Show HN: TextWeb – Text-grid browser for AI agents, no screenshots needed (github.com)

TextWeb, a newly announced text-grid browser for AI agents, offers a game-changing alternative to traditional web interaction methods. By rendering web pages as structured text grids—rather than relying on costly screenshots and vision models—TextWeb enables large language models (LLMs) to interact with the web more efficiently. With a bandwidth of just 2-5KB per render, compared to over 1MB for screenshots, TextWeb maintains the spatial layout and interactivity of web elements, allowing LLMs to execute full JavaScript and understand the page layout without losing crucial positional context. This innovation significantly enhances the capabilities of AI agents, streamlining their ability to navigate and interact with web content. The tool supports any AI framework and offers features such as JSON output for easy integration, interactive mode, and the ability for agents to perform actions like clicking and typing within web pages using reference annotations. This approach not only reduces costs and speeds up interactions but also ensures a more intuitive grasp of web structures, positioning TextWeb as a critical advancement in the intersection of AI and web technologies.