htag2 0.2.4

A modern, state-of-the-art Python GUI framework

htag2

Here is a full rewrite of htag, using only antigravity and prompts/intentions.

It feels very good. Currently, it's not a replacement, it's just a POC.

It's completely crazy, but it works :

• For building desktop apps (ChromeApp on linux/windows)
• For building web apps (WebApp as an asgi app (for starlette/fastapi/...))
• For building SPA HTML Page (with the PyScript runner)
• For building android apps (it works, but need to improve)

Get Started

Check the Official Documentation for more information.

Install

uv add htag2

Or using pip:

pip install htag2

Alternatively, you can run from source:

git clone https://github.com/manatlan/htag2.git
cd htag2
uv run examples/main3.py

Skill

With gemini-cli, claude-code, mistral-vibe (or others), you can use this SKILL.md to create a htag2 application.

Antigravity resumes :

htag2 is a Python library for building web applications using HTML, CSS, and JavaScript.

Key Resiliency Features Added

• Zero-Config Hot-Reload: Passing reload=True to any runner (e.g. ChromeApp(App).run(reload=True)) automatically watches for Python file changes, seamlessly restarts the backend, and gracefully refreshes the frontend without losing your browser window session.
• F5/Reload Robustness: Refreshing the browser no longer kills the Python backend; the session reconstructs cleanly.
• HTTP Fallback (SSE + POST): If WebSockets are blocked (e.g. strict proxies) or fail to connect, the client seamlessly falls back to HTTP POST for events and Server-Sent Events (SSE) for receiving UI updates.
• Production Debug Mode: Easily disable error reporting in the client by setting debug=False on the runner (e.g. WebApp(App, debug=False).app), preventing internal stacktraces from leaking to users.
• Parano Mode (Payload Obfuscation): By initializing WebApp(App, parano=True), all data exchanged between the frontend and backend is automatically obfuscated using a dynamic XOR cipher and Base64 wrapping, making network traffic unreadable to MITM proxies.

New API Features

• .root, .parent, and .childs properties: Every GTag exposes its position in the component tree. .root references the main Tag instance, .parent references the direct parent component, and .childs is a list of its children. This allows components to easily navigate the DOM tree and trigger app-level actions.
• Declarative UI with Context Managers (with): You can now build component trees visually using with blocks (e.g., with Tag.div(): Tag.h1("Hello")), removing the need for self <= ... boilerplate.
• Dual Attribute Access (Dictionary Style): In addition to self._class = "foo", you can now use self["class"] = "foo". This is the preferred way to handle attributes with dashes (e.g., self["data-id"] = 123).
• Automatic Attribute Normalization: HTML attributes are normalized to use dashes internally. Setting self._data_id = "123" is strictly equivalent to setting self["data-id"] = "123".
• Reactive State Management (State): Introducing State(value) for automatic UI reactivity. State acts as a transparent Proxy: you can use comparison/arithmetic operators directly (if self.count > 0: ...), mutate nested structures (including lists, dicts, sets, and tuples), and delegate attribute assignments seamlessly.
• Iterative & Attribute Reactivity: Iterating over a State now yields proxies, meaning mutations like for item in self.list: item.active = True trigger re-renders. Attribute assignments (e.g. self.user.name = "Bob") are automatically delegated to the underlying object and notified.
• Reactive & Boolean Attributes: Attributes like _class, _style, or _disabled now support lambdas for dynamic updates. Boolean attributes (e.g. _disabled=True) are correctly rendered as key-only or omitted.
• Simplified Removal (.remove()): To remove a component from its parent, simply call self.remove() without arguments.
• Rapid Content Replacement (.text): Use the .text property on any tag to quickly replace its inner text content without needing to manually clear its children first.
• Recursive Statics & JS: Components created dynamically (via lambdas) now have their statics (CSS) and call_js commands correctly collected and sent to the client.
• Scoped Styles (styles): Define a styles class attribute on any component to get automatically scoped CSS. The framework prefixes every rule with .htag-ClassName, handles @media, @keyframes, pseudo-selectors, and multi-selectors.
• CSS Class Helpers: add_class(), remove_class(), toggle_class(), and has_class() for convenient class manipulation without manual string handling.
• Simple Events & HashChange: Support for passing primitive values or custom objects from JS (via tag["onclick"] = func or tag._onclick = func). Includes built-in support for _onhashchange.
• Fragments (Tag()): Create virtual components that group children without adding a wrapper tag to the DOM.
• Advanced Tag Search (.find_tag()): Effortlessly locate any component in the tree by its internal htag ID or its manually assigned HTML id.
• Custom ID Resilience: Manual HTML id attributes are now supported without breaking htag2's reactive partial updates, thanks to an automatic data-htag-id fallback mechanism.
• Automatic Attribute Assignment: Non-prefixed keyword arguments passed during component instantiation are automatically assigned as instance attributes, simplifying data passing to custom components.