Ship a single-tap Android APK that bundles JSS for non-technical users. Realizes part of #46 ("Solid Pod on Every Phone").

History: original framing was Flutter; pivoted to native Kotlin after research showed there's no maintained Flutter↔nodejs-mobile plugin, and that the plugin layer is unnecessary for a WebView-shell architecture. Decision rationale in this comment.

Architecture

• Native Android Studio project (Kotlin), single MainActivity
• libnode.so linked directly via JNI/CMake — vendored from nodejs-mobile/nodejs-mobile releases
• ~80 lines of C++ (JNI shim + stdout/stderr → logcat)
• Foreground service wrapping the Node thread (persistent notification)
• WebView pointed at http://127.0.0.1:4443/
• JSS bundled as APK assets (full node_modules/, copied to Context.filesDir on first launch — ~62 MB tree per scripts/bundle-jss.sh)
• All deps are pure JS — see feasibility spike

Repo

https://github.com/JavaScriptSolidServer/jss-android (default branch: gh-pages)

v1 scope (Android only)

• Repo scaffolded with README + ARCHITECTURE + LICENSE
• scripts/bundle-jss.sh — pulls JSS from npm, installs prod deps, refuses to bundle native modules
• Launch args verified end-to-end on dev box: bin/jss.js start --single-user --port 4443 --host 127.0.0.1 --root <files-dir>/data --idp
• Android Studio Kotlin project bones (gradle, manifest, MainActivity, theme)
• scripts/fetch-libnode.sh — pulls libnode.so for arm64-v8a + armeabi-v7a from nodejs-mobile releases
• JNI shim (native-lib.cpp, ~80 LOC, lifted from JaneaSystems samples)
• Foreground service + persistent notification ("JSS pod running")
• WebView wired to http://127.0.0.1:4443/, with port-bind retry (4443 → 4444 → ...)
• First-launch asset copy from APK assets to Context.filesDir
• AAB build with ABI splits (arm64-v8a, armeabi-v7a)
• Documented v1 caveat: --git, --terminal disabled (both shell out via child_process, not supported by nodejs-mobile)

v1 caveats

• No --git, no --terminal — nodejs-mobile's sandboxed Node disallows child_process.
• Loopback only by default (HTTP, not HTTPS). Public exposure path is --tunnel against a remote JSS.
• Node 18.20.4 is the upstream mobile build (Node 18 EOL'd April 2025). 127.0.0.1 bind cuts the attack surface materially; long-term watch for a community Node 20/22 mobile build.
• APK size: libnode is ~30 MB/ABI. Ship as AAB so Play Store delivers per-device.

Out of scope (v1)

• iOS — App Store rule 2.5.2 grey zone on dynamic JS eval; needs separate audit.
• postmarketOS / Linux ARM64 — later.
• A native (Compose/Views) UI replacing the WebView — v2.

Prior art for this pattern

• Manyverse (Scuttlebutt mobile) — nodejs-mobile + WebView
• Mapeo — peer-to-peer mapping, same pattern
• Both highlighted on nodejs-mobile.github.io

Refs

• Vision: Solid Pod on Every Phone #46 (umbrella vision: "Solid Pod on Every Phone")
• Support running on Android/Termux: bcrypt fails to compile #45, Verify JSS installs and runs on Android (Termux) #266 (Termux precedent)
• db: add SQLite backend for mobile/embedded environments #154 (SQLite mobile)
• E2EE for pod content via did:nostr + NIP-44 / NIP-04 (no server-side changes required) #365 (E2EE composes well with mobile pod)
• --tunnel feature (decentralized ngrok for public exposure)
• nodejs-mobile — patched Node runtime for Android/iOS
• nodejs-mobile-samples — reference Kotlin Android project