Ohy – Lightweight, Privacy-First CLI for Packaging Web as Desktop Apps

Published at

Feb 3, 2025

Main Article

ohy

"ohy" is derived from the Japanese word "おはよ" (good morning). It's a lightweight command-line tool written in Rust that converts web applications into desktop applications.

Key Features

Small single executable: Less than 5MB.
Data privacy isolation: Isolates based on the connection address and application name.
Multiple instances: Applications can be run concurrently with isolated session data by default.
Easy deployment: Simply copy the binary file for use; no need for sudo privileges.
Automatic icon retrieval: Automatically fetches the application icon.
Centralized caching: Local cache data is stored in a fixed directory, avoiding scattered data writes that could clutter system directories.

Usage

Usage: ohy --url <url> [-n <name>] [-w <width>] [-h <height>] [-a <user-agent>]

Options:
  --url             url example https://www.github.com
  -n, --name        name
  -w, --width       width default 1200
  -h, --height      height default 780
  -a, --user-agent  user agent
  --help, help      display usage information

Example

To create a desktop application for qwen chat:

ohy --url https://chat.qwenlm.ai -n qwen

Installation

Install the application using Cargo

cargo install ohy

Linux Dependencies (Windows and macOS do not require this step)

Arch Linux / Manjaro:

sudo pacman -S webkit2gtk-4.1

Debian / Ubuntu:

sudo apt install libwebkit2gtk-4.1-dev

Fedora

sudo dnf install gtk3-devel webkit2gtk4.1-devel

Centos

sudo yum install gtk3-devel webkit2gtk4.1-devel

Benefits

Lightweight and efficient resource usage
Enhanced privacy through session isolation
Simple and straightforward configuration
Cross-platform compatibility

Developers

The program has only been tested on Linux and Windows (since I'm a Linux user and don't have a Mac).
In theory, it should work on macOS (as the underlying dependency, wry, supports all platforms).
although there might be some bugs with crate imports. Mac users are welcome to submit issues.