Nordstjernen Web Browser
Nordstjernen is a web browser, written from scratch in C, focused on supporting the HTML and CSS standards. It runs on Windows, macOS and Linux, with builds for Android, iOS, FreeBSD, NetBSD and the JVM. Nordstjernen is built in Norway.
Nordstjernen Browser version 1.0.19 released! Read the announcement · More info here.
HTML Standard. Behaviour is measured against the spec text, section by section, not against another browser — 140 spec rows fully implemented, 31 partial and 0 absent across WHATWG HTML sections 1–16 (July 2026). No element or API row is fully absent any more: every one is implemented, partial, or a deliberate non-goal. Against the Web Platform Tests, the full wpt-fast tree now passes 88.4% of subtests overall — 91.7% of the HTML suite — and QuickJS runs the test262 conformance suite clean. See docs/HTML-compatibility.md.
Secure. Process-per-tab design — each tab runs in its own sandboxed renderer process (seccomp + Landlock on Linux), talking to the UI over IPC and shared-memory framebuffers · no JIT.
Minimalism. The whole engine is about 145,000 lines of clean-room C, excluding the vendored libraries — small enough for one person to read and audit end-to-end.
Capable. JavaScript on QuickJS with Canvas 2D, WebCrypto, Service Workers and the Navigation API · WebAssembly via WAMR · opt-in per-site WebGL · inline <video> (MPEG-1 always, WebM/VP9 where FFmpeg is present) with WebVTT captions · presentation MathML · on-device safe browsing against a local blocklist.
Local AI. The about:start new-tab page is a chat with a small language model running entirely on your machine via llama.cpp — no cloud, no network at inference time. Build with -Dai=disabled for a fully offline binary.
Nordstjernen has no JIT so it is much more secure, and can still be fast enough. It ships no telemetry of any kind.
Read more about the innovations in the Nordstjernen web browser.
news
- · Nordstjernen 1.0.19 released — a big step in web-standards conformance, a new animated about:start splash, and a fresh iOS port. Announcement » · Release notes »
- · Nordstjernen 1.0.18 released — a maintenance release. Announcement » · Release notes »
- · Nordstjernen 1.0.17 released — a maintenance release. Announcement » · Release notes »
- · Nordstjernen 1.0.16 released — a maintenance release. Announcement » · Release notes »
- · Nordstjernen 1.0.15 released — a maintenance release. Announcement » · Release notes »
- · Nordstjernen 1.0.14 released — a maintenance release. Announcement » · Release notes »
- · Nordstjernen 1.0.12 released — a maintenance release. Release notes »
- · Nordstjernen 1.0.11 released — a maintenance release. Announcement » · Release notes »
- · Nordstjernen 1.0.0 released — the first stable release. Announcement » · Release notes »
specifications
| language | C · ~145 kLOC clean-room · GTK 4 shell · Java/JVM binding via JNI · fully auditable |
|---|---|
| html / css | lexbor (parser, WHATWG URL, selectors) |
| javascript | quickjs-ng — bytecode interpreter, no JIT |
| webassembly | WAMR — interpreter behind the WebAssembly JS API |
| images | Wuffs v0.4 (PNG / GIF / BMP / JPEG) · libwebp (WebP) · libavif (AVIF, optional) |
| media | inline <video> — MPEG-1 via pl_mpeg · WebM (VP9/VP8 + Opus/Vorbis) via optional FFmpeg · WebVTT captions · SDL2 audio |
| ai | llama.cpp — on-device about:start chat · no cloud · optional GPU offload (Vulkan / Metal) · -Dai=disabled for offline builds |
| ui | GTK 4 (≥ 4.22.1 on Windows, ≥ 4.14 elsewhere) · Pango text shaping |
| network | libcurl ≥ 8.5 · HTTP/2 |
| hardening | process-per-tab · seccomp + Landlock sandbox on Linux · sandboxed renderer processes · no JIT |
| privacy | no telemetry · partitioned cookies · HSTS · CSP · SRI · on-device safe browsing |
| standards | 140 spec rows fully implemented, 31 partial, 0 absent · WHATWG HTML sections 1–16 · Web Platform Tests: 88.4% of subtests overall, 91.7% HTML (July 2026) |
| platforms | linux (gtk) · windows · macos · android · ios · java/jvm · freebsd · netbsd |
| license | NSL-1.0 → MIT after 10 years · The Nordstjernen Source License is inspired by the Functional Source License (FSL), a Fair Source license that converts to Apache 2.0 or MIT. |
download
Latest tagged release: Nordstjernen 1.0.19 — released 17 July 2026. Builds for Windows, macOS and Linux, plus the source, are all on the download page. Android is available on Google Play.
languages
English · 中文 · हिन्दी · Español · Français · العربية · বাংলা · Português · Русский · اردو · Bahasa Indonesia · Deutsch · 日本語 · Kiswahili · मराठी · తెలుగు · Türkçe · தமிழ் · Tiếng Việt · 한국어 · Norsk