Apptron
lastmod 2025-12-22created 2025-12-221 edits
A local-first development platform that runs in the browser
About
- Provides a complete Linux environment in the browser without cloud dependency
- Includes a built-in VSCode-based editor, usable for many purposes such as a development environment, a sandbox for AI experiments, and a playground for the web
- Highly extensible and customizable, with support for self-hosting and building platforms on top of it
- Designed around the concept of an IDE for its own environment, like Smalltalk
- Written in Go, with first-class support for the Go language
Linux environment
- Runs Alpine Linux and a custom kernel on the v86 JIT emulator
- Supports running Wasm and provides access to DOM APIs through Wanix
- Basic packages such as make, git, and esbuild are preinstalled
- Additional software can be installed with the apk package manager
Persistence management
- Similar in structure to Docker images: changes are not saved unless committed or added to the environment build script
- The project directory, home directory, and public directory are persisted in browser storage and synced to the cloud
- Additional directories backed by browser storage can be mounted when needed
Virtual network
- Provides full internet access with per-session IP allocation via a virtual DHCP server
- Supports communication between browser tabs and devices through IP routing between sessions
- Software bound to a TCP port automatically gets a public HTTPS endpoint
- HTTP services are accessible through an Ngrok-like proxy
- Non-HTTP TCP services are usable through WebSocket tunneling