gova

Build and hot-reload native desktop apps written with the Gova Go GUI framework

TLDR

Install the CLI

$ go install github.com/nv404/gova/cmd/gova@latest

Start the dev loop with file-watching and hot reload

$ gova dev

Build and run once without watching for changes

$ gova run

Compile a release binary for the current platform

$ gova build

Build a stripped, smaller release binary

$ gova build -ldflags "-s -w"

Build with a custom output name

$ gova build -o [myapp]

Run dev loop against a specific entry package

$ gova dev [./cmd/myapp]

SYNOPSIS

gova command [flags] [package]

Gova is a declarative GUI framework for Go that emits a single static binary for macOS, Windows, and Linux. The gova CLI wraps go build and go run with file-watching, cgo setup, and platform-specific native toolkit plumbing so developers can iterate quickly on a Gova application without hand-writing build tooling.Components are written in pure Go with a reactive state model and typed props. Typed platform dialogs (file pickers, alerts, notifications) are exposed through the framework and linked against native system libraries via cgo.During gova dev, saving any watched .go file triggers an incremental rebuild and relaunches the window, preserving development flow. gova build produces a release-ready binary that can be distributed without a runtime dependency on Go.

PARAMETERS

dev

Watch the working directory, rebuild on file save, and relaunch the window. Ignores .git, node_modules, vendor, and _test.go files.

run

Build and launch the application once without starting a file watcher. Useful for CI pipelines or one-shot verifications.

build

Compile a single static binary for the host platform. Accepts Go build flags such as -ldflags and -o.

-ldflags flags

Pass linker flags through to the underlying go build call (e.g. "-s -w" to strip symbols).

-o name

Set the output binary name produced by gova build.

CAVEATS

The project is pre-1.0 — the CLI surface and framework API are still evolving. Requires Go 1.26+ and a working C toolchain on every target platform because of cgo. The name collides with unrelated Go packages (golang-collections/gova), with govc (VMware vSphere CLI), and with govm (Go version manager) — none of which are related.

HISTORY

Gova was created by NV404 and published at github.com/NV404/gova with documentation at gova.dev. It grew out of the wider movement to build native desktop UIs in Go (alongside Fyne and Wails) while keeping the developer experience closer to modern reactive frameworks.