Build ONNX Runtime for Web

There are 2 steps to build ONNX Runtime Web:

  • Obtaining ONNX Runtime WebAssembly artifacts - can be done by -
    • Building ONNX Runtime for WebAssembly
    • Download the pre-built artifacts instructions below
  • Build onnxruntime-web (NPM package)
    • This step requires the ONNX Runtime WebAssembly artifacts

Contents

Build ONNX Runtime Webassembly artifacts

Prerequisites

  • Checkout the source tree: 
    git clone --recursive https://github.com/Microsoft/onnxruntime
cd onnxruntime

  • Install cmake-3.26 or higher.

  • Install Node.js (16.0+, 18.0+ is recommended)

  • Python (3.9+): https://www.python.org/downloads/
    • python should be added to the PATH environment variable
  • Ninja: https://ninja-build.org/ 
    pip install ninja
  • Prepare emsdk: emsdk should be automatically installed at <ORT_ROOT>/cmake/external/emsdk/emsdk. If the folder structure does not exist, run the following commands in <ORT_ROOT>/ to install git submodules: 
    git submodule sync --recursive
git submodule update --init --recursive

    (If you are using Windows, you can skip this step) in <ORT_ROOT>/cmake/external/emsdk/, run the following commands to setup emsdk:

    ./emsdk install latest
./emsdk activate latest
source ./emsdk_env.sh

Build Instructions

ONNX Runtime WebAssembly can be built with or without multi-thread and Single Instruction Multiple Data (SIMD) support. This support is added/removed by appending the following flags to the build command, the default build option is without.

build flag usage
--enable_wasm_threads build with multi-thread support
--enable_wasm_simd build with SIMD support

ONNX Runtime Web can be built with WebGPU and WebNN support via JavaScript Execution Provider (JSEP). To build with JSEP support, use flag --use_jsep. Building WebNN support requires additional flag --use_webnn.

ONNX Runtime Web can also be built to support the training APIs. To build with training APIs included, use the flag --enable-training-apis.

The WebAssembly artifacts of a complete build for ONNX Runtime Web will contain 3 “.wasm” files with 3 “.mjs” files. The build command below should be run for each of the configurations.

in <ORT_ROOT>/, run one of the following commands to build WebAssembly:

# In windows, use 'build' to replace './build.sh'
# It's recommended to use '--skip_tests` in Release & Debug + 'debug info' configruations - please review FAQ for more details

# The following command build debug.
./build.sh --build_wasm --enable_wasm_simd --enable_wasm_threads

# The following command build debug with debug info.
./build.sh --build_wasm --enable_wasm_simd --enable_wasm_threads --skip_tests --enable_wasm_debug_info

# The following command build release.
./build.sh --config Release --build_wasm --skip_tests --disable_wasm_exception_catching --disable_rtti

A full list of required build artifacts:

file name build flag used
ort-wasm-simd-threaded.wasm --enable_wasm_simd --enable_wasm_threads
ort-wasm-simd-threaded.mjs --enable_wasm_simd --enable_wasm_threads
ort-wasm-simd-threaded.jsep.wasm --use_jsep --use_webnn --enable_wasm_simd --enable_wasm_threads
ort-wasm-simd-threaded.jsep.mjs --use_jsep --use_webnn --enable_wasm_simd --enable_wasm_threads
ort-training-wasm-simd.wasm --enable_wasm_simd --enable_wasm_threads --enable_training_apis
ort-training-wasm-simd.mjs --enable_wasm_simd --enable_wasm_threads --enable_training_apis

NOTE:

  • ONNX Runtime Web is dropping support for non-SIMD and non-threaded builds in future versions since v1.19.0.
  • WebGPU and WebNN is currently supported as experimental feature for ONNX Runtime Web. The build instructions may change. Please make sure to refer to latest documents from webgpu gist and webnn gist for a detailed build/consume instruction for ORT Web WebGPU and WebNN.

Minimal Build Support

ONNX Runtime WebAssembly can be built with flag --minimal_build. This will generate smaller artifacts and also have a less runtime memory usage. In order to use this ONNX Runtime confiruation an ORT format model is required (vs. ONNX format). For more info please see also ORT format Conversion.

FAQ

Q: unittest fails on Release build.

A: unittest requires C++ exceptions to work properly. However, for performance concern, we disabled exception catching in emscripten. So please specify --skip_tests in Release build.

Q: unittest fails on Debug build with debug info.

A: building with debug info will generate very huge artifacts (>1GB for unittest) and failed to load in Node.js. So please specify --skip_tests in build with debug info.

Q: I have a C++ project for web scenario, which runs a ML model using ONNX Runtime and generates WebAssembly as an output. Does ONNX Runtime Web support a static WebAssembly library, so that my application can link with it and make all pre/post processors to be compiled together into WebAssembly?

A: With --build_wasm, a build script generates .wasm and .js files for web scenarios and intermediate libraries are not linked properly with other C/C++ projects. When you build ONNX Runtime Web using --build_wasm_static_lib instead of --build_wasm, a build script generates a static library of ONNX Runtime Web named libonnxruntime_webassembly.a in output directory. To run a simple inferencing like an unit test, what you need is three header files as follows and libonnxruntime_webassembly.a.

  • include/onnxruntime/core/session/onnxruntime_c_api.h
  • include/onnxruntime/core/session/onnxruntime_cxx_api.h
  • include/onnxruntime/core/session/onnxruntime_cxx_inline.h

One important note is that ONNX Runtime has dependencies on lots of 3rd party libraries such as protobuf, onnx, and others. You may need copy necessary header files to your project. You also take care of cases of library version conflicts or emsdk version conflicts between ONNX Runtime and your project.

Build onnxruntime-web - NPM package

The following sections are a step by step installation guide for onnxruntime-web NPM packages. This is the last stage in the build process, please follow the sections in a sequential order.

Prerequisites

  • Install Node.js (16.0+, 18.0+ is recommended)

  • Chrome or Edge browser for running tests.

Install NPM packages

  1. in <ORT_ROOT>/js/, run npm ci.
  2. in <ORT_ROOT>/js/common/, run npm ci.
  3. in <ORT_ROOT>/js/web/, run npm ci.

Prepare ONNX Runtime WebAssembly artifacts

You can either use the prebuilt artifacts or build it by yourself.

  • Setup by script.

    In <ORT_ROOT>/js/web/, run npm run pull:wasm to pull WebAssembly artifacts for latest master branch from CI pipeline. Use npm run pull:wasm help to explore more usages.

    NOTE: This script will overwrite your webaseembly build artifacts. If you build a part of the artifacts from source, a common practice is to run npm run pull:wasm to pull a full set of prebuilt artifacts and then copy your build artifacts (follow instructions below) to the target folder, so you don’t need to build for 6 times.

  • Download artifacts from pipeline manually.

    you can download prebuilt WebAssembly artifacts from Windows WebAssembly CI Pipeline. Select a build, download artifact “Release_wasm” and unzip. See instructions below to put files into destination folders.

  • Build WebAssembly artifacts.

    1. Build ONNX Runtime WebAssembly

      Follow instructions above for building ONNX Runtime WebAssembly.

    2. Copy following files from build output folder to <ORT_ROOT>/js/web/dist/ (create the folder if it does not exist):

      • ort-wasm-simd-threaded.wasm (build with flags --enable_wasm_threads --enable_wasm_simd)
      • ort-wasm-simd-threaded.mjs (build with flags --enable_wasm_threads --enable_wasm_simd)
      • ort-wasm-simd-threaded.jsep.wasm (build with flags --use_jsep --use_webnn --enable_wasm_simd --enable_wasm_threads)
      • ort-wasm-simd-threaded.jsep.mjs (build with flags --use_jsep --use_webnn --enable_wasm_simd --enable_wasm_threads)
      • ort-training-wasm-simd-threaded.wasm (build with flags --enable_wasm_simd --enable_wasm_threads --enable_training_apis)
      • ort-training-wasm-simd-threaded.mjs (build with flags --enable_wasm_simd --enable_wasm_threads --enable_training_apis)

Finalizing onnxruntime build

Use following command in folder <ORT_ROOT>/js/web to build:

   npm run build

This generates the final JavaScript bundle files to use. They are under folder <ORT_ROOT>/js/web/dist.