Running Google’s Antigravity CLI on Termux: The Complete Workaround for Broken ARM64 Builds

Termux provides proot-distro to manage chroot-like Linux root filesystems without requiring device root privileges. Install it via pkg:

Deploy a minimal Ubuntu environment. This downloads the official ARM64 root filesystem:

Once the installation finishes, log into the Ubuntu rootfs:

Minimal container images do not ship with SSL certificates or download utilities. Update the package lists and install curl and ca-certificates before running the installer:

Then run Google’s official Antigravity CLI installation script:

The installer detects the Linux ARM64 kernel architecture and writes the binary to /root/.local/bin/agy.

Ensure the binary is discoverable in your interactive shell:

Verify that the binary executes cleanly under glibc:

Type exit when finished to return to the native Termux shell.

Opening the Ubuntu chroot manually every time you want to execute an agent command is tedious. You can create a transparent wrapper script directly in Termux’s native binary path ($PREFIX/bin/agy):

cat << 'EOF' > /usr/local/bin/xdg-open
#!/bin/sh
exec /data/data/com.termux/files/usr/bin/termux-open-url "$@"
EOF
chmod +x /usr/local/bin/xdg-open

Test the bridge immediately:

xdg-open "https://malcolmlow.com/"

Your default Android mobile browser (such as Chrome) will pop open into the foreground instantly.

With this bridge in place inside Ubuntu, any MCP server, Python script, or Node tool running in Antigravity will pop open Chrome or your default Android browser automatically, exactly like native Termux tools!

Why does the binary fail on native Termux?

Android’s dynamic linker (Bionic) strictly validates Thread-Local Storage (TLS) alignment and ELF segment offsets. Binaries linked against GNU libc with modern toolchains frequently specify alignment boundaries that Bionic’s dynamic linker rejects on startup.

Why did Codex work without PRoot while Antigravity needed it?

Codex’s Termux package (@mmmbuto/codex-cli-termux) was specially compiled and packaged to link against Termux’s Bionic libc. Antigravity’s official distribution is compiled against GNU glibc for standard Linux distributions, making the PRoot environment necessary.

How was this very article published?

This post was drafted in Termux, styled according to our publication guidelines, authenticated against the official WordPress.com MCP server, and published live directly via the WordPress REST API without opening a web admin dashboard.

What is the performance overhead of PRoot?

PRoot uses ptrace to intercept and emulate Linux system calls in userspace without requiring root. While I/O-heavy compiles can be 20–30% slower, CLI network calls, inference streaming, and code edits perform at near-native speeds on modern multi-core ARM chips.

How do I prevent Android from killing background tasks?

Android 12+ introduced the Phantom Process Killer, which aggressively terminates child processes that consume significant CPU or spawn background workers. Run termux-wake-lock in Termux before running extended agent sessions to prevent Android from putting Termux into deep sleep.