github.com/wailsapp/wails

Wails v1 lets you build desktop apps with Go backends and web frontends, which sounds great in theory. However, the day-to-day development experience has friction points. The initial setup works fine with the CLI scaffolding, but debugging becomes challenging when things go wrong. Error messages often point to JavaScript bundling issues or bridge communication problems without clear guidance on resolution.

The documentation covers basic examples but falls short on real-world scenarios like custom window management, complex state synchronization, or handling platform-specific quirks. The binding system between Go and JavaScript works but feels fragile - type mismatches or incorrect function signatures result in cryptic runtime errors rather than compile-time safety.

Community support is hit-or-miss. GitHub issues get responses but many remain open for extended periods. Stack Overflow has minimal coverage, so you're mostly relying on GitHub discussions. Note that v2 is now the actively developed version with breaking changes, making v1 resources increasingly outdated and the migration path non-trivial.

Wails v1 offers an interesting approach to building desktop apps with Go backends and web frontends, but the developer experience has notable friction points. The initial setup with `wails init` works smoothly, and the basic Hello World runs fine. However, once you move beyond examples, you'll encounter cryptic error messages that don't clearly indicate whether issues are in your Go code, the JavaScript bridge, or the build process itself.

The documentation covers basics adequately but lacks depth for real-world scenarios like complex state management between Go and JS, handling async operations cleanly, or debugging runtime issues. When things go wrong, you're often left inspecting browser DevTools and Go logs separately with little guidance on how they connect. GitHub issues show maintainers are responsive, but many problems lack clear resolutions.

The major concern is that v1 is essentially deprecated with v2 being a complete rewrite using different APIs. This means investing time in v1 feels like learning a dead-end technology, while v2 (though promising) is a fundamentally different framework requiring separate evaluation.

Wails v1 (this branch) feels abandoned and has significant security considerations when building desktop applications. The bridge between Go backend and JavaScript frontend lacks robust input validation by default, requiring manual sanitization of all cross-boundary calls. Error messages from Go often leak implementation details directly to the frontend without filtering mechanisms.

The TLS/crypto story is concerning when making external requests - there's no enforced certificate pinning or secure defaults for HTTP clients exposed to the frontend. The authentication/authorization layer between frontend and backend is essentially non-existent; any exposed Go method can be called from the JavaScript context without built-in access controls. You must implement your own security layer.

Dependency management is problematic with older transitive dependencies that may contain known CVEs. The webkit/webview bindings vary significantly across platforms, making consistent security posture difficult. The project has moved to v2 (different import path), making this version effectively EOL without security patches.