# native-feel.skill
> *"Cross-platform development AND near-native performance — refuse the trade-off."*
[](LICENSE)
[](https://github.com/yetone/native-feel-skill)
**An Agent Skill for designing cross-platform desktop apps that feel native** — distilled from Raycast's 2.0 technical deep-dive and grounded in reverse-engineering of the shipping `Raycast Beta.app` binary.
Two goals usually pull against each other: convenient cross-platform development, and near-native performance. This skill captures the structural choices — eight architectural tenets, a four-layer architecture, a WebKit/WebView2 survival guide, a 75-item ship audit — that let an app have both.
**Install** — pick one:
**A. With [`skills`](https://github.com/vercel-labs/skills) (any compatible agent):**
```bash
npx skills add yetone/native-feel-skill -g
```
The `-g` flag installs globally (user-level) so every project picks it up.
**B. Or paste this prompt to your AI agent:**
```
Install the native-feel skill for me:
1. Clone https://github.com/yetone/native-feel-skill into your
user-level skills directory as `native-feel-cross-platform-desktop/`
(whatever path your agent reads skills from on this machine — e.g.
`~/.claude/skills/` for Claude Code).
2. Verify that SKILL.md plus the references/ and checklists/ subdirs
are present.
3. Confirm the install path when done.
```
[Use cases](#use-cases) · [What this is](#what-this-is) · [Philosophy](#philosophy) · [Layout](#layout) · [Sources](#sources)
---
## Use cases
Once installed, the skill activates automatically whenever the conversation touches cross-platform desktop architecture, WebView quirks, or making a UI feel native. Two common ways to use it:
### Case 1 — Refactor an existing app to feel more native
You have an Electron / Tauri / web-wrapped app, and a designer (or your own eye) tells you it feels web-y. You want to know where to start and how far you can take it without a full rewrite.
```
You ❯ My Electron app feels web-y on macOS — the designer says it
doesn't pass for a real Mac app. Where do I start?
Agent ❯ Quickest path is the 75-item native-feel audit
(checklists/ship-readiness.md). Most Electron apps fail
the same 6–8 items:
- cursor:pointer on rows (item 21)
- web-style modal overlays instead of native sheets (19)
- hardcoded brand accent instead of system accent (33)
- page fade-transitions (40)
- opaque window background instead of platform material (31)
- WebKit context menu still firing (23)
Each is a 5-to-30-minute fix; together they move you most
of the way to "passes the 30-second skeptical user test."
Bigger question first: how far do you need to go? If "good
enough" means passing that 30-second test, Electron + this
audit gets you 80% there without rewriting. If you want
"indistinguishable from a Mac app" — Liquid Glass materials,
native popovers, sub-200ms launch — Electron has a ceiling
you'll hit. Want me to run the decision tree first?
```
### Case 2 — Build a cross-platform native-feel app from scratch
Greenfield project, must run on macOS + Windows, and the native feel is the *point* — a launcher, a productivity tool, an AI workspace your users live in all day.
```
You ❯ Starting a new desktop app — macOS + Windows, native feel
is the whole pitch. What architecture should I use?
Agent ❯ Before architecture, the decision tree
(checklists/decision-tree.md) rules this stack out for
several common shapes — quick check first:
- Cold-start budget? (<100ms → build native instead)
- Memory floor? (<150MB → build native instead)
- Extension ecosystem? (yes → need the Node layer)
- Runway? (<3mo → start on Electron)
If you pass, the four-layer architecture is:
┌──────────────────────────────────────────────────┐
│ Native shell Swift/AppKit + C#/WPF │
│ ↕ one IPC schema, codegen for all sides │
│ System WebView WKWebView + WebView2 │
│ running React + TypeScript, shared 1:1 │
│ ↕ │
│ Node backend single long-lived process │
│ ↕ │
│ Rust core UniFFI-bridged, sharable │
│ with iOS and server │
└──────────────────────────────────────────────────┘
The expensive-to-get-wrong decisions, in order:
1. The IPC contract (one schema, codegen). Get this wrong
and you rebuild it later under duress.
2. WebView survival flags (occlusion off, alpha-prewarm,
_doAfterNextPresentationUpdate, font prewarming).
3. Memory hygiene (lazy-load extensions, tear down
secondary windows aggressively).
Want to start with the seam — where to draw the cross-
platform line — or with the IPC contract, since getting
that schema wrong means rebuilding every bridge later?
```
### Other things the skill is good for
- **"Why is my WKWebView flickering when I hide and re-show it?"** → walks you through `references/03-webview-survival.md` (most likely A.1 throttling or A.2 startup flicker).
- **"How should typed IPC work across Rust, Swift, and TypeScript?"** → the UniFFI-based pattern in `references/04-ipc-contract.md`, with the exact `Coordinator`/`EventHandler` shape Raycast Beta ships.
- **"My app is at 450 MB resident, is that bad?"** → the six common Activity-Monitor mistakes and what to actually measure, in `references/05-memory-truths.md`.
- **"Is my designer's spec ‘native enough’?"** → the 70+ item conventions audit in `references/06-native-conventions.md`.
---
> *"We're not a web app with some native hooks sprinkled on top. We're a native app that uses web for its UI."* — Raycast
## What this is
A reference for architects, tech leads, and engineers who must build a desktop app that:
- runs on **macOS + Windows** (optionally Linux) from a single UI codebase,
- launches in under 500 ms and stays under 500 MB resident,
- is **indistinguishable from a native app** to its users (no `cursor: pointer` tell-tales, no white-flash on launch, no WebKit context menu, no smooth-scroll JS),
- supports a **plugin/extension ecosystem** in TypeScript,
- can share performance-critical code with iOS and a server backend.
This is the four-layer architecture: **native shell → system WebView (WKWebView/WebView2) → Node backend → Rust core**, wired together with a single typed IPC schema that generates clients for every runtime.
## What this is not
- Not for single-OS apps (just build native).
- Not for Electron-style "good enough" apps (the polish budget here is 5–10× higher).
- Not for apps with strict <150 MB or <100 ms cold-start budgets (the floor is real).
- Not for games, document editors, or media players.
Run [`checklists/decision-tree.md`](checklists/decision-tree.md) to find out if this architecture is even right for your project. It rules itself out for several common cases — saying so directly is more useful than over-fitting advice.
## Layout
```
native-feel-skill/
├── SKILL.md # entry point for the agent
├── references/
│ ├── 01-philosophy.md # 8 tenets that drive every decision
│ ├── 02-architecture.md # the four-layer architecture
│ ├── 03-webview-survival.md # WebKit/WebView2 quirks + fixes (the goldmine)
│ ├── 04-ipc-contract.md # typed IPC across Rust/Swift/C#/TS
│ ├── 05-memory-truths.md # why Activity Monitor lies
│ ├── 06-native-conventions.md # 70+ items the native-feel audit checks
│ └── 07-evidence-raycast.md # what a reverse-eng. of Raycast Beta shows
└── checklists/
├── decision-tree.md # should you use this architecture?
└── ship-readiness.md # 75-item launch audit
```
## Philosophy
The central tension this architecture resolves: **how can a desktop app deliver convenient cross-platform development AND near-native performance, when those goals usually pull against each other?** Eight tenets name the structural moves:
1. **Place the seam at the rendering surface** — share above the WebView, diverge below it; this is the only altitude where both DX and native feel survive.
2. **One schema, many languages** — pay the polyglot tax once at the declaration, never at the call site.
3. **Adopt the platform; don't compete with it** — the OS draws blur, scrolling, materials, and dark mode better than you can.
4. **Performance is a property of perception** — what the user feels, not what Activity Monitor reports.
5. **The short iteration loop is the product** — 200 ms hot reload vs 30 s native rebuild is a 150× compounding advantage.
6. **Cross boundaries intentionally** — IPC has a cost; design every crossing as async, batched, schema-typed.
7. **Identity is muscle memory** — the hotkey, the rank order, the verbs are the app; everything else is implementation.
8. **Separate baseline from margin** — the WebView+Node floor is rented; only your dirty pages are yours to optimize.
Read [`references/01-philosophy.md`](references/01-philosophy.md) first. Everything else is consequence.
## About Agent Skills
Agent Skills are the emerging standard for packaging domain knowledge that any compatible agent (Claude Code, the Claude Agent SDK, or other Agent-Skill-aware runtimes) can discover and load. Once installed via the prompt at the top of this README, the skill activates automatically when the agent's conversation touches cross-platform desktop architecture, WebView quirks, or Raycast-style apps — the trigger conditions are declared in `SKILL.md`'s frontmatter.
## Sources
- Raycast's public technical post: [A Technical Deep Dive into the New Raycast](https://www.raycast.com/blog/a-technical-deep-dive-into-the-new-raycast)
- Reverse engineering of `Raycast Beta.app` v0.60.0 (macOS 26+ build, Xcode 17, arm64) — see [`references/07-evidence-raycast.md`](references/07-evidence-raycast.md) for what was found and how.
## License
MIT — see [`LICENSE`](LICENSE).
## Credits
Authored as an Agent Skill. The architecture this skill describes is Raycast's; the philosophy is the author's synthesis; the evidence is from the shipping app.