kitty-web

Run the real kitty terminal in your browser via Xpra HTML5 streaming.

This is not a JavaScript terminal emulator — it's the actual kitty with GPU rendering, image protocol, ligatures, and native tabs, streamed to your browser.

Features

• Real kitty — GPU rendering, kitty image protocol, all features intact
• Native kitty tabs/splits — Ctrl+Shift+T, layouts, everything works
• Persistent session — close browser, reconnect later, session is still there
• Multi-client — multiple browsers can connect simultaneously
• Mobile-friendly — Xpra HTML5 client handles touch, scaling, on-screen keyboard

Architecture

Browser -> Caddy (HTTPS + Auth) -> Xpra HTML5 (port 7681) -> kitty (Xvfb)

Xpra runs kitty in a virtual X display and streams the rendered pixels to browsers via WebSocket.

Setup

Prerequisites

# Add Xpra repo
curl -sL https://xpra.org/xpra.asc | sudo tee /usr/share/keyrings/xpra.asc
echo "deb [signed-by=/usr/share/keyrings/xpra.asc] https://xpra.org/ $(lsb_release -cs) main" | \
  sudo tee /etc/apt/sources.list.d/xpra.list
sudo apt update && sudo apt install -y xpra kitty

Install

sudo cp systemd/kitty-web.service /etc/systemd/system/
sudo cp config/kitty.conf /home/YOUR_USER/.config/kitty/kitty.conf
sudo cp config/xpra-html5-settings.txt /usr/share/xpra/www/default-settings.txt
sudo systemctl daemon-reload
sudo systemctl enable --now kitty-web

Open http://YOUR_IP:7681 in a browser.

Reverse Proxy (Caddy)

kitty.example.com {
    # your auth here
    reverse_proxy YOUR_SERVER:7681
}

Mobile Tips

• Floating menu (circle in corner) — on-screen keyboard, fullscreen, clipboard, scaling
• Pinch to zoom works
• Kitty tab bar at bottom — touch to switch tabs
• DPI set to 144 for readable text on mobile

Files

kitty-web/
  config/
    kitty.conf                # Kitty config (dark theme, 16pt, mobile-optimized)
    xpra-html5-settings.txt   # Xpra HTML5 client defaults
  systemd/
    kitty-web.service         # Xpra + kitty systemd unit
  caddy-example.conf          # Reverse proxy template

See Also

• sethmux — lightweight web terminal (ttyd + tmux) at mux.sethpc.xyz

License

MIT