gui/apps/gui.hanzo.ai/data/docs/intro/compiler-install.mdx

---
title: Gui Compiler
description: Adding the compiler to your apps
---

<IntroParagraph>
  The Gui Compiler significantly improves performance of both web and native applications
  through partial analysis and view flattening.
</IntroParagraph>

See the [Benchmarks](/docs/intro/benchmarks) or a more
[in-depth background](/docs/intro/why-a-compiler). Note that Gui features
work at compile-time and runtime, so installing the compiler is optional, and in
fact we recommend only setting it up once you're ready for production.

The compiler uses Babel to analyze JSX and `styled` functions, then attempts to
statically analyze and optimize them down to platform-native primitives.
The end result is less abstraction - like a `div` on web, or plain React Native
`View` on native:

<br />
<br />
<GuiExamplesCode />

<Notice theme="blue">
  The compiler generates built versions of your components and config into a `.hanzogui`
  directory. You'll want to add that directory to your `.gitignore`.
</Notice>

## Configuration with hanzogui.build.ts

We recommend creating a `hanzogui.build.ts` file in your project root as the
single source of truth for your compiler configuration. All bundler plugins and
the CLI automatically read from this file, so you only need to define your
options once.

This file lets the Gui CLI read your config and perform operations like
generating CSS, pre-compiling components, and verifying optimizations — while
also sharing that same configuration with whichever bundler plugin you use.
Without it, you'd need to duplicate options across your metro, babel and vite
configs.

```ts fileName="hanzogui.build.ts"
import type { GuiBuildOptions } from '@hanzo/gui'

export default {
  config: './hanzogui.config.ts',
  components: ['@hanzo/gui'],
  outputCSS: './public/hanzogui.generated.css',
  // optional:
  importsWhitelist: ['constants.js', 'colors.js'],
  disableExtraction: process.env.NODE_ENV === 'development',
} satisfies GuiBuildOptions
```

Some notes on the options:

- _importsWhitelist_: Gui takes a conservative approach to partial
  evaluation, this field whitelists (matching against both .ts and .js) files to
  allow files that import them to read and use their values during compilation.
  Typically colors and constants files.
- _disableExtraction_: Useful for faster developer iteration as your design
  system hot reloads more reliably.

With this file in place, your bundler plugins can be configured with no options
at all — they'll pick up everything from `hanzogui.build.ts`:

```tsx
// vite: hanzoguiPlugin()
// metro: withGui(config)
// all read from hanzogui.build.ts automatically
```

You can still pass options directly to a plugin, and they'll be merged with
(and override) the options from `hanzogui.build.ts`.

## Install

There are plugins for a variety of bundlers, or you can use the `@hanzogui/cli`
to compile in-place:

### Vite

See the [Vite guide](/docs/guides/vite) for more complete setup.

<Notice theme="yellow">
  `@hanzogui/vite-plugin` is ESM-only. Your project must have `"type": "module"` in its
  `package.json` (or use `.mjs`/`.mts` config files).
</Notice>

Add `@hanzogui/vite-plugin` and update your `vite.config.ts`. If you have a
`hanzogui.build.ts`, no options are needed:

```tsx
import { hanzoguiPlugin } from '@hanzogui/vite-plugin'

export default defineConfig({
  plugins: [
    // reads from hanzogui.build.ts automatically
    hanzoguiPlugin(),
  ],
})
```

Or pass options inline:

```tsx
import { hanzoguiPlugin } from '@hanzogui/vite-plugin'

export default defineConfig({
  plugins: [
    hanzoguiPlugin({
      config: 'src/hanzogui.config.ts',
      components: ['@hanzo/gui'],
      disableExtraction: true,
    }),
  ],
})
```

### Next.js

See the [guide](/docs/guides/next-js) for more complete setup.

Next.js runs on Turbopack, which needs no plugin: create a `hanzogui.build.ts`
and run `hanzogui build` ahead of `next build`.

```json fileName="package.json"
{
  "scripts": {
    "build": "hanzogui build --target web ./src -- next build"
  }
}
```

### Babel / Metro

Note that the `@hanzogui/babel-plugin` is completely optional, and on native
Gui doesn't optimize as much as on web, so leaving it out is actually
recommended to start. If later on you feel the need for a bit more speed, you
can try adding it.

```bash
yarn add @hanzogui/babel-plugin
```

Add to your `babel.config.js`. With a `hanzogui.build.ts`, you can pass no
options:

```js
module.exports = {
  plugins: [
    // reads from hanzogui.build.ts automatically
    '@hanzogui/babel-plugin',
  ],
}
```

Or pass options inline:

```js
module.exports = {
  plugins: [
    [
      '@hanzogui/babel-plugin',
      {
        components: ['@hanzo/gui'],
        config: './hanzogui.config.ts',
        importsWhitelist: ['constants.js', 'colors.js'],
        logTimings: true,
        disableExtraction: process.env.NODE_ENV === 'development',
      },
    ],
  ],
}
```

### Expo

[Check out the Expo guide](/docs/guides/expo) for more information on setting up
Expo. It's as simple as adding the babel plugin.

### CLI-Based In-Place Compilation

For bundlers that don't have a Gui plugin yet (like Turbopack), or if you
prefer a simple setup, you can use `@hanzogui/cli` to pre-compile your components
in-place before your build step.

This approach is meant for **production builds only** and should run in your
deployment pipeline, not during development. It rewrites files in place which
will mess up your working directory, but makes it highly compatible with any
bundler or tool. The downside is you don't get the helpful development
compatibility parts of the plugins, plus dev-mode debugging and `data-`
attributes.

For complete CLI documentation including all available commands, see the
[CLI Guide](/docs/guides/cli).

#### Setup

1. Install:

```bash
yarn add -D @hanzogui/cli
```

2. Create a `hanzogui.build.ts` if you haven't already (see
   [above](#configuration-with-hanzoguibuildts)).

3. Add a build script to your `package.json`:

```json
{
  "scripts": {
    "build": "hanzogui build ./src -- next build"
  }
}
```

#### Usage

```bash
# Build all components in a directory (web + native by default)
npx hanzogui build ./src

# Build for web only
npx hanzogui build --target web ./src

# Build for native only
npx hanzogui build --target native ./src

# Build a specific file
npx hanzogui build ./src/components/MyComponent.tsx

# Include/exclude patterns
npx hanzogui build --include "components/**" --exclude "**/*.test.tsx" ./src

# Output to a separate directory (source files unchanged)
npx hanzogui build --output ./dist ./src

# Create platform-specific files next to source files (.web.tsx or .native.tsx)
npx hanzogui build --target native --output-around ./src

# Preview changes without writing files
npx hanzogui build --dry-run ./src

# Verify minimum optimizations (useful in CI)
npx hanzogui build --target web --expect-optimizations 10 ./src
```

#### CI Verification with --expect-optimizations

The `--expect-optimizations` flag ensures your build is actually optimizing components. This is useful in CI to catch configuration issues:

```json
{
  "scripts": {
    "build": "hanzogui build --target web --expect-optimizations 10 ./src -- next build"
  }
}
```

If the compiler produces fewer than the expected number of optimizations, the build will fail with an error message showing the actual count. This helps catch:

- Misconfigured `components` array
- Wrong source paths
- Configuration files not being found

#### Platform-Specific File Handling

The CLI automatically handles platform-specific files (`.web.tsx`,
`.native.tsx`, `.ios.tsx`, `.android.tsx`):

- Files with `.web.tsx` extensions are optimized for web only
- Files with `.native.tsx`, `.ios.tsx`, or `.android.tsx` extensions are
  optimized for native only
- Base files (`.tsx`) without platform-specific versions are optimized for all
  platforms
- If both `.web.tsx` and `.native.tsx` exist, the base `.tsx` file is skipped

#### Package.json Exports Support

The CLI supports `package.json` exports for path-specific imports. For example:

```json
{
  "exports": {
    ".": "./src/index.tsx",
    "./components/Button": "./src/Button.tsx"
  }
}
```

Both import styles work:

```tsx
import { Button } from '@my/ui'
import { Button } from '@my/ui/components/Button'
```

#### Integration Examples

This works with **any build tool** - just run `hanzogui build` before your build
command. Here are some examples:

**Next.js with Turbopack** (Turbopack doesn't support plugins yet):

```json
{
  "scripts": {
    "dev": "next dev --turbopack",
    "build": "hanzogui build --target web ./src -- next build"
  }
}
```

**Vite, Remix, or any other bundler:**

```json
{
  "scripts": {
    "build": "hanzogui build --target web ./src -- vite build"
  }
}
```

**React Native / Expo:**

```json
{
  "scripts": {
    "build:ios": "hanzogui build --target native ./src -- eas build --platform ios",
    "build:android": "hanzogui build --target native ./src -- eas build --platform android"
  }
}
```

**Using --output (no file restoration needed):**

If you prefer to output optimized files to a separate directory instead of modifying
source files in-place, use `--output`:

```json
{
  "scripts": {
    "build": "hanzogui build --target web --output ./dist ./src && next build"
  }
}
```

With `--output`, your source files are never modified. The optimized files are
written to the output directory with their directory structure preserved.

**Using --output-around (platform-specific files):**

The `--output-around` flag creates optimized platform-specific files (`.web.tsx` or
`.native.tsx`) next to your source files instead of modifying them. Bundlers
automatically pick up these files via platform-specific resolution:

```json
{
  "scripts": {
    "prebuild:native": "hanzogui build --target native --output-around ./src",
    "prebuild:web": "hanzogui build --target web --output-around ./src"
  }
}
```

This transforms `Button.tsx` → creates `Button.native.tsx` or `Button.web.tsx`
alongside it. Metro/Expo uses `.native.tsx` on native, and web bundlers use `.web.tsx`.

The Gui CLI optimizes your components in-place (or to an output directory),
then your bundler processes the already-optimized files.

**Learn more:** See the [CLI Guide](/docs/guides/cli) for documentation on all
CLI commands including `check`, `generate`, `add`, and more.

## Props

All compiler plugins accept the same options:

<PropsTable
  data={[
    {
      name: 'config',
      required: false,
      type: 'string',
      typeSimple: 'enum',
      default: "'./hanzogui.config.ts'",
      description:
        'Relative path to your hanzogui.config.ts file which should export default the result from createGui. Can be set in hanzogui.build.ts instead.',
    },
    {
      name: 'components',
      required: false,
      type: 'string[]',
      typeSimple: 'enum',
      default: "['hanzogui']",
      description: `Array of npm modules containing Gui components which you'll be using in your app. For example:  if you are using the base Gui components. This directs the compiler to load and optimize.`,
    },
    {
      name: 'importsWhitelist',
      required: false,
      type: 'string[]',
      typeSimple: 'enum',
      description: `Array of whitelisted file paths (always end in .js) which the compiler may try and import and parse at build-time. It is normalized to ".js" ending for all file extensions (js, jsx, tsx, ts). This usually should be set to something like ['constants.js', 'colors.js'] for example, where you have a couple mostly static files of constants that are used as default values for styles.`,
    },
    {
      name: 'logTimings',
      required: false,
      type: 'boolean',
      typeSimple: 'enum',
      default: 'true',
      description:
        'Gui outputs information for each file it compiles on how long it took to run, how many components it optimized, and how many it flattened. Set to false to disable these logs.',
    },
    {
      name: 'disable',
      required: false,
      type: 'boolean',
      typeSimple: 'enum',
      default: 'false',
      description: 'Disable everything - debug and extraction.',
    },
    {
      name: 'disableExtraction',
      required: false,
      type: 'boolean',
      typeSimple: 'enum',
      default: 'false',
      description:
        'Disable extraction to CSS completely, instead fully relying on runtime. Setting this to true speed up development as generally your app will hot reload the Gui configuration itself.',
    },
    {
      name: 'disableDebugAttr',
      required: false,
      type: 'boolean',
      typeSimple: 'enum',
      default: 'false',
      description:
        'If enabled along with disableExtraction, all parsing will turn off. Normally turning off disableExtraction will keep the helpful debug attributes in DOM',
    },
    {
      name: 'disableFlattening',
      required: false,
      type: 'boolean',
      typeSimple: 'enum',
      default: 'false',
      description: 'Turns off tree-flattening.',
    },
    {
      name: 'enableDynamicEvaluation',
      required: false,
      type: 'boolean',
      typeSimple: 'enum',
      default: 'false',
      description:
        '(Experimental) Enables further extracting of any styled component, even if not in your components. See below for more information.',
    },
    {
      name: 'outputCSS',
      required: false,
      type: 'string',
      typeSimple: 'enum',
      description:
        'Path to output extracted CSS. When set, the compiler automatically sets GUI_DID_OUTPUT_CSS which tree-shakes all runtime CSS generation code from your bundle (~6KB gzipped savings).',
    },
  ]}
/>

### Dynamic Evaluation

By default the Gui compiler only optimizes `styled` expressions found in the
modules defined by your `components` config. This means if you do an inline
`styled()` inside your actual app directory, it will default to runtime style
insertion.

This is typically Good Enough™️. As long as you define most of your common
components there, you'll get a very high hit rate of compiled styles being used
and runtime generation being skipped, as atomic styles with your design system
tokens will be mostly pre-generated.

Gui has _experimental_ support for loading any component, even if it occurs
somewhere outside your configured components modules. This is called "dynamic
loading", for now. You can enable it with the setting `enableDynamicEvaluation`
as seen above in the props table.

The way it works is, when the compiler detects a styled() expression outside one
of the defined component directories, it will run the following:

1. First, read the file and use a custom `babel` transform to _force_ all
   top-level variables to be exported.
2. Then, run `esbuild` and bundle the entire file to a temporary file in the
   same directory, something like `.hanzogui-dynamic-eval-ComponentName.js`
3. Now, read the file in and load all new definitions found.
4. Finally, continue with optimization, using the newly optimized component.

You may see why this is experimental. It's very convenient as a developer, but
has a variety of edge cases that can be confusing or breaking, and we want to
avoid installation woes. Though it does continue on error and work generally, it
outputs warnings in Webpack currently due to our plugin not properly indicating
to Webpack about the new files (a fixable bug), which causes big yellow warning
output and a cache de-opt.

We're leaving this feature under the environment variable while it matures. Let
us know if you find it useful.

### Disabling the compiler

You can disable the compiler optimizations for an entire file with a comment at
the top of your file:

```tsx
// hanzogui-ignore
```

You can disable the compiler optimization for a single component with the
boolean property `disableOptimization`:

```tsx
import { View } from '@hanzogui/core'

export default () => <View disableOptimization />
```

### Web-only apps

This only applies to web-only apps. Native and universal apps already have
`react-native` installed. For web-only apps, you still need `react-native`
types in the parent project or workspace root for prop typing and autocomplete.
You can either install `react-native` directly:

```bash
yarn add react-native
```

Or, if you only want the types:

```bash
yarn add [email protected] @types/react-native
```

Gui's web runtime doesn't require `react-native` at runtime, but current
prop typing and autocomplete rely on the `react-native` types being present.