Distribute your GJS app

The same Node-free bootstrap that installs @gjsify/cli also installs any GJS-runnable package on npm — including yours.

Generate an installer for your package

From the root of your gjsify app:

gjsify generate-installer

This writes install.mjs to the current directory, with three constants substituted for your package: the npm name (from package.json#name), the bin name (the first key of gjsify.bin or bin), and the gjsify bootstrap URL (defaults to https://github.com/gjsify/gjsify/releases/latest/download/cli.gjs.mjs).

Commit the generated install.mjs:

git add install.mjs && git commit -m "chore: add gjsify-based installer"
git push

Your README’s install instructions become:

curl -fsSL https://github.com/<you>/<repo>/raw/main/install.mjs \
  -o /tmp/i.mjs && gjs -m /tmp/i.mjs && rm /tmp/i.mjs

What it does for your users

1. Downloads the pinned cli.gjs.mjs bootstrap bundle from the gjsify GitHub release, verifies SHA-256.
2. Spawns gjs -m <bundle> install -g <your-package> — @gjsify/cli’s install backend resolves your package’s transitive dependencies (including any native prebuilds), writes them under ~/.local/share/gjsify/global/, and creates the ~/.local/bin/<your-bin> launcher.

No Node, no npm, no yarn on the user’s machine. Just gjs ≥ 1.86 (included with Fedora 43+, Debian 13+, Arch) and curl.

Customise

gjsify generate-installer \
  --target @my-org/my-app \
  --bin-name my-app \
  --bootstrap-url https://example.com/cli.gjs.mjs \
  --output bin/install.mjs

Flag	Default
[target] (positional)	package.json#name
--bin-name <name>	first key of gjsify.bin or bin
--bootstrap-url <url>	gjsify GitHub releases/latest/download/cli.gjs.mjs
--output <file>	install.mjs (in cwd)
--force	overwrite existing

For airgapped environments or forks, host your own bootstrap bundle and point --bootstrap-url at it. The generated install.mjs honors a GJSIFY_INSTALL_BOOTSTRAP_URL env var at runtime so users can override it without editing the script.

Requirements for your package

Your published package needs:

• gjsify.bin (or bin) in package.json pointing at the GJS entry bundle:

  {
    "gjsify": { "bin": { "my-app": "./dist/my-app.gjs.mjs" } }
  }

• The bundle built with gjsify build … --app gjs --shebang so the installed launcher works correctly. (The launcher will wrap with exec gjs -m '<bundle>' for any .mjs target, so the shebang is optional — but recommended.)

• Any native prebuilds (.so + .typelib) declared as runtime dependencies of packages that contain a gjsify.prebuilds field. @gjsify/cli’s install backend walks those automatically and sets LD_LIBRARY_PATH / GI_TYPELIB_PATH for the bin launcher.

Reference implementations

• @gjsify/cli itself — the canonical example. Its root install.mjs is the template gjsify generate-installer writes.
• @ts-for-gir/cli — multi-bin GJS app distributed via the same bootstrap.