Glimm

glimm is a page-transition library by Noman Ijaz. A WebGL colour band sweeps the viewport and the next view shows behind the band. The homepage, read on 4 November 2026, says the library is for React and Next.js, that the same sweep can run on a route change or on a state change you choose, and that the build is GPU-composited, under 10 KB, and has zero performance impact. The size sentence and the performance sentence are the homepage. This check did not run a transition and did not trace a frame.

This note is the npm package glimm. It is not getglim.dev (@axaylabs/glim), not the GLIM mapping framework, not the GitLab TUI named glim, and not Glimmervoid.

Who publishes it

npm latest is 0.3.1, published 13 September 2026 at 14:40 UTC. The package was created 21 May 2026. Versions 0.1.0, 0.1.1, 0.1.2, and 0.1.3 set license to UNLICENSED. 0.1.4 and later, including 0.3.1, set license to MIT. The published LICENSE file is the MIT text, copyright 2026 Noman Ijaz, and it names iamnoman.com. The homepage footer says v0.3.1 and MIT, made by Noman. The npm maintainer name is nojack.

The npm document points repository at git+https://github.com/nomanjack/glimm.git in directory packages/glimm, and bugs at https://github.com/nomanjack/glimm/issues. A request to the GitHub API for nomanjack/glimm on 4 November 2026 returned HTTP 404. The homepage HTML fetched the same day has no GitHub link. The public repo nomanjack/glimm-skill is a coding-agent skill that installs glimm. Its README says npx skills add nomanjack/glimm-skill and Node 22.20 or later. That repo is MIT, has no description, 0 stars, and was pushed 3 November 2026. It is not the library source.

Where the package lives

glimm@0.3.1 has no dependencies field. peerDependencies are react >=18 and next >=14, both marked optional in peerDependenciesMeta. engines.node is >=18. Dev dependencies on that document include next ^16.0.0, react ^19.0.0, tsup ^8.3.5, typescript ^5.7.3, and vitest ^3.2.7. sideEffects is false. exports map . to dist/index.js, ./react to dist/react.js, and ./next to dist/next.js, each with a matching .d.ts.

The jsDelivr file list for 0.3.1 gives these sizes. dist/index.js is 68514 bytes. dist/index.min.js is not in exports, and the CDN still serves it at 52035 bytes. dist/chunk-IKX3GGU3.js is 41024 bytes. dist/next.js is 3386 bytes. dist/react.js is 96 bytes. Gzip at level 9 of the CDN bytes, computed here and not a browser transfer, is 18231 bytes for dist/index.js and 16900 bytes for dist/index.min.js. An application bundle after tree-shaking was not built. The unpacked package metadata says 11 files and 148009 bytes.

The npm README names three entry points. glimm is the core, with shader factories, playSweep, palettes, easings, and colour math. glimm/react adds GlimmProvider and useGlimm. glimm/next adds TransitionLink, useTransitionRouter, and InterceptLinks. The README says one app should import the provider from a single entry so the hooks share one React context.

How a sweep runs

The npm README says a sweep keeps the outgoing view ahead of the band and reveals the incoming view behind it. playSweep is the low-level call. onMidpoint swaps content. GlimmProvider is what coordinates React and Next.js. The README says that provider keeps the outgoing view with the browser View Transitions API, turns off the browser crossfade, and draws the shader as a separate layer. If snapshots fail, it covers the view with an opaque curtain, updates, then reveals. prefers-reduced-motion and missing WebGL skip the shader and navigate immediately. The same section says an 8 second preparation timeout stops the transition from trapping the page, and that the timeout cannot cancel requests the app already started.

The homepage says the provider stays idle until the first sweep, and that it creates one WebGL context then. It also says an app that never transitions pays nothing at setup. That sentence is the homepage. This check did not profile it.

Default options in the npm README include sweepMs 1100, outroMs 220, midpoint 0.56, palette prism, and direction ltr. The changelog for 0.3.1 says the default outro moved from 700 ms to 220 ms. Built-in palettes named there are prism, berry, lagoon, citrus, azure, and ember. Built-in easings named there are linear, easeOutQuart, easeOutCubic, easeInCubic, easeInOutCubic, easeOutExpo, easeInOutQuint, snap, ease, and back. Directions are ltr, rtl, ttb, and btt.

On Next.js, the homepage shows three triggers. TransitionLink is for a known href. useTransitionRouter is for a push after other work. InterceptLinks sends same-origin clicks through a sweep. The README says data-glimm-skip opts a link out. It also says Next.js router calls do not return a readiness promise, so the provider does not promise that every image or streamed boundary has finished.

Gotchas

The homepage says React 18 or newer and Next 13 or newer are the peer deps. The published 0.3.1 peer range for Next is >=14. React >=18 matches the homepage. Both peers are optional, and the README says the core entry needs neither.

The homepage size line does not match the published files measured above. "Zero performance impact" was not measured here.

0.3.1 says cancelling a sweep settles the handle and skips a midpoint callback that has not started. It does not undo navigation that already began. The README says to call ctrl.setAlpha(0) or destroy the controller when a core sweep stops with no replacement.

Two other packages wrap the same idea and are not this release. glimm-adapters says it wires TanStack Router, React Router, SvelteKit, Vue Router, Nuxt, Astro, and vanilla JS, and that it is built against glimm 0.3.1. glimm-vue calls itself an unofficial Vue 3 port by Kamarool Karim and says it is not endorsed by Noman Ijaz. This check did not open those repositories.

What this check did not do

No npm install, no test run, and no browser session through the four homepage demos. The library source at github.com/nomanjack/glimm was not readable. Shader source inside the published bundle was not read. The gzip figures are level 9 on the CDN file bytes.