Deno 2.9

Deno 2.9 is here, headlined by deno desktop , a new way to build native desktop applications from the web stack you already know, with no Electron boilerplate and a single binary at the end. It’s also the easiest release yet to bring an existing Node project over: deno install now reads npm, pnpm, yarn, and Bun lockfiles directly, so switching your package manager to Deno takes a couple of commands, not a migration. There’s plenty more below, from CSS module imports and a much stronger test runner to faster startup and Node.js 26 compatibility.

To upgrade to Deno 2.9, run the following in your terminal:

deno upgrade

If Deno is not yet installed, run one of the following commands to install or learn how to install it here.

curl -fsSL https://deno.land/install.sh | sh iwr https://deno.land/install.ps1 -useb | iex

deno desktop

Building a desktop app has usually meant pulling in Electron or Tauri, wiring up a separate toolchain, and shipping a bundle that bears little resemblance to the rest of your project.

Deno 2.9 introduces deno desktop . Point it at a script (or a web framework project) and it produces a native, self-contained desktop application where the UI runs in a webview, your logic runs in Deno, and the whole thing compiles down to a single distributable binary (#33441).

deno desktop is experimental in 2.9. The surface described here is stabilizing and some platform features are still landing.

The simplest app is an entrypoint that serves your UI. Deno.serve() inside a desktop entrypoint automatically binds to the port the webview opens, so there’s no port wiring to do:

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