Getting Started#

Get type-safe Go in your browser in under 5 minutes.

Prerequisites#

  • Go 1.21+
  • TinyGo (recommended) or standard Go
  • Node.js 18+ (for TypeScript)

Installation#

go install github.com/13rac1/gowasm-bindgen@latest

Quick Example#

1. Write Go Functions#

Create wasm/main.go:

package main

// Greet returns a greeting message
func Greet(name string) string {
    return "Hello, " + name + "!"
}

// Add returns the sum of two numbers
func Add(a, b int) int {
    return a + b
}

func main() {
    // Keep the program running for WASM
    select {}
}

2. Build Everything#

gowasm-bindgen wasm/main.go

This single command:

  • Generates generated/go-wasm.ts - TypeScript client with full types
  • Generates generated/worker.js - Web Worker for non-blocking calls
  • Generates wasm/bindings_gen.go - Go WASM wrapper functions
  • Copies generated/wasm_exec.js - Go runtime from TinyGo
  • Compiles generated/wasm.wasm - Optimized WASM binary (~200KB)

3. Use in TypeScript#

import { GoWasm } from './generated/go-wasm';

const wasm = await GoWasm.init('./worker.js');

const greeting = await wasm.greet('World');
console.log(greeting);  // "Hello, World!"

const sum = await wasm.add(2, 3);
console.log(sum);  // 5

wasm.terminate();  // Clean up when done

Build Options#

# Generate only (skip WASM compilation)
gowasm-bindgen wasm/main.go --no-build

# Custom output directory
gowasm-bindgen wasm/main.go --output build/

# Use standard Go instead of TinyGo (larger binary, ~2.4MB)
gowasm-bindgen wasm/main.go --compiler go

# Synchronous mode (blocks main thread, no Web Worker)
gowasm-bindgen wasm/main.go --mode sync

Project Structure#

A typical project looks like:

my-project/
├── wasm/
│   ├── main.go           # Your Go code
│   └── bindings_gen.go   # Generated (gitignore)
├── src/
│   └── app.ts            # Your TypeScript code
├── generated/            # gowasm-bindgen output (gitignore)
│   ├── wasm.wasm         # Compiled WASM
│   ├── go-wasm.ts        # Generated TypeScript client
│   ├── worker.js         # Generated Web Worker
│   └── wasm_exec.js      # Go runtime
├── dist/                 # Final bundled output (gitignore)
│   └── app.js            # Bundled TypeScript
└── Makefile              # Build automation

Example Makefile#

.PHONY: build generate clean

# Full build (default)
build:
	gowasm-bindgen wasm/main.go

# Generate only (no WASM compilation)
generate:
	gowasm-bindgen wasm/main.go --no-build

clean:
	rm -rf generated wasm/bindings_gen.go

Next Steps#

Why gowasm-bindgen? Forward