PAM Desktop

PHP-FIRST · NATIVE LINUX · NO NODE RUNTIME

Desktop software that reads like your application—not like host plumbing. PAM Desktop keeps product logic in typed PHP, renders trusted local HTML and CSS directly with Servo, and puts Rust in charge of every operating-system boundary.

#[Desktop(id: 'com.acme.notes', name: 'Notes')]
final class NotesApp extends App
{
    #[Command]
    public function save(
        DocumentData $document,
        DocumentRepository $documents,
        WindowHandle $window,
    ): DocumentResource {
        $saved = $documents->save($document);
        $window->title("Saved · {$saved->title}");

        return new DocumentResource($saved);
    }
}

No payload parsing. No hand-built response envelope. No effect tree in the use case. PHP types describe the command; PAM hydrates input, resolves services, collects native effects, and returns the result.

1.2.1current release

API 1stable PHP contract

Protocol 6versioned bridge

Linux x86-64supported target

Start here

PAM Desktop is a Composer ecosystem product running on the PAM runtime. Install the runtime first; then create the project and install the desktop package with PAM’s Composer passthrough.

Install and verify PAM.

curl -fsSL https://github.com/push-in/pam/releases/latest/download/install.sh | sh
pam doctor

Create the application and install PAM Desktop.

pam init notes --template desktop
cd notes
pam composer require pushinbr/pam-desktop

Validate the machine and project contract.
Terminal window
```
pam desktop doctor
```
Start the persistent development session.
Terminal window
```
pam desktop dev
```

Edit PHP, HTML, CSS, or JavaScript and save. PAM safely replaces the affected worker or rendering generation. You now have a native Linux window, hot reload, typed PHP commands, frontend events, and no application-level Node runtime.

Build the Notes app in 5 minutes →Create, invoke, persist, react, and package one small application end to end.

Why it feels different

PHP is the application

Commands are ordinary typed methods or invokable classes. DTOs, enums, services, return values, and exceptions retain familiar PHP semantics.

Rust owns authority

Files, SQLite, HTTP, processes, secrets, portals, clipboard, notifications, plugins, and updates are capability-scoped and denied by default.

Servo owns the document

Your local HTML, CSS, and JavaScript render directly in an independent native window. There is no bundled Chromium-plus-Node application runtime.

Production is part of the design

Reproducible bundles, integrity metadata, supervised workers, signed updates, rollback, diagnostics, and compatibility fixtures ship together.

Use App, #[Desktop], #[Command], typed DTOs, injected services, window classes, and event classes. This is the default for product code.

Use immutable Application, Capabilities, Shell, Window, and CommandResult builders when infrastructure or framework code needs exact protocol-level policy.

Both APIs compile into the same versioned runtime contracts. The elegant layer is not a wrapper around a second engine, and the advanced layer is never taken away.

What you can build today

focused productivity tools, internal operations apps, launchers, editors, dashboards, media utilities, and offline-first business software;
multi-window applications with menus, tray behavior, shortcuts, drag and drop, clipboard, notifications, native dialogs, and background jobs;
data-heavy local tools using capability-scoped SQLite, filesystem roots, binary streaming, native HTTP, secrets, authorized processes, and portals;
extensible products with composable PHP plugins or process-isolated Rust plugins behind versioned exports; and
distributable Linux applications with portable archives, Debian packages, per-file integrity, signed updates, atomic install, and rollback.

Read by outcome

I want my first win

Follow the five-minute tutorial from scaffold to package.

I want the mental model

Understand how PHP, Servo, Rust, and the bridge fit.

I need working patterns

Copy focused solutions from the desktop cookbook.

I am evaluating the stack

Read the honest PAM Desktop vs Electron guide.

Continue the journey

Convention-first authoringConfigure only what changes and keep native authority explicit.

Commands & dependency injectionBind scalars, enums and DTOs; inject services; organize command classes.

Windows, events & menusModel desktop surfaces and actions as types instead of loose identifiers.

Security modelSee where PHP, Servo, the gateway, and the Rust host trust—or reject—each other.