A modern programming language that makes developers happier.

kotlinlang

(without loading a browser engine like webkit / CEF)

hypothetically you don't need a whole browser engine, node + virtual dom could work too

yeah can i just have a sourceSet that my native targets rely on

how do i use node + a virtual dom in native() or jvm() targets

you create a JS binary and run it in a separate node executable

it will have no integration with your native or jvm code

well my native kotlin code would need to interact with it in some way

Perhaps something like this might be useful in this case <https://github.com/oracle/graaljs|https://github.com/oracle/graaljs>

You may also be interested in <https://github.com/elide-dev>

Why would you want to use Kotlin React? Are you looking for UI stuff, or something code-level that is not doable in Kotlin? If UI, I doubt Kotlin React would provide any value, as there is a whole other thing called React Native that provides for cross-platform development in JS/TS. But then you wouldn't need KMP.