Kavi-KT is a Kotlin Multiplatform API for generating .kt source files.

Kavi (कवि) is Sanskrit for "poet", so Kavi-KT reads as "Kotlin poet" — the same KotlinPoet, only slightly different.

It is a fork of Square's KotlinPoet with a portable commonMain core: the full code-generation API runs on the JVM, Kotlin/Native, Kotlin/JS, and Kotlin/Wasm. JVM-only interop (javax.lang.model, reflection, kotlin-metadata) remains available on the JVM target.

Generate a HelloWorld.kt file:

val file = FileSpec.builder("com.example", "HelloWorld")
  .addFunction(
    FunSpec.builder("main")
      .addStatement("println(%S)", "Hello, Kavi-KT!")
      .build()
  )
  .build()

println(file)

The code above prints:

package com.example

public fun main() {
  println("Hello, Kavi-KT!")
}

dependencies {
  // Multiplatform code-generation core.
  implementation("io.github.kavi-kt:kavi-kt:2.4.0-alpha02")

  // Optional JVM-only interop modules:
  implementation("io.github.kavi-kt:kavi-kt-metadata:2.4.0-alpha02")
  implementation("io.github.kavi-kt:kavi-kt-ksp:2.4.0-alpha02")
}

The core artifact works from commonMain in a multiplatform project and from a plain JVM project alike — Gradle module metadata resolves the right variant per target. The -metadata and -ksp interop modules are JVM-only. okio is exposed as an api dependency of the core for multiplatform file I/O.

The emitter is fully functional on every target. Annotation-processing inputs (javax.lang.model) and java.lang.reflect are JVM-only; Kotlin reflection (KClass / KType → TypeName) works on the JVM and Native but not JS/Wasm; off-JVM file output goes through okio. The table below breaks the API down by target.

✅ full · 🟡 minor documented edge-case · — not available on this target

Edge-cases:

• Native — KType reflection over nested generic classes (e.g. Map.Entry<K, V>) throws / returns null; build the type structurally instead.
• Native / JS / Wasm — identifiers with astral (non-BMP) letters fall back to _.
• JS / Wasm — an integral Double/Float in %L prints without a trailing .0.

The structural API is unaffected on all targets.

The KotlinPoet guides apply — the API is identical aside from the package name and annotations.

Kavi-KT keeps the KotlinPoet API shape; migrating an existing project is a source-level change:

• depend on io.github.kavi-kt:kavi-kt instead of com.squareup:kotlinpoet,
• replace the com.squareup.kotlinpoet package prefix with io.github.kavikt in imports (import io.github.kavikt.*),
• rename the opt-in annotations: @DelicateKotlinPoetApi → @DelicateKaviApi, @ExperimentalKotlinPoetApi → @ExperimentalKaviApi.

Copyright 2017 Square, Inc.

Licensed under the Apache License, Version 2.0 (the "License");
you may not use this file except in compliance with the License.
You may obtain a copy of the License at

   https://www.apache.org/licenses/LICENSE-2.0

Unless required by applicable law or agreed to in writing, software
distributed under the License is distributed on an "AS IS" BASIS,
WITHOUT WARRANTIES OR CONDITIONS OF ANY KIND, either express or implied.
See the License for the specific language governing permissions and
limitations under the License.

Kavi-KT is a fork of KotlinPoet, and is distributed under the same Apache 2.0 license.

A huge thank-you to ForteScarlet for the enormous effort that went into the original Kotlin Multiplatform migration of KotlinPoet — Kavi-KT stands on that work. And thank you to Square and every KotlinPoet contributor for building such a great tool in the first place.