Platforms and limits

Lightningpanda's browser runs on macOS and Linux. The client runs anywhere Node 22+ or Bun runs, and can drive a browser on another machine.

Supported platforms

Platform	Browser	Fork mode	JavaScriptCore	Tested in the release workflow
macOS 14+, Apple silicon	bundled	yes	patched, bundled	macos-15 runner
macOS 14+, Intel	bundled	no	macOS system framework	macos-15-intel runner
Linux x64, glibc 2.39+	bundled	yes	patched, bundled, with ICU in lib/	ubuntu-24.04 runner
Linux arm64, glibc 2.39+	bundled	yes	patched, bundled, with ICU in lib/	ubuntu-24.04-arm runner
Windows	none			client only, against a remote browser
Linux with older glibc, Alpine (musl)	none			client only, against a remote browser

glibc 2.39 or newer means Ubuntu 24.04, Debian 13, Fedora 40 or newer. Check yours with ldd --version.

The client (@povio/lightning-panda) needs Node.js 22+ or Bun. The two test runners, lightningpanda test and lightningpanda e2e, need Bun on PATH.

Intel Macs

The Intel build uses the JavaScriptCore that ships with macOS instead of the patched one. Everything works except what needs the patch:

• No fork mode. serve --fork exits with an error; lightningpanda e2e falls back to thread mode, where each page boots its profile.
• Features that the system framework does not offer fall back or report an error: import maps are ignored with a console warning, and precise JavaScript coverage (page.coverage) is not available.

Use profiles with several connections to hide boot time on Intel machines.

The JIT entitlement on macOS

macOS's JavaScriptCore only compiles JavaScript to machine code in a process that holds the com.apple.security.cs.allow-jit entitlement. Without it, every script runs in the interpreter: correct, but much slower.

The bundled binaries are signed ad hoc with that entitlement and nothing else. You keep it as long as you copy the binaries as they are. You lose it if you re-sign or strip them. To check a binary:

codesign -d --entitlements - path/to/lightningpanda
# should list com.apple.security.cs.allow-jit = true

To restore it, sign with an entitlements file that contains that key:

cat > jit.entitlements <<'EOF'
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<!DOCTYPE plist PUBLIC "-//Apple//DTD PLIST 1.0//EN" "http://www.apple.com/DTDs/PropertyList-1.0.dtd">
<plist version="1.0">
<dict>
  <key>com.apple.security.cs.allow-jit</key>
  <true/>
</dict>
</plist>
EOF
codesign -f -s - --entitlements jit.entitlements path/to/lightningpanda

When you copy a browser out of the package, copy its whole native/<platform>/ directory: some builds load libraries from the lib/ directory next to the binary.

Windows

There is no Windows browser. Run the browser on a macOS or Linux machine (or a Linux VM, or WSL 2 with a glibc 2.39+ distribution) and connect to it from Windows:

# on the browser host
lightningpanda serve --host 0.0.0.0 --port 9222 --advertise-host lp-host

// on Windows
const lp = await Lightningpanda.connect('ws://lp-host:9222/');

For Playwright-style tests on Windows, set LIGHTNINGPANDA_WS=ws://lp-host:9222/. Note that lightningpanda test and lightningpanda e2e still need Bun on the Windows machine, and that paths in server options (--static, file uploads by path) refer to the browser host. The server has no authentication; keep it on a trusted network.

Docker and Linux notes

• Use a base image with glibc 2.39 or newer: ubuntu:24.04, debian:trixie, or newer. Alpine and other musl-based images do not work.
• The Linux browser links libfontconfig.so.1 and libstdc++.so.6, and ships its own JavaScriptCore and ICU in lib/. Slim images need fontconfig and at least one font package for text in screenshots and PDFs.
• To reach the browser from outside the container, start it with --host 0.0.0.0 and publish the port. Pass --advertise-host with a name clients can resolve if they read /json/version.
• Linux browsers are built and tested in CI only. The project has not yet published Linux performance numbers.

FROM ubuntu:24.04
RUN apt-get update \
 && apt-get install -y --no-install-recommends ca-certificates curl unzip libfontconfig1 fonts-dejavu-core \
 && rm -rf /var/lib/apt/lists/*
RUN curl -fsSL https://bun.sh/install | bash
ENV PATH=/root/.bun/bin:$PATH
WORKDIR /app
COPY package.json bun.lock ./
RUN bun install --frozen-lockfile
COPY . .
CMD ["bunx", "lightningpanda", "serve", "--host", "0.0.0.0", "--port", "9222"]

Limits worth knowing

Limit	Default	Change with
Concurrent CDP connections	16; more wait in the kernel's backlog	--cdp-max-connections
CDP WebSocket message size	64 MiB	--cdp-max-message-size
CDP HTTP message size	1 MiB	--cdp-max-http-message-size
LP.run step timeout	5 s per step	page.run(steps, { timeout }) or per step
LP.run maximum timeout	600 s
Steps per LP.run	10,000
Settle wait after an action	1 s, then the run carries on	{ settle: false } to skip
Pages per profile pool	1 to 8	pool
Fork spares per template	2	LIGHTNINGPANDA_FORK_SPARES

Web platform coverage is partial: WebGL, WebGPU, WebRTC and SharedWorker are absent, among others. See Web platform support.