# Carbonyl — Run Chromium Inside Your Terminal

> A Chromium-based browser that renders web pages directly in the terminal using text, images, and interactive elements.

## Install

Save as a script file and run:

# Carbonyl — Run Chromium Inside Your Terminal

## Quick Use
```bash
docker run --rm -ti fathyb/carbonyl https://example.com
# or build from source
cargo install --git https://github.com/fathyb/carbonyl carbonyl
```

## Introduction
Carbonyl embeds a full Chromium browser engine and renders web pages as text and block characters directly in the terminal. It supports CSS, JavaScript, WebGL, images, and video playback, making it a unique tool for browsing the modern web without a graphical display server.

## What Carbonyl Does
- Renders full web pages including CSS layouts, JavaScript, and animations in the terminal
- Displays images using Unicode block characters and 24-bit color
- Supports WebGL content by rendering frames and converting them to text
- Handles navigation, scrolling, clicking, and keyboard input interactively
- Plays video and audio content within the terminal environment

## Architecture Overview
Carbonyl patches Chromium's compositor layer to output frames as terminal escape sequences instead of GPU-rendered pixels. Each frame is converted from a bitmap into a grid of Unicode half-block characters with foreground and background colors. Input events are translated from terminal escape codes back into browser events.

## Self-Hosting & Configuration
- Easiest to run via Docker: `docker run --rm -ti fathyb/carbonyl`
- Building from source requires Rust and the Chromium build toolchain
- Set the initial URL as a command-line argument
- Supports standard Chromium flags for proxy, user-agent, and other settings
- Works over SSH for remote browsing on headless servers

## Key Features
- Full JavaScript and modern CSS support via the Chromium engine
- Image and video rendering using terminal color capabilities
- Sub-second startup time compared to headless Chrome approaches
- Interactive mouse and keyboard navigation
- Works over SSH sessions on remote machines without X11 forwarding

## Comparison with Similar Tools
- **Lynx / w3m** — Text-only browsers without JavaScript or CSS support
- **Browsh** — Firefox-based terminal browser; Carbonyl uses Chromium and renders natively
- **Headless Chrome** — No visual output; Carbonyl provides an interactive terminal UI
- **tmux + browser** — Requires X11 forwarding; Carbonyl works in pure terminal mode

## FAQ
**Q: Does Carbonyl support JavaScript?**
A: Yes. It runs a full Chromium engine, so all standard JavaScript works.

**Q: How does image rendering work?**
A: Images are approximated using Unicode half-block characters with 24-bit ANSI colors.

**Q: Can I use it on a headless server over SSH?**
A: Yes. That is one of its primary use cases since it needs no display server.

**Q: What are the system requirements?**
A: The Docker image is the easiest path. Building from source requires significant disk space for the Chromium build.

## Sources
- https://github.com/fathyb/carbonyl
- https://fathyb.com/carbonyl

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Source: https://tokrepo.com/en/workflows/asset-0ef1367e
Author: Script Depot