Browser Port Experiments

Real, full web browsers running entirely inside your browser — no server does the rendering. Each entry is a complete operating system emulated in WebAssembly, drawn to a <canvas>, and connected to the live internet over the Wisp protocol.

Live site: https://kendell.dev/browser-port-experiments/

Goal (from AGENTS.md)	How it's met
Logic uses WASM	x86 CPU emulated to WebAssembly via v86
Graphics use canvases	v86 renders the guest framebuffer to a <canvas>
Networking uses Wisp (default wss://anura.pro)	v86's Wisp backend, relay_url: "wisps://anura.pro/"
Build → GitHub Pages	docs/deploy-pages-workflow.example.yaml (owner copies into .github/workflows/)
Root page links to each browser	generated from browsers.json
Rigorously tested to actually function	Playwright suite, incl. a real HTTP fetch over Wisp

Why v86?

The brief (WASM logic + canvas graphics + Wisp networking) describes v86 exactly. Instead of porting a single browser engine, we emulate whole operating systems and run their native browsers — so we get real, feature-complete engines:

• KolibriOS → WebView (+ NetSurf) — tiny, boots in seconds
• Windows 95 / 98 / 2000 / ME → Internet Explorer (Trident/MSHTML)
• Haiku → WebPositive (WebKit)
• BeOS 5 → NetPositive — the original Be Inc. multimedia OS
• ReactOS → Windows-compatible shell
• QNX 4.05 → Voyager — the legendary 1.44 MB "demo disk" (Photon microGUI)
• SerenityOS → Ladybird (independent LibWeb engine)
• 9front (Plan 9 fork) → Mothra + NetSurf
• Redox OS (modern Rust microkernel + Orbital GUI) → NetSurf
• SliTaz GNU/Linux → Midori + TazWeb (WebKitGTK)
• Android 4.4 (KitKat) → AOSP Browser (WebKit)
• Damn Small Linux → Dillo + Firefox

OS images are streamed on demand from copy.sh's CDN (i.copy.sh, the same host that powers the real v86 demo). For resilience, the two small, critical images are also self-hosted in this repo under mirror/ (the flagship KolibriOS floppy and the Buildroot kernel used by the networking test), so a copy.sh outage can't block deploys or break the flagship. See PLAN.md for the architecture decisions, verification status, and the task queue for ongoing work.

How it works

browsers.json   ── registry (single source of truth): per-OS v86 config
src/run.html    ── runner page; sets Referrer-Policy: no-referrer (CDN hotlink)
src/runner.js   ── reads ?os=, builds the V86 config, wires Wisp + controls
vendor/         ── v86 runtime (libv86.mjs + v86.wasm) and SeaBIOS/VGABIOS
scripts/build.mjs ── assembles dist/ and generates index.html from the registry

Networking path: guest NIC → v86 (handles DHCP/DNS-over-HTTPS/ARP locally, wraps TCP in Wisp) → wss://anura.pro → the real internet.

Every landing card shows an up-front download-size hint (e.g. KolibriOS “↓ 1.4 MB”, Android “↓ ~236 MB”) so you know the data commitment before launching; the runner repeats it in the toolbar before any image streams. The runner also shows a loading progress bar while the OS image / saved state streams in (helpful for the multi-hundred-MB images), and a Wisp relay picker so you can switch relays (default anura.pro, plus wisp.mercurywork.shop or a custom one) if the default is blocked — it reloads with ?relay_url=.

It's also usable on touch devices: drag to move the guest cursor (trackpad style), tap to left-click, long-press to right-click, and tap the ⌨ Keyboard button to pop the on-screen keyboard (keys are forwarded straight to the guest).

Develop locally

npm install
npm run build          # -> dist/
npm run serve          # http://localhost:8000
npm run test:install   # one-time: download the Playwright browser
npm test               # full functional suite (boots + real Wisp fetch)
npx playwright test --grep @smoke   # quick: landing + KolibriOS boot

Note: image loads only work from origins the CDN allows (empty Referer). The runner sets <meta name="referrer" content="no-referrer">; the local dev server mirrors GitHub Pages headers. Loading dist/ via file:// will not work.

Add a browser

1. Find a v86-bootable OS that ships a browser (see the profile list in copy/v86's src/browser/main.js).
2. Add an entry to browsers.json with its config (disk/state/memory). Image urls are relative to the CDN host; the runner prepends it.
3. Use net_device_type: "ne2k" unless the image is built for virtio (e.g. ReactOS).
4. Verify with a probe/test, set tested, commit, push.

Tests

• @smoke — landing page + KolibriOS graphical boot from the self-hosted mirror (no third-party deps; gates deploy)
• @cdn — KolibriOS still boots streaming from copy.sh (hotlink regression guard)
• @state — saved-state OSes resume a booted desktop (Win95/98/2000/ME, Haiku, ReactOS, SerenityOS, 9front; and Redox, which auto-logs-in via autokeys to its Orbital desktop)
• @coldboot — BeOS 5 cold-boots from its disk image (streamed on demand) to the Tracker desktop (autokeys clears the boot-loader's partition menu)
• @gui — QNX 4.05's 1.44 MB demo floppy boots (via keyboard-only autokeys, including function keys/Shift+Tab over the new scancodes field) all the way to the Voyager browser rendering a page (asserts the demo homepage's yellow banner, which no boot dialog has)
• @cdrom — Damn Small Linux boots its live CD into the X11 desktop
• @livecd — SliTaz live-boots to its graphical Openbox desktop (Midori/WebKit)
• @slow — Android 4.4 boots to the launcher (~4-5 min; streams ~250 MB)
• @network — boots Linux, DHCP, and wgets a live page over Wisp
• @browse — a real browser engine renders a live page over Wisp: boots Linux with a static links text browser overlaid via an initrd, then links -dumps example.com over both HTTP and HTTPS and asserts on the rendered (tag-free) text
• @ux — the loading progress bar, the Wisp relay picker, and the up-front download-size hint on the landing cards + runner bar (offline/deterministic)
• @touch — mobile/touch input: tap = click, long-press = right-click, drag = move, and the on-screen keyboard forwards keys (boots KolibriOS, asserts on the v86 input bus)

node scripts/probe.mjs <osId> boots a single OS and saves a screenshot to /tmp/probe-shots/ — handy for eyeballing a new image (needs npm run serve). node scripts/watch.mjs <osId> [totalMs] [shotEveryMs] logs a full boot timeline with interval screenshots — useful for slow guests (SliTaz, Android) that pass through boot menus before the real desktop.

Deployment note

This environment forbids agents from creating .github/workflows/ files, and the Pages site uses build_type: workflow. The deploy workflow is therefore provided at docs/deploy-pages-workflow.example.yaml for the repo owner to copy into .github/workflows/deploy-pages.yaml (same convention as before). Until then the live URL still shows the previous attempt. See PLAN.md for details.

See PLAN.md for the current status and what to work on next.