htag2 0.1.2

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

htag2

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

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

It's completely crazy, but it works (ChromeApp on linux/windows).

Get Started

Check the Official Documentation for more information.

Install

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

currently, it's not available yet on pypi ... but the latest working wheel is available on the latest release.

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.
• Reactive State Management (State): Introducing State(value) for automatic UI reactivity. Simply assign a State to a component using a lambda (e.g. Tag.div(lambda: state.value)), and the UI will auto-update whenever the state changes. Use state.set(new_value) for functional updates inside callbacks.
• 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.
• 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.
• State.notify(): Manually trigger reactive updates after in-place mutations of mutable values (lists, dicts).