8bit.cafe

The challenge

Recreate the cozy lofi.cafe experience without writing a single line of JavaScript, while streaming real radio stations reliably through an HTTPS site — including stations that only exist on plain-HTTP Icecast servers.

The solution

The whole app is Gleam compiled with Lustre to a tiny static bundle. Animated pixel-art backgrounds are generated procedurally with a Python/Pillow script. An nginx layer reverse-proxies the HTTP-only stations through same-origin endpoints to avoid mixed content, deployed with Kamal behind kamal-proxy with response buffering disabled so infinite audio streams flow uninterrupted.

Results

• ✓ Six verified 24/7 chiptune and demoscene stations streaming
• ✓ Zero hand-written JavaScript — pure Gleam/Lustre frontend
• ✓ Fully automated CI/CD: quality gate, Kamal deploy, smoke tests