I’ve been working on a project that lets you view and control a live Wayland desktop entirely from a terminal. Originally it focused on Unicode-based rendering, but it has since grown into a full remote desktop system.

Waytermirror can now run in a terminal, on a Linux TTY via framebuffer/KMS, or in a classic GUI mode - whichever fits your setup best.

What it does

• Real-time Wayland capture Unicode or pixel rendering with multiple capture backends (wlr-screencopy, PipeWire for KDE/GNOME)
• Multiple rendering backends Braille (2×4 dots), half-blocks, ASCII, hybrid (adaptive), sixel, kitty graphics, framebuffer, KMS, and GUI
• Runs in any terminal Fully SSH-friendly and usable even over slow or high-latency connections
• Efficient streaming TCP transport with LZ4 / LZ4-HC compression for Unicode video, HEVC for pixel video, and Opus for audio
• Full input forwarding Keyboard and mouse support via Wayland protocols or uinput
• Bidirectional audio (WIP) System audio streaming (server -> client) and microphone forwarding (client -> server) using PipeWire
• Hardware acceleration (optional) CUDA-accelerated Unicode rendering or hardware-accelerated HEVC encoding on the server
• Multi-monitor support Including focus-following output selection
• Live controls Zoom, rotation, quality/detail tuning, and color modes (16 / 256 / truecolor)
• Keyboard-driven workflow Everything is controlled via shortcuts (Ctrl+Alt+Shift prefix): switch renderers, zoom, rotate, mute audio, pause video, and more

Open a terminal, connect to the server, and your desktop simply appears. You can switch renderers, tweak quality, or zoom and rotate the view - all live, without restarting the session.

Repository: