Frank

Frank is a native web browser written in Go that renders through an embedded WebKitGTK-6.0 (GTK4) engine, so it displays modern JS / WebAssembly / WebGL / CSS at full fidelity.

It is a fork of thdwb (the "hotdog" pure-Go browser). The original pure-Go rendering engine is preserved on the pure-go branch; this master branch is the WebKit-GTK4 line. The pure-Go engine packages (mustard/bun/mayo/ketchup/gg) remain in the module but are no longer wired to the entry point.

Status

A minimal but working browser: a GTK4 window with an address bar, back / forward / reload, and the WebKit engine. It is intended as the foundation for Skywire skynet integration — browsing dmsg-addressed content over the Skywire network — which is the next direction of work.

Requirements

System libraries (resolved via pkg-config):

• gtk4
• webkitgtk-6.0

On Arch Linux: sudo pacman -S gtk4 webkitgtk-6.0

Build & run

go build -o frank .            # build the browser binary
./frank                        # run (opens a welcome page)
./frank https://example.com    # open a URL
make run                       # or via make

go build . is self-contained — the entry point depends only on the gtk4 + webkitgtk-6.0 system libraries (CGO).

Old-GPU note

On GPUs whose driver cannot present WebKit's dmabuf zero-copy compositing path (e.g. Intel Gen7 / GLES 3.0), WebGL renders one frame then freezes. Set FRANK_GL_COMPAT=1 to force the stable (slower, freeze-free) readback path:

FRANK_GL_COMPAT=1 ./frank

Layout

• main.go — entry point + GPU compatibility profile.
• browser.{h,c} — GtkApplication and main window.
• webview.c — the WebKitGTK WebView, settings, and navigation.
• chrome.c — toolbar: back / forward / reload + address bar.
• bun mayo ketchup mustard gg hotdog sauce pages assets profiler — the retained pure-Go engine (not wired to this entry point).

Branches

• master — WebKit-GTK4 browser (this).
• pure-go — the original pure-Go (GLFW/OpenGL) renderer, preserved.