stShare Terminal
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share terminal vs WebTTY

Same WebRTC bones. A handshake your team will actually use.

WebTTY proved WebRTC works for terminals. The hard part — getting two peers on the same call — is left to humans copy-pasting massive Base64 SDP strings. share terminal automates that with Google OAuth and a 6-digit pairing code.

Open web terminalRead the protocol
$npx share-terminal start
verdict

If you love WebTTY's architecture but hate the SDP paste-bin, share terminal is the same wire protocol with a managed handshake.

Featureshare terminalWebTTY
Transport✓WebRTC DataChannel (DTLS-SCTP)✓WebRTC DataChannel (DTLS-SCTP)
Signaling✓Hosted signaler · 6-digit pairing code✗Manual copy-paste of Base64 SDP / candidates
Identity✓Google OAuth — viewer must match host sub✗None — anyone with the SDP can join
Time to first session✓< 30 seconds, two browser windows✗2–5 minutes, plus Slack pasting
Viewer install✓Zero — open shareterminal.cloudWebTTY client / static HTML page
Host install✓140 KB npm packageGo binary
Multi-platform host✓macOS, Linux, WindowsmacOS, Linux
PricingFree CLI; affordable hosted signaling✓Free, no hosted service
migrate

Coming from WebTTY?

Most teams switch in an afternoon. WebRTC P2P with manual signaling habits map cleanly to share terminal — here's the translation.

  1. 01

    Stop the WebTTY process

    kill the webtty binary on the host. The SDP strings in chat history are now useless — they can't be replayed.

  2. 02

    Install share terminal

    npx share-terminal start. Same Go-era ergonomics, in a 140 KB Node package. node-pty + node-datachannel handle the WebRTC plumbing for you.

  3. 03

    Replace the Slack paste with a 6-digit code

    The CLI prints a code in a box. The viewer types it at shareterminal.cloud — same Google account = identity-locked claim, no Base64.

FAQ

Questions teams ask before they switch

Doesn't WebTTY already do WebRTC end-to-end?
Yes — and so do we. The difference is how the two peers find each other. WebTTY hands that job to humans; we run a tiny stateless signaling broker that holds nothing but pairing codes for 2 minutes.
Is there a privacy difference if both use WebRTC?
In WebTTY, anyone in the Slack thread where the SDP got pasted can join — there's no identity check. share terminal binds the pairing code to a Google sub, so even if the code leaks, the wrong account can't claim it.
What about the wire protocol — is it different from WebTTY's?
We use a custom 7-byte framing protocol over a single DataChannel (OUTPUT, INPUT, RESIZE, PING/PONG, HELLO, BYE). It's documented at /security and trivially reimplementable.
get started

One command. One encrypted tunnel.

No global install. No SaaS dashboard. No account to provision — sign in with Google, pair, share.

$npx share-terminal start
Open web terminalRead the docs
140 KB CLINode ≥ 20macOS, Linux