Compose Multiplatform Resources: One Res Object, Every Target

commonMain couldn't touch resources at all. Not strings, not drawables. Reading one string in shared code meant a hand-written expect/actual pair for every platform, and each drawable needed its own loader on each target.

#The old way

expect class StringProvider {
    fun welcomeMessage(): String
}

actual class StringProvider(private val context: Context) {
    actual fun welcomeMessage(): String = context.getString(R.string.welcome_message)
}

#The new way

import org.jetbrains.compose.resources.painterResource
import org.jetbrains.compose.resources.stringResource
import myapp.composeapp.generated.resources.Res
import myapp.composeapp.generated.resources.welcome_message
import myapp.composeapp.generated.resources.ic_logo

@Composable
fun WelcomeScreen() {
    Column(horizontalAlignment = Alignment.CenterHorizontally) {
        Image(
            painter = painterResource(Res.drawable.ic_logo),
            contentDescription = null
        )
        Text(text = stringResource(Res.string.welcome_message))
    }
}

#Why it matters

• Gradle generates Res at build time from composeResources/drawable and composeResources/values/strings.xml in the shared module. One file tree. Every target reads from it.
• stringResource and painterResource are plain composables. Call them straight from commonMain, with no expect/actual boilerplate per resource.
• Qualifier folders for dark, night, and locale behave exactly as they do in Android resources, resolved per platform at runtime.

#Gotcha

Res is generated code, tied to the module that declared the resources.

Reference Res.string.welcome_message before Gradle's resource-generation task has run — a fresh clone, or a resource added but not yet synced — and the whole module fails to compile. The error says "unresolved reference". It reads like a typo, not a missing resource.