casty

Run a real Chrome browser inside your terminal.

Japanese

casty is not a text-mode browser like w3m or lynx. It launches headless Chrome, grabs the rendered frames over CDP, and draws them in your terminal via Kitty graphics protocol. Think of it as a remote desktop for Chrome that fits in a terminal window.

demo.mp4

How It Works

Terminal (you)          casty               Chrome (headless)
┌──────────────┐      ┌──────────────┐      ┌──────────────┐
│  Kitty       │ ←──  │  Screencast  │ ←──  │  Full web    │
│  graphics    │      │  + hi-res    │      │  rendering   │
│  display     │      │  capture     │      │  JS, CSS,    │
│              │ ──→  │  Input       │ ──→  │  Canvas,     │
│  Mouse/KB    │      │  bridge      │      │  WebGL       │
└──────────────┘      └──────────────┘      └──────────────┘

Chrome does all the rendering. casty is just a bridge (~2300 lines) that streams frames to your terminal and sends input back. No Playwright, no puppeteer — raw CDP over WebSocket.

Since it's real Chrome, JavaScript, CSS, Canvas, and WebGL all work. Google login works too (stealth patches bypass bot detection). Mouse clicks, scrolling, dragging, typing — everything you'd expect.

Why use this?

If you're working over SSH on a headless server and need to check a web page, your options are usually curl, lynx, or forwarding X11. casty gives you an actual browser without leaving the terminal. No X11, no VNC, no Wayland — just a Kitty-compatible terminal.

Google Meet with camera & mic (experimental)

Camera and microphone can be streamed to WebRTC sites like Google Meet, Zoom, etc. via ffmpeg. Requires ffmpeg installed. Background effects are not available since the video is captured directly from the device. See Configuration to enable.

Installation

npm install -g @sanohiro/casty
casty

Or from source:

git clone https://github.com/sanohiro/casty.git
cd casty && npm install
./bin/casty

Chrome Headless Shell is auto-installed to ~/.casty/browsers/ on first run.

Requirements

• A terminal with Kitty graphics protocol support (tested on Ghostty, kitty, bcon)
• Node.js >= 18
• unzip (for Chrome auto-install)

tmux

If you run casty inside tmux, enable passthrough so Kitty graphics escape sequences can reach your terminal:

set -g allow-passthrough on

Usage

casty https://google.com
casty https://youtube.com
casty   # opens home page

Keybindings

Key	Action
Alt+L	Address bar
Alt+F	Hint mode (Vimium-style)
Alt+Left / Right	Back / Forward
Alt+C	Copy selected text
Ctrl+V	Paste
Ctrl+Q	Quit

Customizable via ~/.casty/keys.json.

Hint Mode

Alt+F shows labels on clickable elements. Type the label to click. Labels use home-row keys (a s d f j k l).

Address Bar

Alt+L to open. Type a URL or search query. /b query searches bookmarks.

Bookmarks

Create ~/.casty/bookmarks.json:

{
  "GitHub": "https://github.com",
  "YouTube": "https://youtube.com"
}

Configuration

~/.casty/config.json:

{
  "homeUrl": "https://github.com/sanohiro/casty",
  "searchUrl": "https://www.google.com/search?q=",
  "transport": "auto",
  "format": "auto",
  "mouseMode": 1002
}

Key	Description	Default
homeUrl	Start page	https://github.com/sanohiro/casty
searchUrl	Search engine URL	https://www.google.com/search?q=
transport	Image transfer: auto, file, inline	auto (bcon/kitty→file, others→inline)
format	Capture format: auto, png, jpeg	auto (file→jpeg adaptive, inline→png)
mouseMode	1002 (button-event) or 1003 (any-event)	Auto (Ghostty→1003, others→1002)
media	Enable camera/mic for WebRTC (experimental, requires ffmpeg)	false

Comparison

	casty	Browsh	w3m/lynx
Engine	Chrome	Firefox	Custom parser
Rendering	Pixel-perfect	Text approximation	Text only
JavaScript	Yes	Yes	No
Display	Kitty graphics	Character cells	Character cells
Dependencies	Node.js + Chrome	Go + Firefox	Standalone

Technical Details

The whole thing is about 1200 lines of JavaScript. Here's what's going on under the hood:

• Launches chrome-headless-shell and talks to it via raw CDP WebSocket
• Runtime.enable is never sent (it breaks Google login — discovered the hard way)
• Stealth patches are injected via Page.addScriptToEvaluateOnNewDocument before any page loads
• Frame capture is hybrid: low-res Screencast triggers change detection, then Page.captureScreenshot grabs hi-res frames with proper DPR
• File transfer mode uses adaptive JPEG→PNG: fast JPEG during scrolling/video, crisp PNG after things settle
• Terminal pixel size is detected via CSI 14t for auto-zoom

bin/casty          Shell wrapper (Chrome install/update)
bin/casty.js       Entry point (terminal, zoom, resize)
lib/browser.js     CDP browser control, frame capture
lib/cdp.js         Lightweight CDP WebSocket client
lib/chrome.js      Chrome detection, launch, profile cleanup
lib/kitty.js       Kitty graphics protocol (file/inline)
lib/input.js       Mouse/keyboard handling
lib/hints.js       Vimium-style hint mode
lib/urlbar.js      Address/search bar
lib/config.js      User configuration
lib/keys.js        Keybinding config
lib/bookmarks.js   Bookmark search

Troubleshooting

No audio on YouTube (Ubuntu Server)

Chrome plays audio directly through the system audio server. If there's no sound:

sudo apt install pulseaudio
sudo usermod -aG audio $USER
# Log out and back in, then:
pulseaudio --start

Chrome crashes

If casty fails to start or Chrome crashes, try removing the browser cache:

rm -rf ~/.casty/browsers
casty  # re-downloads Chrome automatically

To reset all settings and profile data:

rm -rf ~/.casty

License

MIT