ResearchPrivate RepoLinux-first • Gecko/libxul

Nagomi

Nagomi is an early Zaguán Labs research track exploring Gecko/libxul as a non-Chromium desktop application runtime. It is not public yet, not product-usable yet, and not presented as a framework people can adopt today.

Technical thesis: prove the runtime boundary first: a Nagomi-owned Rust/C++ host, Gecko/XRE startup, controlled lifecycle, and eventually a small window, event loop, and IPC bridge API.

Lab Note

Nagomi sits in the same broad problem space as desktop webview toolkits, but its current focus is much narrower: can Gecko be embedded cleanly and controlled from Rust without fighting the engine?

For now, the durable output is research: scope notes, feasibility checks, architecture boundaries, and small proof points around Linux-first Gecko embedding. The goal is clarity before claims.

Current Status

Phase 0 Research

Nagomi is in an early feasibility and productization track, focused on proving whether the embedding boundary is real enough to build on.

Private Repository

The repository is private while the project validates basic runtime control and avoids creating expectations before there is something reproducible.

Linux-first Scope

The initial question is intentionally Linux-first. Other platforms, packaging, CLI polish, and ecosystem work are out of scope until the runtime boundary holds.

Not Product-usable

Nagomi is not a public toolkit yet. It is a research effort, not a release announcement, SDK, or production framework.

What It Is Exploring

  • Gecko/libxul startup: controlled XRE startup from a Nagomi-owned host.
  • Rust/C++ boundary: a small native host layer that owns lifecycle instead of wrapping Firefox as an application.
  • Window and event loop shape: the minimum viable native shell needed before higher-level APIs make sense.
  • IPC bridge direction: a future Rust to JavaScript communication boundary that is explicit, testable, and small.
  • Linux desktop viability: whether Gecko can offer a stronger Linux story than the current WebKitGTK ceiling.

What It Is Not

Not Firefox

Nagomi is not a Firefox wrapper, not a browser skin, and not affiliated with or endorsed by Mozilla.

Not Electron

The research direction is specifically non-Chromium and avoids presenting Chromium-style desktop app assumptions as inevitable.

Not Ready

There is no public release, no stable API, and no promise that the research track becomes a general-purpose toolkit.

Why It Matters

The Gecko embedding slot has been mostly empty for years, while Chromium-based runtimes and WebKitGTK-based Linux stacks dominate desktop webview development. Nagomi asks whether a Rust-native Gecko path can exist without pretending the hard parts are solved.

If the answer is no, the research still has value. If the answer is yes, the embedding API becomes the product, and everything else can follow later.

Follow Progress

No public release yet: Nagomi will stay quiet until there is a small, honest demo or reproducible milestone worth showing publicly.