Cocoa-Way

Native macOS Wayland compositor for running Linux apps seamlessly

Demo Video • Install • Quick Start • Architecture

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🎥 Demo Video

True protocol portability: Cocoa-Way rendering Linux apps from OrbStack via Unix sockets.

✨ Features

Feature	Description
🍎 Native macOS	Metal/OpenGL rendering, seamless desktop integration
🚀 Zero VM Overhead	Direct Wayland protocol via socket, no virtualization
📺 HiDPI Ready	Optimized for Retina displays with proper scaling
🎨 Polished UI	Server-side decorations with shadows and focus indicators
⚡ Hardware Accelerated	Efficient OpenGL rendering pipeline

📦 Installation

Homebrew (Recommended)

brew tap J-x-Z/tap
brew install cocoa-way waypipe-darwin

Download Binary

Download the latest .dmg or .zip from Releases.

Build from Source

# Install dependencies
brew install libxkbcommon pixman pkg-config

# Clone and build
git clone https://github.com/J-x-Z/cocoa-way.git
cd cocoa-way
cargo build --release

🚀 Quick Start

⚠️ Required: You must install waypipe-darwin to connect Linux apps.

brew tap J-x-Z/tap && brew install waypipe-darwin

1. Start the compositor:

   cocoa-way

2. Connect Linux apps via SSH:

   ./run_waypipe.sh ssh user@linux-host firefox

🏗️ Architecture

graph LR
    subgraph macOS
        CW[Cocoa-Way<br/>Compositor]
        WP1[waypipe<br/>client]
    end
    
    subgraph Linux VM/Container
        WP2[waypipe<br/>server]
        APP[Linux App<br/>Firefox, etc]
    end
    
    APP -->|Wayland Protocol| WP2
    WP2 <-->|SSH/Socket| WP1
    WP1 -->|Wayland Protocol| CW
    CW -->|Metal/OpenGL| Display[macOS Display]

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🆚 Comparison

Solution	Latency	HiDPI	Native Integration	Setup Complexity
Cocoa-Way	⚡ Low	✅	✅ Native windows	🟢 Easy
XQuartz	🐢 High	⚠️ Partial	⚠️ X11 quirks	🟡 Medium
VNC	🐢 High	❌	❌ Full screen	🟡 Medium
VM GUI	🐢 High	⚠️ Partial	❌ Separate window	🔴 Complex

🗺️ Roadmap

• macOS backend (Metal/OpenGL)
• Waypipe integration
• HiDPI scaling
• 🚧 Windows backend (win-way)
• 📱 Android NDK backend (planned)
• Multi-monitor support
• Clipboard sync

📚 Research

This project is part of the "Turbo-Charged Protocol Virtualization" research initiative exploring zero-cost cross-platform Wayland via Rust trait monomorphization + SIMD-accelerated pixel conversion.

❓ Troubleshooting

SSH: "remote port forwarding failed"

A stale socket file exists on the remote host. Our run_waypipe.sh script handles this automatically with -o StreamLocalBindUnlink=yes.

If running manually:

waypipe ssh -o StreamLocalBindUnlink=yes user@host ...

🤝 Contributing

Contributions welcome! Please open an issue first to discuss major changes.

📄 License

GPL-3.0 - Copyright (c) 2024-2025 J-x-Z