Most solutions that "compile" JavaScript actually package an application together with a JavaScript engine. The code is still interpreted or JIT-compiled at runtime. Static Hermes takes a different approach: it ahead-of-time compiles the application itself into native machine code. Using the Flow bundler as a case study—a substantial Node.js application that relies on Node APIs, Babel, and even a WebAssembly module—we'll explore how a real-world JavaScript application can be transformed into a single native executable. Along the way, we'll discuss the technical challenges, the tradeoffs, and what this means for the future of JavaScript tooling and deployment.