Why nhyris?
nhyris (an anagram of rshiny, pronounced nai-riss) is a framework to transform R Shiny applications into standalone desktop apps.
This means you can run a Shiny application using only a ZIP file—no need to install R or RStudio.
Why is this important?
R Shiny enables R developers to build interactive web applications with R.
However, deploying Shiny apps typically requires engineering knowledge of servers and infrastructure to handle user interactions.
Many of Shiny’s target users—such as statisticians and decision makers—are non-technical and may lack the experience or desire to maintain Shiny servers.
Even for R developers, using Shiny apps can involve infrastructure complexity:
- Ensuring offline access
- Running in isolated environments
- Handling data security and compliance
We propose building R Shiny applications in a completely independent and self-contained way, requiring no external dependencies to run—making building, running, and maintaining apps easier than ever.
This challenge affects R Shiny developers, organizations, SAS users transitioning to R, and academics—all of whom need self-contained, server-free Shiny applications accessible without technical setup.
The real-world adoption of R and Shiny in regulated and enterprise settings, as demonstrated by Novo Nordisk and the Submission Working Group, highlights the growing need for seamless, accessible deployment solutions beyond academia.
How do we solve this?
Previously, some attempted to build desktop applications using Electron.js, a popular framework for cross-platform apps. See this showcase for examples.
However, Electron is JavaScript-based, which can be challenging for R developers who are only familiar with R or Shiny.
A few years ago, we created a simple, reproducible process with step-by-step instructions (see this repository), and it worked well.
Why nhyris?
The previous approach focused on minimal applications and lacked guidance for advanced configuration, even though it was possible.
As an enhanced solution, nhyris expands beyond the original macOS prototype to support Windows and Linux, reduces deployment overhead, offers customizable design options, and provides comprehensive documentation and tutorials for R developers.
nhyris is designed as a CLI tool that generates a desktop application wrapper with a bundled R runtime for true standalone execution—no R or RStudio installation required.
Made by jahnen