Hello there, I am proud to present KickstartFX, a ready-to-use JavaFX desktop application template. You can clone it and get started instantly or try out the pre-built releases on GitHub. If you have an interest in the Java desktop application landscape, this might be for you.

Relating to the times JavaFX is mentioned in HN discussions, you can also see this as a showcase about what is possible with modern Java + JavaFX if used correctly. While JavaFX might not be the most trendy desktop framework out there, it is very much alive and still a very solid solution for creating stable desktop applications in Java.

It comes with the following features that you won't find in other templates:

- A fully up-to-date build using the latest features of JDK25, Gradle 9, JavaFX 25, WiX 6, and much more

- Native executable and installer generation for all operating systems using native tools

- A fully modularized build, including fully modularized dependencies and the usage of jmods

- JDK 25 Leyden AOT cache generation logic and customizable training run implementations

- A ready-to-deploy GitHub actions pipeline to automatically build and release your application on all platforms

- Close-to-native theming capabilities with AtlantaFX themes as the basis combined with many manual improvements

- Automated tracking of the system appearance settings with light/dark mode and accent colors

- Advanced error handling and issue tracking with built-in support for Sentry

- Markdown rendering capabilities out-of-the-box with flexmark and the JavaFX WebView

- Integrated ability to automatically codesign the application on Windows and macOS

- Robust state management for caches, persistent data, and more

- Many customization options available to users in a comprehensible settings menu

- Update check capabilities and notifications for new GitHub releases

- Built-in troubleshooting tools for developers and users, including debug mode, heap dump, and more

- Hot-reload capabilities for all resources, including reapplying stylesheets

- Plenty of checks to warn users about problems with their system configuration, environment, and compatibility

- Desktop and registry access support classes

- Robust dependency Linux package management and font handling, your application will even run in WSL

- Application instance management and coordination via inter-process communication

- System tray icon support and proper handling of AWT/Swing alongside JavaFX

- Built-in support for Jackson and Lombok

- Integrated translation support with user interface language changes applying instantly

- Application logo templates that look native on every operating system, including a macOS 26 liquid glass icon

- Included third-party open source licenses of all dependencies, plus the required license display in the application

So as you can see, this is not a basic template but instead a full application, just missing your custom application content to be plugged in. You can of course also customize any of the codebase, the idea is to fork the repository, not depend on it using a library. There is also documentation available at https://kickstartfx.xpipe.io

The licensing model is designed to allow open source projects to use it under an Apache 2.0 license and other proprietary forks to contact me for licensing. Essentially, the base license for everyone is GPL3, but you can contact me to get the permission to license it under the Apache 2.0 license. If you developing a personal project, the only thing you need to show for that is that you are developing your application in an open source repository. If you are a company, developing a closed-source application, and want to license it under something else than GPL3, you can also contact me for an offer. All dependencies are compatible with a permissive license like Apache as well.

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