Native desktop streaming · pre-release
Ansio is low-latency desktop streaming built native from day one: a Windows host, a macOS client, and a shared Rust core. It aims past best-case LAN latency at the things that actually break immersion: p99 smoothness, correct HDR, and latency you can see the reason for.
The thesis
Every stage from screen to glass is timed and named. When a frame is late, Ansio can tell you which stage is at fault (the encoder, the path, or your Wi-Fi) in plain language, instead of leaving you to guess. Here's the pipeline it measures.
Illustrative per-stage breakdown. Real numbers come from the harness, on real hardware, labeled by provenance.
The client
The macOS client shows every pipeline timestamp live. Values are measured; when a number can't be trusted yet it reads as unavailable instead of guessing. If the picture is soft or late, the HUD points at the reason.
Why it's different
Matching best-case LAN latency is table stakes. Ansio is designed for the moments that actually pull you out of the illusion.
A true 10-bit path from capture to glass: explicit colorimetry, correct HDR10 metadata, SDR-in-HDR white handling, and, crucially, tone-mapping exactly once, so highlights keep their detail and greys are never mapped twice.
Client-predicted cursor at input rate, precise scroll and gestures, complete keyboard handling, crisp text. It behaves like the Mac in front of you, not a laggy window of another computer.
Congestion control, FEC, connection migration, and sub-second resume that shed a little fidelity before they ever produce a stall. Wi-Fi hiccups get named, not hidden.
LAN discovery needs no account and no relay. Remote access prefers a direct NAT-traversed path; a self-hostable, end-to-end-encrypted relay is the fallback. Your LAN never touches it.
No performance or quality number ships without before/after harness evidence. Every figure carries its provenance: measured, host-reported, estimated, or planned. If it can't be measured yet, it says so.
Built for VideoToolbox, Metal, and CAMetalLayer EDR: ProMotion-aware pacing, zero-copy decode-to-present, and App Nap handled so a background window can't wreck your frame timing.
Architecture
Host, client, and tools all speak the same native protocol over QUIC. No compatibility layer shapes the wire. Bridges to Sunshine and Moonlight exist, but they stay off to the side.
Post-1.0, the same streamcore is meant to carry Windows and Linux clients, then a macOS host.
The spec
Design targets and directions, not press-release numbers. Nothing here is a shipped, measured result yet, and every line says so.
Open & self-hosted
Ansio is GPLv3, end to end. No lock-in, no mandatory account, and a relay you can run yourself, or skip entirely.
Every line, including the relay. Source offers and reproducible dependency pins ship with each build.
Self-hostable and end-to-end encrypted. LAN sessions are proven never to touch it, and the diagnostics say so.
Local-first pairing over PAKE. An optional account only helps with roaming discovery, nothing else.
Diagnostics stay local by default and upload only per report, always with clear provenance labels.
# bring up your own end-to-end-encrypted relay
cargo run -p relay -- config \
--advertise-host relay.lan --region home
cargo run -p relay -- health
# prove the native transport on loopback
scripts/quicprobe-loopback.sh
› ASC1 handshake ok · ASD1 datagrams echoed
# see the whole pipeline as evidence, locally
harness/run-local-smoke.sh
› wrote target/harness/*.json (measured)Get it
Ansio is in active development and the native pipeline is coming up now. Watch the build, grab source, and be first in line when signed host and client builds land.
Builds ship signed & notarized (macOS) and WHCP-certified (Windows driver) before public release. Until then, clone it and run the local smoke.