How I build Suwu: an omarchy inspired remote shell with the cheapest model in Opencode Go

Description and use

Suwu is a web‑based remote shell with tiling, copy/paste, and LLM assistance, built in Go on a cheap LLM model, costing under $10.

Problem

Need a web‑based remote shell that feels like Omarchy but without installing a VNC client or a separate OS, and that can run on a cheap LLM model.

Outcome

Suwu delivers a seamless web‑based remote shell with tiling, copy/paste, and LLM‑assisted coding, built on a cheap LLM model and a single Go binary, costing under $10 in LLM usage.

Workflow

• 1. Chose a cheap LLM (DeepSeek V4, later Xiaomi MiMo 2.5) via Opencode Go.
• 2. Started from ghostty‑web demo and used a Pi coding agent to analyze and replicate it.
• 3. Faced mouse click and clipboard issues; decided to switch to xterm.js + libghostty‑vt for PTY retention.
• 4. Re‑implemented the demo with xterm.js, guided by the agent and LLMs.
• 5. Added web‑based tiling window manager and integrated LLM‑powered coding features.
• 6. Used Suwu to develop itself, iterating quickly with the agent and human debugging.
• 7. Debugged React loops, UI bugs, and data inconsistencies by guiding the agent with focused prompts and tests.
• 8. Deployed the final binary and shared the project on GitHub and a demo site.

Evidence

Suwu is a single binary thanks to Go, so I can easily maintain copies of Suwu on my machine.

Source

Opencode does give me a breakdown of how much is spent, even for a subscription service. So I count the spending from the Opencode dashboard: the peak spending per day was around $3, and most of the time it was around $0.5.

Source