hyperb is a browser for small server-driven applications that put content first. Most apps don't need flashy gradients, rounded corners, or piles of hard-to-maintain client-side JavaScript, and few are worth a dedicated native app. With hyperb, the server sends a basic layout of components along with their data. A visually neutral client renders it, collects the user's input, and sends it back to the server.

It's ideal for server admin dashboards, remote controls for hardware devices, interfacing with a sandboxed WASM module, and for simple form-driven apps where content matters more than appearance: a food ordering service, a club enrollment status page, or a shipping monitor.

hyperb opens hyperb:// addresses, which can be served over HTTP or iroh, or can point to (local or HTTP) paths to WASM modules.

Applications are servers that send metadata, element, or signal messages. These modify the basic layout and local state of the components the browser renders. For WASM modules, the server role is played by the sandboxed program running locally.

SPEC.md is a thin layer on top of the hypereffect protocol. There is no client-side computation, and the browser defines one homogeneous style. The server provides only the layout skeleton and the basic behavior of the elements, and the client's only way to communicate with the server is by sending action messages. In the case of WASM modules they are executed locally inside the hyperb app, but play the role of a server.

The demo apps are WASM modules (crates/demoapps), hosted at hyperb://hypereffect.github.io/hyperb/apps/<app>.wasm. Some of these can actually be useful in practice, others are just demos with fake data. Either way because they don't interact with real servers, but only with a WASM sandbox, they don't represent the true powers of hyperb, only a small part of it.

The links below open the demo apps in the web renderer instance, but the same URLs can be open in the desktop, Android or TUI renderers.

• qr: generate QR codes
• textutils: a pocket knife of small tools for text, data, numbers and more
• pomodoro: a focus timer
• chart: generate charts from pasted data
• billsplit: split a bill
• finance: an RPN financial calculator
• grammar: a grammar checker, using Harper
• restaurant: reserve a table
• dbclient: a SQL client over fake tables
• minecraft: a fake Minecraft server's admin console
• saas: a fake product's admin panel
• smarthome: a simulated house
• worldclock: live clocks across time zones, and a time converter

Grab the files from the latest release, or use the commands below, which all download the latest one.

$u=(irm https://api.github.com/repos/hypereffect/hyperb/releases/latest).assets.browser_download_url -match 'windows-x64-setup-v'; iwr $u -OutFile $env:TEMP\hyperb-setup.exe; Start-Process $env:TEMP\hyperb-setup.exe

$u=((irm https://api.github.com/repos/hypereffect/hyperb/releases/latest).assets.browser_download_url -match 'windows-x64-v.*\.zip$')[0]; iwr $u -OutFile $env:TEMP\hyperb.zip; Expand-Archive -Force $env:TEMP\hyperb.zip $env:LOCALAPPDATA\hyperb; & $env:LOCALAPPDATA\hyperb\hyperb.bat

curl -fL "$(curl -s https://api.github.com/repos/hypereffect/hyperb/releases/latest | grep -o 'https://[^"]*linux-x86_64[^"]*\.flatpak')" -o /tmp/hyperb.flatpak && flatpak install --user -y /tmp/hyperb.flatpak

curl -fL "$(curl -s https://api.github.com/repos/hypereffect/hyperb/releases/latest | grep -o 'https://[^"]*linux-amd64[^"]*\.deb')" -o /tmp/hyperb.deb && sudo apt install /tmp/hyperb.deb

curl -fL "$(curl -s https://api.github.com/repos/hypereffect/hyperb/releases/latest | grep -o 'https://[^"]*linux-x86_64[^"]*\.rpm')" -o /tmp/hyperb.rpm && sudo dnf install /tmp/hyperb.rpm

mkdir -p ~/.local/bin && curl -fL "$(curl -s https://api.github.com/repos/hypereffect/hyperb/releases/latest | grep -o 'https://[^"]*linux-x86_64[^"]*\.AppImage')" -o ~/.local/bin/hyperb.AppImage && chmod +x ~/.local/bin/hyperb.AppImage && ~/.local/bin/hyperb.AppImage

mkdir -p ~/.local/bin && curl -fL "$(curl -s https://api.github.com/repos/hypereffect/hyperb/releases/latest | grep -o 'https://[^"]*linux-x86_64[^"]*\.tar\.gz')" | tar -xz -C ~/.local/bin hyperb-desktop && ~/.local/bin/hyperb-desktop

git clone https://github.com/hypereffect/hyperb && cd hyperb && just desktop-install

brew install --cask andunieee/hyperb/hyperb

curl -fL "$(curl -s https://api.github.com/repos/hypereffect/hyperb/releases/latest | grep -o 'https://[^"]*macos-arm64[^"]*\.zip')" -o /tmp/hyperb.zip && ditto -x -k /tmp/hyperb.zip /Applications

xattr -d com.apple.quarantine /Applications/hyperb.app

just android

just lists the recipes. The main ones:

just desktop        # the GTK4 app
just tui            # the terminal app
just demo pomodoro  # the desktop app on a demo app
just demo-serve     # the demo apps over HTTP on 127.0.0.1:9001, for the web app
just web            # the web app with hot reload on http://127.0.0.1:3000