Capacitor 243,123 's documentation promises "a consistent, web-focused set of APIs" that keep an app "as close to web standards as possible." Four habits follow:
The web build is the product. Capacitor copies webDir into the native projects and never rewrites it. The same build can ship as a PWA, and most official plugins have a web implementation.
Native projects are source code. npx cap add android writes android/ once; you then edit and commit files such as AndroidManifest.xml yourself (Native Projects as Source).
Plugins are packages. npm 2,036 install plus npx cap sync links a plugin's native library through Gradle 19,597 or Swift Package Manager 25,184 , and its proxy exists when the page loads, with no deviceready event.
Tools are local. The CLI is a dev dependency, so projects on one machine can use different versions.
"Native-capable" means the plugin catalog never boxes you in: you can write Kotlin or Java in the project you own, or wrap it as a plugin (Custom Plugins). The price is that permissions, icons, signing and Gradle upgrades live in native files you maintain.