Introduction to Hummer: An Ultra‑Lightweight Dynamic Cross‑Platform Development Framework

Hummer is an ultra‑lightweight, dynamic, cross‑platform development framework jointly created by DiDi's Puhui Front‑End team and DiDi R‑Lab Front‑End team. After two years of intensive development, it has been open‑sourced and is already deployed at large scale across many DiDi business lines.

Business Background : Rapid expansion of multiple business scenarios put pressure on development throughput without increasing team size. Existing cross‑platform solutions could not satisfy requirements for package size, stability, and learning cost. In late 2018, the two teams launched the Hummer project to deliver a high‑productivity, low‑cost dynamic framework that integrates front‑end and native development resources.

Technical Advantages :

Ultra‑light: compiled output < 1 MB, enabling minimal package‑size cost.

Easy to learn: Hummer API + Tenon Reactive Framework provide a low learning curve for both front‑end and native developers.

High availability: proven in many DiDi services with a crash rate below 0.01 %.

High performance: leverages native components and modules to maximize native rendering performance.

Cross‑platform: a single codebase runs on iOS and Android; Tenon also supports Vue‑based Web applications.

Dynamic: JavaScript‑interpreted execution allows rapid page deployment; combined with Hummer Nest for cloud‑based publishing.

Simple Demonstration : The article provides screenshots of a HelloWorld page implemented with both the Hummer API (native‑style) and the Tenon (Vue‑compatible) approach, illustrating the framework’s dual development modes.

Technical Architecture and Cross‑Platform System : Hummer is built on a minimal‑dependency JavaScript engine and adopts a Fabric‑like direct bridge architecture, enabling native objects and JS objects to interact seamlessly. It supports major JS engines such as JavaScriptCore, V8, Hermes, and QuickJS. Component self‑rendering and an optimized Yoga layout engine ensure consistent UI across platforms. Unlike many frameworks that rely on DSL + VDOM, Hummer uses Tenon Framework (compatible with Vue 3.0) for reactive development while preserving near‑native performance.

Hummer Nest provides a complete CI/CD platform for continuous integration, delivery, version tracking, crash reporting, and quality monitoring.

Case Showcase : Hummer has been rolled out in numerous DiDi services, including the Aggregated Cash Register SDK, driver and passenger apps for on‑demand services, delivery rider apps, freight driver and shipper apps, two‑wheel vehicle operations, and international food‑delivery clients. Screenshots demonstrate UI quality that is virtually indistinguishable from native implementations.

Conclusion : Hummer is a young, rapidly evolving framework that welcomes community feedback, contributions, and suggestions. The project aims to become the preferred cross‑platform solution for client development, helping teams reduce development cost and improve efficiency.

About Us : Official website – https://hummer.didi.cn; GitHub – https://github.com/didi/Hummer; Email – [email protected]; QQ group – 851327307; Follow the “Puhui Product Technology Team” public account for more updates.