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.

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)

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)

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

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