wterm

Why it's ranked here

The package split is thoughtful: applications can choose a small built-in core or a larger Ghostty backend, then add React, Vue, Bash, or Markdown support. Native DOM output also preserves ordinary browser selection, search, clipboard behavior, and screen reader access.

What's good

It covers demanding terminal behavior, including alternate screens, scrollback, 24-bit color, wide Unicode cells, mouse reporting, focus events, synchronized output, and automatic resizing. WebSocket transport includes binary framing and reconnection, while CSS custom properties make themes straightforward to customize.

Tradeoffs

Full VT compliance requires the roughly 400 KB Ghostty backend instead of the roughly 12 KB built-in core. The Markdown renderer intentionally delegates wrapping to the terminal rather than calculating ANSI-aware line widths. End-to-end coverage targets Chromium only in the supplied configuration.

How to use it well

Choose it for browser IDEs, remote shell clients, interactive documentation, or product demos that need genuine terminal behavior. Start with the lightweight core, add Ghostty when compatibility matters, and use the framework adapter matching your application. It does not provide the remote PTY server itself.

Observed

License

Apache-2.0

Primary implementation

Zig core compiled to WebAssembly, with TypeScript and JavaScript packages around it

Package surface

Separate core, DOM, React, Vue, Ghostty, just-bash, and Markdown packages

Interfaces

Headless terminal core, vanilla DOM renderer, React component and hook, Vue component, and WebSocket transport

Browser support tested

Playwright end-to-end configuration includes Desktop Chrome on Chromium

Package management

Private pnpm monorepo orchestrated with Turbo

Test structure

Vitest workspace covers core, DOM, Ghostty, React, just-bash, and Markdown packages