? The docs are in progress, but the old docs for the CRuby version express some of the basic ideas around the project. https://hokusai.skinnyjames.net/docs/intro (I'm also available to answer questions in between slinging pizza) Deps? Hokusai pocket currently uses * libuv for offloading cpu intensive tasks to a worker pool to prevent blocking the UI thread, and I plan to integrate some libuv networking as well. * raylib for backend graphics / I've also built with SDL on arm64 to run applications on my pinephone * NativeFileDialog for the lovely integration into filesystem. * MRuby for running or embedding the scripts * tree-sitter for the custom template grammar (Although templates can be built with ruby) Anyway, I hope you get a chance to try it. If you make something cool AND have docker installed, you can also publish your work as single binary `hokusai-pocket publish:target=<your cool program.rb>` Would love feedback, apps, and help with documentation and more build targets. urs truly, @ ᴗ @
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