Cobe Js

Cobe Js Official Website

Cobe Js is a 5KB WebGL globe library with a 13-scene demo site.

Official app: https://cobe.vercel.app/
Creator: Shu Ding (@shuding, Vercel)
Price: Free (open source, MIT License)
Login required: No
Platform: Web (Vercel + npm library)
Main use: 3D globe rendering for websites, dashboards, and data visualizations
Last checked: 2026-08-21

We are not the official developer of Cobe Js. This page helps users find, understand, and use the product.

What Is Cobe Js?

The first thing visitors see on Cobe Js is a fullscreen dark globe with glowing city dots and animated flight arcs — then the page cycles through 13 scenes: Stickers, Labels, Satellites, Polaroids, Live Badge, Flights, Interactive, Analytics, Pulse, Weather, and Bars. This is a product that sells itself by demonstration: it shows exactly what a 5KB library can do, from a minimal labeled globe to a data-viz globe with animated bars.

The library is built around a single API. After npm install cobe, you import createGlobe and call it with a canvas element and an options object containing devicePixelRatio, width, height, phi, theta, dark, diffuse, mapSamples, mapBrightness, baseColor, markerColor, and glowColor. The demo page displays this exact config, and also links runnable examples for React, Vue, and Svelte, plus a CDN option — so it works for both framework users and plain script tags.

How to Use Cobe Js

Open the official Cobe Js website and watch the globe demo cycle through its 13 scenes.
Install the library: npm install cobe.
Import it in your app: import createGlobe from 'cobe'.
Create a canvas in your markup, then call createGlobe(canvas, config) using the demo's options as a template, and swap in your own colors and markers.

Is Cobe Js Safe?

Cobe Js is a transparent open-source project: the entire source is public on GitHub under an MIT license, with more than 5,600 stars, so the code can be reviewed before use. The library is purely client-side — it draws WebGL on a canvas and performs no network communication, data collection, or account requirements. The demo page is a static Vercel deployment, usable without registration or payment. The author, Shu Ding, is a recognized Vercel developer (SWR creator, Next.js core contributor), a public figure rather than an anonymous publisher. The only real limitation is functional: cobe renders but does not ship map data, so you must provide your own markers. Reasonable caution applies to any third-party code, but this one is about as auditable as it gets.

Why Is Cobe Js Popular?

Cobe Js became a small phenomenon in the frontend community when its creator demonstrated a photorealistic 3D globe in only 5KB — a result developers had assumed would require megabytes of Three.js code. The announcement thread on X/Twitter, which went through the rendering details, was widely shared, and the "COBE" demo site became a bookmark for anyone wanting that effect on their own site. With over 5.6K stars and continued maintenance, it remains one of the first results when developers search for a lightweight globe library — and those searches are what "cobe js" queries look like.

Cobe Js Not Working?

If Cobe Js does not work, try:

Refresh the page to restore the WebGL context.
Update your browser and enable hardware acceleration.
Disable extensions that interfere with canvas or WebGL.
Confirm the cobe.vercel.app deployment is still up.
In your own project, double-check the canvas dimensions — a 0×0 canvas renders nothing.