from Hacker News

Gurted – A web ecosystem introducing the gurt:// protocol

by redbell on 9/26/25, 9:40 PM with 23 comments

  • by rickcarlino on 9/26/25, 9:45 PM

    I applaud the effort to devise new internet protocols (there aren't enough and we lose little by adding diversity to a monoculture).

    With that being said, I think the front page of the site could do more to explain the benefits and tradeoffs of the protocol without needing to dive into the docs. A paragraph could suffice.

  • by fouc on 9/27/25, 5:30 AM

    The youtube video[0] gives a WAY better introduction to GURT than the website does:

      "This is Gurted — an alternative to the World Wide Web with a custom protocol called GURT
  with enforced encryption, a new DNS with weird domains,
  web browser built in a game engine that doesn’t rely on Chromium,
  capable of running a Minecraft clone, Tetris,  complex UIs, all powered by HTML, CSS, and...
  Lua."
    [0] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=45392233

  • by evv on 9/26/25, 11:56 PM

    Oh, of course its Face Dev!

    Feels silly to link to the project without linking to the youtube video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iJsH7AdLmUA&pp=0gcJCfYJAYcqI...

  • by strongpigeon on 9/26/25, 10:28 PM

    "Flumi, the wayfinder of Gurted, is created in Godot - the game engine." gives strong Microservices by Krazam vibes

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y8OnoxKotPQ

  • by Sophira on 9/27/25, 3:45 PM

    This looks like an attempt to reinvent HTTP and HTML, but I'm not entirely certain that I grok why it's useful. It feels like a developer-centric approach.

    I'm reminded of another project called Gemini[0], which aims to solve a similar problem in a different way. The Gemini protocol is very, very simple to implement (with the exception that it uses mandatory modern encryption like Gurted does, so you need encryption libraries), and it's intentionally difficult to extend, in an effort to make it a simpler and more efficient alternative to the Web that is resistant to takeover by corporate desires, in a way that I'm not sure Gurted achieves.

    [0] https://geminiprotocol.net/

  • by two_handfuls on 9/26/25, 10:52 PM

    I take it this is a joke?

  • by Panzerschrek on 9/27/25, 1:01 PM

    Looks like an approach to reinvent current web standards in slightly different, but fundamentally the same way. If one wants to reinvent it, why not do it properly? Why it's TCP-based and not UDP-based? Why using slightly modified HTML instead of some other format, which is faster to process? Why using Lua and not WASM?

  • by efskap on 9/26/25, 11:03 PM

    Lua on the front end is cool to see. Feels like it could've easily beaten out JS on its merits if history just played out differently. The seasickness simulator on the landing page is unnecessary though.

  • by heikkilevanto on 9/26/25, 10:36 PM

    I hate the way the web site wobbles up and down for no reason. And even after scrolling down to the end of the front page, I don't have any idea why this should be a good idea, or what kind of problems it might solve. Meh!

  • by perilunar on 9/27/25, 5:11 AM

    'Gurt' has several meanings, none of them appropriate for a protocol:

    https://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=gurt

  • by andrewmcwatters on 9/26/25, 11:54 PM

    Uh. The word sounds like... not quite an audible onomatopoeia... but maybe a comic book one for if you stepped in dog poo.

    Not sure about this one, seems like it's dead in the water with this name.

    "Gurted?" I don't want to be gurted. No.

  • by tripdout on 9/27/25, 1:22 PM

    yo

  • by unleaded on 9/26/25, 11:07 PM

    yo