Zolt

Write Python. Render anywhere.
Web · Desktop · Terminal — from a single Python codebase.

Zolt is a production-ready Python UI framework. Write your entire UI in pure Python — no HTML, no CSS, no JavaScript. One codebase compiles to a web app, a native desktop window, and a terminal UI.

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See it in action

Reference design (motionsite.ai)

Built with Zolt — pure Python, zero HTML

The agency landing page above — glassmorphism effects, HLS video backgrounds, animated headings, floating navbar — is 100% Python. No HTML templates. No CSS files. No JavaScript written by hand. Scaffold it yourself: zolt new my-agency --template agency

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Install

pip install zolt

Requires Python 3.10+.

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Quick start

zolt new my-app
cd my-app
zolt run          # → http://localhost:8000

Browse all templates interactively:

zolt templates

Available templates: blank · dashboard · landing · admin · auth · agency

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Hello World

from pyui import App, Button, Flex, Heading, Page, Text, reactive

class HomePage(Page):
    title = "Home"
    route = "/"

    def compose(self):
        with Flex(direction="col", align="center", gap=6):
            Heading("Hello from Zolt", level=1)
            Text("Built with pure Python.").style("muted")
            Button("Get Started").style("primary").size("lg")

class MyApp(App):
    name = "My App"
    home = HomePage()

Run it:

zolt run app.py                    # web browser → http://localhost:8000
zolt run app.py --target desktop   # native tkinter window
zolt run app.py --target cli       # Rich TUI in the terminal

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Reactive state

from pyui import App, Button, Flex, Page, Text, reactive

_count = reactive(0)

class CounterPage(Page):
    title = "Counter"
    route = "/"

    def compose(self):
        with Flex(direction="col", align="center", gap=4):
            Text(lambda: f"Count: {_count.get()}").style("lead")
            with Flex(gap=3):
                Button("−").style("ghost").onClick(lambda: _count.set(_count.get() - 1))
                Button("+").style("primary").onClick(lambda: _count.set(_count.get() + 1))

class CounterApp(App):
    count = _count
    home = CounterPage()

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Agency landing page template

The agency template scaffolds a complete dark premium landing page — the same one shown in the GIF above.

zolt new my-agency --template agency
cd my-agency
zolt run

What you get:

my-agency/
├── app.py              ← App + Page wiring
├── styles.py           ← Liquid glass CSS, custom fonts, animations
└── sections/
    ├── navbar.py       ← Fixed glassmorphism pill nav (FloatingNav)
    ├── hero.py         ← Full-viewport video bg + animated heading
    ├── features_chess.py  ← Alternating text/gif rows
    ├── features_grid.py   ← 4-column feature cards
    ├── start.py        ← HLS video bg "How It Works" section
    ├── stats.py        ← Desaturated HLS video + stat card
    ├── testimonials.py ← 3-column quote cards
    └── cta_footer.py   ← HLS video bg + CTA + footer

All sections use Zolt components — Section, VideoBg, BlurHeading, FloatingNav, Link — no raw HTML.

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47+ built-in components

Category	Components
Layout	Flex, Grid, Stack, Container, Section, Sidebar, Split, Divider, Spacer, List
Display	Text, Heading, BlurHeading, Badge, Tag, Avatar, Icon, Image, Link, Markdown
Input	Button, Input, Textarea, Select, Checkbox, Radio, Toggle, Slider, DatePicker, FilePicker, Form
Feedback	Alert, Toast, Modal, Drawer, Tooltip, Progress, Spinner, Skeleton
Navigation	Nav, FloatingNav, Tabs, Breadcrumb, Pagination, Menu
Data	Table, Stat, Chart (line, bar, pie via Chart.js)
Media	Video, VideoBg

New in v1.2

Component	What it does
BlurHeading	Word-by-word blur-reveal animated heading. Instrument Serif italic, fluid clamp() sizing.
Link	Semantic <a> with glass, primary, nav, footer style variants + Lucide icon.
Section	<section> wrapper with position:relative — the foundation for video-background layouts.
VideoBg	Absolutely-positioned background video. HLS via hls.js, gradient fades, desaturate filter.
FloatingNav	Fixed glassmorphism pill navigation bar with logo, links, and CTA button.

inlineStyle() — escape hatch for any CSS value

Flex(direction="col")
    .inlineStyle("padding-top:clamp(6rem,14vh,10rem);z-index:10;")

Use this for CSS values Tailwind CDN can't scan — clamp(), text-shadow, custom z-index.

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6 built-in themes + theme switching

class MyApp(App):
    theme = "dark"   # light · dark · ocean · sunset · forest · rose

Custom theme:

class MyApp(App):
    theme = {"color.primary": "#FF6B6B", "color.background": "#FFF5F5"}

Theme switching works at runtime — click a theme in the storybook or call pyuiSetTheme('dark') from any button.

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App configuration

class MyApp(App):
    name = "My App"
    description = "Built with Zolt."
    theme = "dark"
    extra_css = "/* custom CSS injected into every page */"
    head_scripts = ["https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/npm/hls.js@1.6.15/dist/hls.min.js"]
    favicon = "/images/favicon.ico"
    plugins = [MyPlugin()]
    home = HomePage()

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CLI reference

Command	Description
zolt new <name>	Scaffold a new project (--template blank|dashboard|landing|admin|auth|agency)
zolt templates	Browse all templates interactively and scaffold one
zolt run [app.py]	Start dev server with hot reload (--target web|desktop|cli)
zolt build [app.py]	Production build (--target web|desktop|cli|all)
zolt storybook	Open component gallery on port 9000
zolt doctor	Check environment health (Python, deps, ports, PyPI version)
zolt lint [app.py]	Lint component definitions
zolt search <query>	Search PyPI for zolt-* packages
zolt publish	Publish a component package to PyPI
zolt info	Show version info

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Plugin system

from pyui.plugins import PyUIPlugin, register_component

class ChartsPlugin(PyUIPlugin):
    name = "zolt-charts"
    version = "1.0.0"

    def on_load(self, app):
        register_component("LineChart", LineChartComponent)

class MyApp(App):
    plugins = [ChartsPlugin()]

Lifecycle hooks: on_load, on_compile_start, on_compile_end, on_build, on_dev_start

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Example apps

Six full example apps in examples/:

App	Description	Run
agency/	Dark premium AI agency landing page	zolt run examples/agency/app.py
dashboard/	Analytics dashboard with stats, chart, table	zolt run examples/dashboard/app.py
todo/	Reactive todo list	zolt run examples/todo/app.py
blog/	Content site with routing	zolt run examples/blog/app.py
ml-demo/	ML inference UI	zolt run examples/ml-demo/app.py
admin/	CRUD admin panel	zolt run examples/admin/app.py

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What's included in v1.2

• ✅ Web renderer (HTML + Tailwind CSS CDN + Alpine.js)
• ✅ Desktop renderer (tkinter with sv-ttk theme)
• ✅ CLI renderer (Rich TUI)
• ✅ Reactive state (reactive, computed, store, persist=True → localStorage)
• ✅ Theme engine (6 built-in themes + custom token dict + Figma export)
• ✅ Runtime theme switching (pyuiSetTheme())
• ✅ Plugin system with lifecycle hooks
• ✅ Hot reload (file save → browser update, <200ms)
• ✅ Dev tools panel (state inspector, event log, page navigator)
• ✅ Error overlay with structured error codes (PYUI-NNN)
• ✅ zolt lint — component tree validation
• ✅ zolt doctor — environment health check
• ✅ zolt storybook — interactive component gallery
• ✅ zolt templates — interactive template browser
• ✅ App.extra_css — inject custom CSS into every page
• ✅ App.head_scripts — inject CDN scripts into <head>
• ✅ BaseComponent.inlineStyle() — raw inline CSS on any component

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Deployment

Build a static bundle and deploy anywhere:

zolt build app.py --target web --out dist

Then deploy dist/ to:

• Vercel: vercel dist
• Netlify: netlify deploy --dir dist --prod
• GitHub Pages: push dist/ to gh-pages branch
• Cloudflare Pages: wrangler pages deploy dist

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What's next — v1.5

v1.5 replaces the Tailwind CSS dependency with ZoltCSS — Zolt's own styling engine. Zero CDN. Zero class names visible to the developer. One style declaration produces correct output for web, Qt desktop, and terminal.

Other v1.5 pillars: GSAP animation engine, Three.js 3D engine, 80+ prebuilt Zolt UI components, Figma import, Qt5/Qt6 desktop upgrade, and AI skill files for 100% API coverage.

See docs/Zolt_v1_5_PRD_TRD_Final.md for the full plan.

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Contributing

See CONTRIBUTING.md. Issues labelled good-first-issue are a great place to start.

License

MIT — see LICENSE.