GPU-first browser

A native desktop browser built on the Purr rendering engine.

Panther owns the browser product experience: windows, tabs, profiles, settings, and orchestration. Purr owns the web platform pipeline underneath it.

GitHubPuma

Status

Early foundation work is in place: the Rust workspace, capability system, ownership boundaries, and continuous integration gates.

HTML -> DOM -> Style -> Layout -> Display list -> Scene -> GPU

Shape

  • Rendering is designed around a GPU pipeline and stable frame times.

  • Panther and Puma share engine concepts while keeping product interfaces separate.

  • Subsystem ownership, dependencies, activation, and release behavior are explicit.

Architecture

A browser product around a rendering engine, not a skin around one.

Panther owns the desktop browser experience. Purr owns the web platform pipeline underneath it. The split keeps product decisions visible instead of mixing them into rendering internals.

GPU-first

Purr

The rendering path is shaped around DOM, style, layout, display lists, scene construction, and GPU composition from the beginning.

Shared engine

Puma

Panther and Puma can share core document concepts while keeping desktop windows, profiles, tabs, and settings separate.

Explicit ownership

Caps

Subsystems declare their dependencies, lifecycle, activation, and release behavior instead of hiding product boundaries in glue code.

Native shell

Rust

The target is a portable desktop app for Linux, macOS, and Windows without shipping an embedded browser as the product.

Milestones

The roadmap moves from contracts to pixels to product.

Panther is still in early foundation work. The useful thing to show is not a fake browser surface; it is the path from ownership boundaries to visible pages.

M0

Foundations

Workspace shape, capability contracts, ownership checks, and CI gates.

M1

Minimal shell

A desktop shell that can own windows, routes, state, and product-level commands.

M2

First pixels

The rendering engine produces visible output through the scene and GPU path.

M3

Product UI

Tabs, profiles, settings, and browser interaction start to become real product surfaces.

M4

Real pages

The engine and product shell meet on enough web content to drive compatibility work.

Current foundation

The first visible result is architectural discipline.

  • Rust workspace boundaries are established.

  • Capability registration describes subsystem contracts.

  • Ownership and dependency rules are checked continuously.

  • Product shell and engine responsibilities stay separate.