How to Install and Run Browsh

Updated

Browsh is a text-based browser that renders modern web content (HTML5, CSS3, JavaScript, video, and WebGL) inside a terminal. You install it by downloading the single static binary for your platform and running it alongside Firefox 57 or newer, or by pulling the official Docker image. The only hard dependency is a recent Firefox version.

What You Need Before Installing

  • A recent version of Firefox (57 or newer) installed on the same machine. Browsh uses Firefox as its rendering engine, so it will not run without it.
  • A terminal environment. Browsh is designed to run on a remote server and be accessed over SSH/Mosh, or through its in-browser HTML service, to cut bandwidth usage and speed up browsing.
  • The latest release is v1.8.0, available as a single static binary for all major platforms.

Install and Run with the Binary

  1. Go to the download page on brow.sh and get the latest version (v1.8.0). A releases archive is also available if you need an older build.
  2. Download the static binary for your platform.
  3. Make sure Firefox 57+ is installed and available on the system.
  4. Launch Browsh from your terminal. It will use Firefox to render pages and display them as text.

Expected result: A fully interactive, real-time browsing session inside your terminal, with pages rendered the way a modern browser would render them.

Install and Run with Docker

If you prefer containers, an official Docker image is available:

docker run -it browsh/browsh

The -it flags give you an interactive terminal session, which Browsh needs since it is a full TUI application.

Try the Live SSH Demo

You can test Browsh without installing anything by pointing your SSH client at the demo server:

ssh brow.sh

No authentication is needed. Keep these limits in mind:

  • The service is for demonstration only.
  • Sessions last 5 minutes.
  • Sessions are logged.
  • The demo was listed as temporarily offline on the site, so it may not always be reachable.

The site also notes that SSH itself is an inefficient protocol. For the best results, install Browsh on your own server together with Mosh.

In-Browser Services

Two browser-accessible services are offered, both listed as temporarily offline:

Service URL What it does
HTML service html.brow.sh Uses very basic graphics and HTML anchor tags. Looks similar to the terminal client but does not yet have feature parity.
Text service text.brow.sh Pure text only, better suited for tools like curl.

Common Issues to Watch For

  • Missing or outdated Firefox: Browsh requires Firefox 57+. If it is absent or too old, Browsh cannot render pages.
  • Demo unavailability: The live SSH demo and the in-browser services were marked temporarily offline, so do not rely on them for regular use.
  • SSH performance: The project itself recommends Mosh over plain SSH for better results when running on your own server.

Who This Is For

Browsh suits users on slow or expensive internet connections who want to browse from a remote server while minimizing bandwidth. It is maintained and funded by one person, and the project accepts donations to continue supporting that use case.