TL;DR: jDeploy is now a fully self-contained desktop app with a modern GUI. It lets you build and publish Swing, JavaFX, and Codename One apps to GitHub or npm — without needing to install npm or any other tooling.

🚀 What is jDeploy?

jDeploy is an open-source tool that makes it dead simple to package and distribute Java desktop apps.

It solves the "last mile" problem for Swing and JavaFX devs by bundling your app and publishing it to GitHub Releases or npm, complete with a native installer or web-launchable version.

Previously, jDeploy was a CLI tool. Now, it has a full-featured desktop GUI, built with Swing and deployed using jDeploy itself — in true dogfooding fashion 🐶

✅ What's New in the Desktop App?

  • Modern GUI: No need to use the CLI unless you want to. Launch, create, build, and publish from a native app.
  • Zero dependencies: No npm, Node, or CLI setup required. Everything is bundled.
  • Built-in project templates for Swing, JavaFX, and Codename One.
  • Publish with a click to GitHub Releases or npm.
  • IDE integration (IntelliJ, NetBeans, Eclipse, VS Code).
  • Web Preview support via CheerpJ.
  • Secure token-based auth with 2FA support for GitHub and npm.

⚡️ Create and Publish in Under 30 Seconds

With the new app:

  1. Select a project template.
  2. Enter a name and title.
  3. Press "Create".
  4. Press "Publish" (with optional build).

That's it. Your app is published and shareable.

🖼 Web Preview with CheerpJ

jDeploy now includes a "Web Preview" feature powered by CheerpJ, which converts Java desktop apps into web apps you can run in the browser (locally or hosted).

It’s still evolving, but current support includes:

  • Java 11–17
  • Full Swing API
  • Early JavaFX support in CheerpJ 4.0 (coming soon)

The "Swing Maven Starter" template works out of the box.

🔐 Auth Improvements

Authentication for publishing has always been tricky, depending on the user's OS, npm version, or CLI environment.

Now, jDeploy uses personal access tokens, stored securely in your system keychain. It supports two-factor authentication for both GitHub and npm.

📦 Want to Contribute?

Project templates live in the jdeploy-project-templates GitHub repo. If you have a useful template for a Java project setup, feel free to open a PR.

You can also check out the main GitHub repo for jDeploy to file issues, give feedback, or join discussions.

🙌 Try It Out

If you've ever built (or plan to build) a Java desktop app, give the new jDeploy desktop app a try.

👉 Read the full launch post

👉 Get started at jdeploy.com

👉 View the source on GitHub

💬 I'd love to hear what you think! Drop a comment below or join the discussion on GitHub.