inputbron

Inputbron is a cross-platform input handling framework designed to standardize the processing of user input across devices and contexts. It provides an abstraction layer that translates device-specific input events—keyboard, mouse, touch, stylus, gamepad, speech, and motion sensors—into a uniform event model that applications can consume consistently.

The name Inputbron blends the word input with a suffix drawn from various languages to imply a bridge between devices and software. It emerged in online developer communities in the early 2020s and was formalized as an open-source project.

The project was launched by a loose consortium of game developers, accessibility researchers, and platform SDK authors in 2022–2023. A first public release appeared in 2024, followed by successive minor releases that added platform adapters and accessibility features. A governance model was established to manage plugins and core updates, aiming to balance stability with ongoing ecosystem growth.

Architecture and features include core concepts such as InputEvent, InputContext, and InputBridge. It normalizes events across platforms, offers device capability queries, supports per-context input routing, and includes an event-safety model. The core is written in C++ with bindings for JavaScript, Python, and Rust, and it employs a plugin system to add platform-specific adapters. Web support is provided through a WASM bridge, enabling use in web applications.

Applications and reception: Inputbron is used in several open-source game engines and GUI toolkits to simplify multi-platform input handling and improve accessibility. Critics note that the ecosystem is still evolving and that integration can introduce overhead for simple projects, but its developers emphasize ongoing optimization and broad device coverage.