Living on the Linux Console — Part 2: casty, a Full Browser for TTY

Hironobu Sano — Sun, 05 Apr 2026 06:28:28 +0000

"GUI isn't an option." — Anonymous

In Part 1, I built bcon — a GPU-accelerated terminal emulator for the Linux console. But there's one thing you can't escape as a developer:

A web browser.

AI coding agents can handle research just fine. But what about checking your own web app renders correctly? Or GitHub Actions, PR reviews, and other things gh can't cover? For those, you need a real browser.

I looked for existing options. Here's what I found:

	eww	browsh	Carbonyl	awrit	casty ⭐
Engine	Emacs shr	headless Firefox	Chromium fork	Electron	Chrome headless-shell
Rendering	Text + limited images	ANSI block chars	Unicode blocks (▄ + 24bit)	Kitty Graphics	Kitty Graphics
JavaScript	❌	✅	✅ (WebGL/WebGPU)	✅	✅
Site fidelity	🔴 Low	🟡 Low	🟡 Medium	🟢 High	🟢 High
No GUI env	✅	Linux ✅ / Mac ❌	✅	❌ (display server required)	✅ (no X11, SSH-friendly)
Text copy	✅	✅	✅	❌	✅ (Alt+C)
Mouse	❌	🔺	✅	✅	✅
Install	M-x package-install	go install	npm i -g carbonyl	curl \| bash	`npm i -g @sanohiro/casty`

Nothing checked all the boxes: JavaScript + CSS + high fidelity + text copy + no GUI required.

So I built it.

→ github.com/sanohiro/casty

npm i -g @sanohiro/casty

casty running on the Linux console inside bcon

YouTube video playback inside casty on bcon

casty works with any Kitty Graphics-compatible terminal — not just bcon. Ghostty and Kitty both work too.

How it works

The concept is simple: connect to Chrome headless-shell via CDP (Chrome DevTools Protocol), stream frames to the terminal using Kitty Graphics Protocol, and forward keyboard/mouse events back to Chrome.

Chrome downloads itself automatically on first run to ~/.casty/ — no manual setup needed. Cookies and storage are preserved, so you can log in to Google and other services normally.

casty launches Chrome headless-shell (auto-downloaded to ~/.casty/ on first run)
Connects via CDP WebSocket
Captures screenshots and streams them to the terminal using Kitty Graphics Protocol
Forwards your keyboard and mouse events back to Chrome via CDP

Real-world use: Claude Code + casty

The moment I actually wanted this: editing a React app with Claude Code while watching changes live in casty.

Claude Code rewriting a React+Vite app — UI is in Japanese, but you get the idea 😄

Changes reflected instantly in casty

It just works. 😎

Starting to think you might be able to live on the Linux console after all?

More to come.

Living on the Linux Console — Part 1: bcon, a Modern Terminal for TTY

Hironobu Sano — Tue, 31 Mar 2026 13:54:38 +0000

"GUI isn't an option." — Anonymous

Lately, I've been developing almost entirely with AI coding agents — Claude Code, Codex, Gemini CLI. Writing code, generating docs, running tests, managing GitHub and AWS, even searching the web — all from the terminal.

Then it hit me:

Wait... am I ever actually touching a GUI anymore? 🤪

That led to another thought:

Do I even need a window system (X11/Wayland) to live as a developer?

I know, I know — sounds crazy. But hear me out.

If tools like Claude Code and Ghostty exist... why can't I have that experience directly on the Linux console?

The problem is, the standard Linux TTY is pretty rough:

Text rendering is ugly
No true color or text decorations
No emoji, Nerd Fonts, or ligatures
No Kitty/Sixel graphics protocol
No clipboard support
No CJK input (IME)

Old tools like fbterm and kon existed, but nothing modern. Nothing that felt like Ghostty.

So I built it.

bcon running on Ubuntu Server — Claude Code on the left, yazi top-right, Neovim bottom-right

This is bcon — a GPU-accelerated terminal emulator that runs directly on the Linux console. No X11. No Wayland. Just TTY.

It supports tiling and tabs, so it feels like a tiling window manager — but running entirely in TTY.

Screenshot is from Ubuntu Server (no X/Wayland) running inside Parallels Desktop

Japanese IME input working on bcon via fcitx5

Japanese input works too 🐤

For setup details, check the repository. One practical tip: rather than replacing your main TTY, I recommend running bcon on tty2 only. Switch to it with Ctrl+Alt+F2, and return to your normal console with Ctrl+Alt+F1. Safe and easy to recover from.

Linux traditionally has 6 virtual consoles (tty1–tty6). X Window historically used tty7; modern Ubuntu+GDM typically uses tty1/2.

→ github.com/sanohiro/bcon

This is Part 1 of my series "Living on the Linux Console" — next up: a full headless browser for TTY.

Forem: Hironobu Sano

Living on the Linux Console — Part 2: casty, a Full Browser for TTY

How it works

Real-world use: Claude Code + casty

Living on the Linux Console — Part 1: bcon, a Modern Terminal for TTY