Stream Ghostty to any browser. A headless terminal multiplexer that runs Ghostty on your server and streams pixel-perfect H.264 video to web clients over WebSocket.

Ghostty is a fantastic terminal emulator, but it's a native desktop app. termweb turns it into a streaming service — run Ghostty headlessly on a server, and connect from any device with a browser: laptop, iPad, phone. No native app install required.

• One server, many clients — multiple users can connect to the same session simultaneously
• Access from anywhere — any device with a browser becomes a Ghostty terminal
• Native rendering quality — libghostty renders to GPU, hardware-encodes to H.264, streams pixels (not text)
• Real terminal — full mouse tracking, shell integration, split panes, tabs — not a web terminal approximation

┌─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┐
│ Browser / Any Client │
│ │
│ WebSocket ──→ Zstd decompress ──→ WebCodecs H.264 decode │
│ ──→ WebGPU / Canvas 2D render │
│ │
│ Keyboard/Mouse ──→ WebSocket ──→ Server │
└─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┘
 │ WebSocket (single port)
 ↓
┌─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┐
│ Server (Zig + libghostty) │
│ │
│ libghostty ──→ GPU surface ──→ Hardware H.264 encode │
│ ──→ Zstd compress ──→ WebSocket broadcast │
│ │
│ macOS: IOSurface → VideoToolbox │
│ Linux: EGL → VA-API │
└─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┘

• Hardware H.264 encoding — VideoToolbox (macOS) / VA-API (Linux), not software encode
• Low latency — WebCodecs decodes directly to canvas, no MSE buffering
• Adaptive quality — AIMD algorithm adjusts quality per-panel based on available bandwidth
• WebGPU rendering — GPU-accelerated frame display with Canvas 2D fallback for iOS Safari
• Zstd compression — all WebSocket frames compressed for lower bandwidth

• Tabs — multiple tabs with LRU switching on close
• Split panes — horizontal/vertical splits with draggable dividers, zoom to maximize
• Quick terminal — dropdown terminal overlay
• Shell integration — pwd tracking, running command indicators
• Scale to zero — Ghostty initializes on first panel, frees resources when last one closes

• Full mouse support — hover, click, scroll, drag with modifier keys
• Mobile touch — tap, drag, two-finger scroll, pinch-to-zoom on iOS/Android
• Virtual keyboard — on-screen accessory bar with Esc, Tab, Ctrl, Alt, Cmd, arrow keys
• Keyboard shortcuts — native-feeling key bindings (see below)

• Multi-client sessions — multiple browsers connect to the same session
• Access control — session management with share links and viewer/editor roles
• File transfer — upload/download with rsync-like options (exclude patterns, delete, preview)

# Build (requires Zig 0.14.0+)
make
# Run
./zig-out/bin/termweb mux

Open http://localhost:8080 in any modern browser.

Browser support: Chrome, Edge, Safari (including iOS), Firefox — requires WebCodecs.

git clone https://github.com/nichochar/termweb
cd termweb
make
./zig-out/bin/termweb mux

# VA-API for hardware H.264 encoding
sudo apt-get install libva-dev
# Intel GPU driver (if using Intel graphics)
sudo apt-get install intel-media-va-driver

termweb also includes a web browser for terminals:

# Browse the web in your terminal (Kitty graphics protocol)
termweb open https://example.com

See packages/mux/README.md for detailed protocol and architecture documentation.

MIT