Firefox in WebAssembly
- ID
- 5420
- Status
- summarized
- Published
- 17 Jul 2026, 7:34 AM
- Fetched
- 17 Jul 2026, 11:17 AM
- Provider
- Simon Willison
- Category
- developer-ai
- Original URL
- https://simonwillison.net/2026/Jul/16/firefox-in-webassembly/
- Source URL
- https://simonwillison.net/atom/everything/
Summary
- Score
- 8.0
- Created
- 17 Jul 2026, 11:17 AM
- Tags
- Audience
- developersvibe_codersai_ml_learnerssaas_founders
What happened
Puter has compiled Firefox to WebAssembly, allowing the entire browser to run within another browser. The project leveraged AI-assisted programming using Claude Opus and Fable tokens, and handles network limitations by funneling traffic through a WebSocket proxy. The source code is available, alongside a similar WebKit-to-WASM project.
Why it matters
This demonstrates a massive leap in AI-assisted programming and WebAssembly capabilities, showing how LLMs can tackle complex compilation tasks. For builders, it highlights the infrastructure challenges of proxying browser traffic and the potential for running isolated, end-to-end encrypted browser environments in the cloud.
Discussion angle
The feasibility and infrastructure costs of running complex applications like browsers entirely in WebAssembly, and what this means for the future of cloud-based isolated environments.