Stele

Stele is a runtime for a category of software that hasn’t really existed since Flash died: single-file, local-first, interactive, portable units of software that open like documents and run like apps. Think of it as VLC for JSX — it opens .stele, .jsx, .tsx, .html, .svg, and .md files directly in the browser at stele.au, with a Tauri desktop app alongside.

Four archetypes are shipped: fully self-contained artifacts, server-backed client-views (a portal in a file), cryptographically-paired multi-party artifacts (ECDH-keyed — think dual-signature documents or two-player games), and multi-participant rooms over WebSockets. Security is default-deny: no manifest means presentation-only, everything runs in a null-origin sandboxed iframe with per-grant CSP, and capability grants are per-content-hash and revocable. Zero telemetry.

On top of the Apache 2.0 runtime sits Arcade, the cloud layer: publishing with stable share links that unfurl with auto-rendered posters, a public gallery with remix lineage, and a claude.ai connector so you can publish an artifact straight from a Claude chat with one tool call. The runtime speaks to any server — Arcade is never required.