---
sidebar_position: 1
---

# Introduction

The runtime is a library that provides utility methods for your application. There is both a Go and Javascript runtime
and the aim is to try and keep them at parity where possible.

The Go Runtime is available through importing `github.com/wailsapp/wails/v2/pkg/runtime`. All methods in this package
take a context as the first parameter. This context can be obtained from the [OnStartup](/docs/reference/options#onstartup)
or [OnDomReady](/docs/reference/options#ondomready) hooks.

:::info Note

Whilst the context will be provided to the
[OnStartup](/docs/reference/options#onstartup) method, there's no guarantee the runtime will work in this method as
the window is initialising in a different thread. If
you wish to call runtime methods at startup, use [OnDomReady](/docs/reference/options#ondomready).

:::

The Javascript library is available to the frontend via the `window.runtime` map. There is a runtime package generated when using `dev`
mode that provides Typescript declarations for the runtime. This should be located in the `wailsjs` directory in your
frontend directory.