PulseDesktop

PulseDesktop is a framework for Compose Desktop apps. A desktop window shows many panels at once, so PulseDesktop gives each content of a screen its own PulseViewModel and puts one PulseContainer above them. Broadcast reaches every content, Unicast sends a message up from one, and Refresh rebuilds the view without losing state.

Around that, it decides how a window is split. A host creates the ViewModels and lays out the contents, a content binds one ViewModel with PulseContent, and sections and components take data and callbacks only. Your own tests can check that the code keeps to it.

Read What is PulseDesktop? for the idea behind it.

Installation

PulseDesktop publishes three artifacts, one package each. mvi is the library; the other two are optional. navigation scopes ViewModels to a Navigation 3 back stack entry, and architecture checks in your own tests that the code follows the conventions.

Add JitPack to settings.gradle.kts, then the dependencies to build.gradle.kts, replacing <version> with a tag from Releases.

// settings.gradle.kts
dependencyResolutionManagement {
    repositories {
        maven { url = uri("https://jitpack.io") }
    }
}

// build.gradle.kts
dependencies {
    implementation("com.github.kaleidot725.PulseDesktop:mvi:<version>")
    implementation("com.github.kaleidot725.PulseDesktop:navigation:<version>")
    testImplementation("com.github.kaleidot725.PulseDesktop:architecture:<version>")
}

Requirements

Requirement	Version
Java	17+
Kotlin	2.0+
Compose Multiplatform	1.6+

Getting started

A ViewModel handles actions and updates its state. A content binds it to the UI with PulseContent, and the host creates the ViewModel and places the content. The full walkthrough, including the Container, is in Getting Started.

class CounterViewModel : PulseViewModel<CounterState, CounterAction, CounterEvent, CounterBroadcast, CounterUnicast>(
    initialUiState = CounterState(),
) {
    override fun onAction(uiAction: CounterAction) {
        when (uiAction) {
            CounterAction.Increment -> update { copy(count = count + 1) }
        }
    }
}

// counter/content/total/TotalContent.kt
@Composable
fun TotalContent(viewModel: CounterViewModel) {
    PulseContent(viewModel = viewModel) { state, onAction ->
        Button(onClick = { onAction(CounterAction.Increment) }) {
            Text("${state.count}")
        }
    }
}

// counter/CounterHost.kt
@Composable
fun CounterHost() {
    val viewModel = rememberPulseViewModel { CounterViewModel() }

    TotalContent(viewModel = viewModel)
}

Documentation

kaleidot725.github.io/PulseDesktop (English and Japanese).

Artifact	Package	Documentation
mvi	jp.kaleidot725.pulse.mvi	Architecture
navigation	jp.kaleidot725.pulse.navigation	Navigation 3
architecture	jp.kaleidot725.pulse.architecture	Architecture checks

Demo

The demo directory is a small multi-module app built the way the architecture checks expect, and it passes all of them. Four areas share one Container, and a tap on one spreads to the two it shares an edge with. The counts are kept in a DataStore, so they survive a restart.

Module	Holds
demo/app	the window, the back stack, and every Koin module
demo/feature/count	the host, its content, section and components, the ViewModel, and its text in English and Japanese
demo/core/domain	the areas and the neighbour rule in model, the repository interface in repository, and the one use case with work of its own in usecase
demo/core/data	the DataStore-backed repository in repository, and the data source in front of DataStore in local
demo/core/designsystem	the theme, the card and the buttons, one package per kind

./gradlew :demo:app:run

License

Copyright 2026 kaleidot725

Licensed under the Apache License, Version 2.0 (the "License");
you may not use this file except in compliance with the License.
You may obtain a copy of the License at

    http://www.apache.org/licenses/LICENSE-2.0

Unless required by applicable law or agreed to in writing, software
distributed under the License is distributed on an "AS IS" BASIS,
WITHOUT WARRANTIES OR CONDITIONS OF ANY KIND, either express or implied.
See the License for the specific language governing permissions and
limitations under the License.