Lightweight, native GTK4 / Libadwaita desktop web app generator for Linux.
Turn any web application into a first-class native GNOME desktop app without the bloat of Electron or Chromium.

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Why web2gtk?

Most web-to-desktop app generators (like Nativefier or Pake) bundle entire Chromium runtimes or require heavy dependencies, consuming hundreds of megabytes of disk space and memory for a single web page.

web2gtk leverages your system's existing WebKitGTK 6.0 runtime and native GTK4 + Libadwaita libraries:

Feature	Nativefier (Electron)	Pake (Tauri)	web2gtk
App Bundle Size	150 MB – 300 MB	15 MB – 30 MB	< 1 KB (shared system runtime)
RAM Usage	500 MB – 1.2 GB	150 MB – 300 MB	80 MB – 150 MB
Styling & Theming	Web / Custom frame	Generic webview wrapper	100% Native Libadwaita
System Tray	XEmbed / AppIndicator	Webview Tray	Pure D-Bus StatusNotifierItem (SNI)
Session Persistence	Chrome Profile	SQLite / Webview	Isolated SQLite Cookies & Storage
Anti-Bot / Cloudflare	Often flagged	May break 2FA	Clean Linux WebKit (authentic fingerprint)

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Key Features

• Persistent Auth Across Reboots: Session tokens and cookies persist cleanly in SQLite (cookies.sqlite). No surprise logouts after rebooting.
• Cloudflare & Bot-Detection Friendly: Pure, untampered Linux WebKit engine with authentic platform fingerprint (eliminating fake stealth red flags) and disabled ITP for reliable login sessions.
• D-Bus System Tray Support: Built on the org.kde.StatusNotifierItem protocol. Optional tray minimization via menu with dynamic attention status (NeedsAttention) when background tasks finish.
• Automatic Icon Scraper: Automatically discovers high-res icons (apple-touch-icon, web app manifests, or SVGs) from target URLs and formats them into standard 32x32, 128x128, and 256x256 PNGs.
• Full Media & Hardware Permissions: Supports WebRTC microphone and camera (voice chat in ChatGPT, Google Meet, etc.) and desktop notifications.
• OAuth Popup Friendly: Popup authentication flows (Google, Apple, Microsoft, GitHub) open seamlessly in dedicated transient windows without breaking the parent session.
• Export & Share: Easily export any configured app into a portable standalone .tar.gz installer package or Arch Linux PKGBUILD.

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System Prerequisites

Ensure the following packages are installed on your Linux distribution:

Arch Linux / Manjaro

sudo pacman -S python-gobject gtk4 libadwaita webkitgtk-6.0 libdbusmenu-glib python-pillow python-requests python-beautifulsoup4 librsvg gst-plugin-va intel-media-driver

Ubuntu / Debian

# Ubuntu 24.04+ / Debian 12+
sudo apt install python3-gi gir1.2-gtk-4.0 gir1.2-adw-1 gir1.2-webkit-6.0 gir1.2-dbusmenu-glib-0.4 python3-pil python3-requests python3-bs4 librsvg2-bin gstreamer1.0-vaapi

Fedora

# Fedora 39+
sudo dnf install python3-gobject gtk4 libadwaita webkitgtk6.0 libdbusmenu-gtk3 python3-pillow python3-requests python3-beautifulsoup4 librsvg2-tools gstreamer1-vaapi

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Installation

One-Line Quick Install (Recommended)

Run the remote installer via curl:

curl -sSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/galihlab/web2gtk/main/install.sh | bash

Or Clone & Install Locally

git clone https://github.com/galihlab/web2gtk.git
cd web2gtk
./install.sh

The commands web2gtk and web2gtk-runner will be immediately available in ~/.local/bin/.

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Usage

1. Create a New Web App (create)

Simply provide the website URL:

# Auto-fetch icon and deduce name
web2gtk create https://claude.ai --name "Claude"

# Use a custom local icon
web2gtk create https://github.com --name "GitHub" --icon ./github.png

# Create without system tray
web2gtk create https://notion.so --name "Notion" --no-tray

The app is instantly integrated into your GNOME Application menu (App Grid) and can be executed from terminal (e.g. claude-gtk).

2. List Installed Web Apps (list)

web2gtk list

Output:

SLUG                 NAME                   URL                                 TRAY   STEALTH 
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
claude-gtk           Claude                 https://claude.ai                   Yes    Yes     
github-gtk           GitHub                 https://github.com                  Yes    Yes     

3. Inspect App Details (info)

web2gtk info claude-gtk

4. Run an App Directly (run)

web2gtk run claude-gtk

(Or directly call its slug command: claude-gtk)

5. Remove an App (remove / uninstall)

# Remove desktop entry, launcher, and icon
web2gtk remove claude-gtk

# Remove app and purge all session cookies & storage
web2gtk remove claude-gtk --purge

6. Export for Distribution (export)

Want to share an app (like Claude, ChatGPT, or NotebookLM) with someone without requiring them to install web2gtk first?

# 1. Export as a standalone portable installer package (.tar.gz, ~13 KB)
web2gtk export claude-gtk

# 2. Export as an Arch Linux PKGBUILD directory
web2gtk export claude-gtk --format arch

The exported package will be in dist/claude-gtk-installer.tar.gz. The recipient simply extracts it and runs:

./install.sh

The app will be installed with its own icon, launcher in ~/.local/bin/, and desktop menu entry.

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Keyboard Shortcuts

Shortcut	Action
Alt + Left Arrow	Navigate Back
Alt + Right Arrow	Navigate Forward
Ctrl + R	Reload Page
Ctrl + + / Ctrl + -	Zoom In / Zoom Out
Ctrl + 0	Reset Zoom
Ctrl + W	Hide to System Tray (or close window)
Ctrl + Q	Quit Application
F11	Toggle Fullscreen
F12	Toggle Web Inspector / Developer Tools

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Roadmap

See ROADMAP.md for upcoming milestones, planned features (AUR package, Flatpak, optional Libadwaita GUI Manager), and project guiding principles.

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License

MIT License © 2026 Galyarder Labs