Thorm Overview

Backend-first UI for building interactive web apps without adopting a frontend framework.

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What is Thorm

Thorm lets backend developers build interactive web UIs using backend code. It compiles your UI into a structured representation and uses a small runtime to update the DOM efficiently.

Key concepts

A small set of building blocks you'll use everywhere—structure, state, and behavior.

Learn these once and you'll understand most Thorm code—how pages are built, how state updates UI, and how behavior is declared.

  • Components + props + slots
  • State (atoms)
  • Events / actions / effects
  • Routing + per-route SSR/CSR
  • Registry-based runtime (today), plugins via manifests (roadmap)

The problems it solves

  • UI becomes a second project with separate tooling
  • Frontend frameworks dictate your backend
  • Shipping common app screens takes too much ceremony

What you get

  • One mental model for structure + behavior
  • Declarative events/effects/actions
  • Composable components with props + slots

Where Thorm fits

Great for
  • docs/marketing sites
  • dashboards
  • internal tools
  • forms
  • interactive pages
Not ready for
  • highly custom JS-heavy UI
  • canvas/WebGL-heavy apps (Capabilities not fully tested)

How it works

Backend code //(UI + behavior)
    ↓
Thorm IR //(structured data)
    ↓
Small runtime //updates the DOM + runs actions/effects
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