Worklet

Secure context: This feature is available only in secure contexts (HTTPS), in some or all supporting browsers.

The Worklet interface is a lightweight version of Web Workers and gives developers access to low-level parts of the rendering pipeline.

With Worklets, you can run JavaScript and WebAssembly code to do graphics rendering or audio processing where high performance is required.

Worklets allow static import of ECMAScript modules, if supported, using import. Dynamic import is disallowed by the specification — calling import() will throw.

Worklet types

Worklets are restricted to specific use cases; they cannot be used for arbitrary computations like Web Workers. The Worklet interface abstracts properties and methods common to all kind of worklets, and cannot be created directly. Instead, you can use one of the following classes:

Name Description Location Specification
AudioWorklet For audio processing with custom AudioNodes. Web Audio render thread Web Audio API
AnimationWorklet For creating scroll-linked and other high performance procedural animations. Compositor thread CSS Animation Worklet API
LayoutWorklet For defining the positioning and dimensions of custom elements. CSS Layout API
SharedStorageWorklet For running private operations on cross-site data, without risk of data leakage. Main thread Shared Storage API

Note: Paint worklets, defined by the CSS Painting API, don't subclass Worklet. They are accessed through a regular Worklet object obtained using CSS.paintWorklet.

For 3D rendering with WebGL, you don't use worklets. Instead, you write vertex shaders and fragment shaders using GLSL code, and those shaders will then run on the graphics card.

Instance properties

The Worklet interface does not define any properties.

Instance methods

Worklet.addModule()

Adds the script module at the given URL to the current worklet.

Specifications

Specification
HTML
# worklets-worklet

Browser compatibility

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desktopmobile
Chrome
Edge
Firefox
Opera
Safari
Chrome Android
Firefox for Android
Opera Android
Safari on iOS
Samsung Internet
WebView Android
WebView on iOS
Worklet
addModule
Support for ECMAScript modules

Legend

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Full support
Full support
See implementation notes.

See also