localterm

Your terminal should just be a browser tab.

Run npx @datnguyennnx/localterm@latest start and every browser tab is one shell. Open a new tab to spawn another. Close the tab to kill it. That's the whole product.

Install

Run this command anywhere:

npx @datnguyennnx/localterm@latest start

This boots a local daemon and opens http://localterm.localhost:3417 in your browser. (*.localhost is reserved by RFC 6761 and resolves to 127.0.0.1 in every modern browser, so no /etc/hosts edit needed.)

To install globally:

npm install -g @datnguyennnx/localterm
localterm start

Usage

The mental model is shell = browser tab:

• New tab → new shell
• Close tab → shell dies immediately
• Reload tab → fresh shell (the prior one is gone)

No session ids, no URL slugs, no reconnects. If you want a long-lived shell that survives reloads, run tmux inside localterm.

CLI

localterm start [-p 3417] [-H 127.0.0.1] [--no-open] [--yolo] [--max-sessions <count>]
localterm stop
localterm status
localterm restart

State lives in ~/.localterm/ (PID, port, agent token, server log at ~/.localterm/server.log).

Agent Mode

localterm supports AI coding agents with structured output, command boundary detection, and a programmatic RPC interface. Pass ?mode=agent&token=<token> when connecting via WebSocket, or use the built-in WS-RPC methods:

| Method | Description | | ------------------- | ------------------------------- | | spawn_session | Create a new PTY session | | list_sessions | List active sessions | | write_input | Write data to a session | | read_output | Read plain-text output | | wait_for_boundary | Wait for command start/end | | exec | Write command + wait for result |

Agent token is auto-generated at ~/.localterm/agent-token. Pass --yolo to bypass the command denylist.

Security

• Binds loopback hosts only: 127.0.0.1, localhost, *.localhost, ::1. Non-loopback values are rejected.
• /api/* and /ws enforce loopback Host and Origin headers to defeat DNS-rebinding attacks.
• Agent-mode connections require a token from ~/.localterm/agent-token.
• One PTY per WebSocket. Closing the tab kills the shell — no orphaned processes.

Credits

localterm was originally created by Aiden Bai. MIT-licensed.