diff --git a/.eslintrc.json b/.eslintrc.json
index d499b3eb..08c37301 100644
--- a/.eslintrc.json
+++ b/.eslintrc.json
@@ -4,12 +4,11 @@
         "browser": true,
         "es6": true
     },
-    "extends": ["eslint:recommended", "standard", "standard-jsx", "standard-react"],
+    "extends": ["eslint:recommended", "standard"],
     "parserOptions": {
         "ecmaVersion": "2022",
         "sourceType": "module"
     },
-    "plugins": ["react", "react-hooks"],
     "rules": {
         "indent": ["error", 4,
             {
@@ -22,12 +21,8 @@
         "no-var": "error",
         "lines-between-class-members": ["error", "always", { "exceptAfterSingleLine": true }],
         "prefer-promise-reject-errors": ["error", { "allowEmptyReject": true }],
-        "react/jsx-indent": ["error", 4],
         "semi": ["error", "always", { "omitLastInOneLineBlock": true }],
 
-        "react-hooks/rules-of-hooks": "error",
-        "react-hooks/exhaustive-deps": "error",
-
         "camelcase": "off",
         "comma-dangle": "off",
         "curly": "off",
@@ -35,10 +30,6 @@
         "key-spacing": "off",
         "no-console": "off",
         "quotes": "off",
-        "react/jsx-curly-spacing": "off",
-        "react/jsx-indent-props": "off",
-        "react/jsx-no-useless-fragment": "error",
-        "react/prop-types": "off",
         "space-before-function-paren": "off",
         "standard/no-callback-literal": "off"
     },
diff --git a/.github/dependabot.yml b/.github/dependabot.yml
index 0526b5fc..dd9e50bb 100644
--- a/.github/dependabot.yml
+++ b/.github/dependabot.yml
@@ -30,10 +30,6 @@ updates:
           - "types*"
 
     ignore:
-      # https://github.com/cockpit-project/cockpit/issues/21151
-      - dependency-name: "sass"
-        versions: [">=1.80.0", "2.x"]
-
       # needs to be done in Cockpit first
       - dependency-name: "@patternfly/*"
         update-types: ["version-update:semver-major"]
diff --git a/package.json b/package.json
index 3b97fab7..d412d6e0 100644
--- a/package.json
+++ b/package.json
@@ -18,8 +18,6 @@
     "stylelint:fix": "stylelint --fix src/*{.css,scss}"
   },
   "devDependencies": {
-    "@types/react": "18.3.12",
-    "@types/react-dom": "18.3.1",
     "@typescript-eslint/eslint-plugin": "8.15.0",
     "argparse": "2.0.1",
     "esbuild": "0.24.0",
@@ -30,18 +28,14 @@
     "eslint": "8.57.1",
     "eslint-config-standard": "17.1.0",
     "eslint-config-standard-jsx": "11.0.0",
-    "eslint-config-standard-react": "13.0.0",
     "eslint-plugin-import": "2.31.0",
     "eslint-plugin-node": "11.1.0",
     "eslint-plugin-promise": "6.6.0",
-    "eslint-plugin-react": "7.37.2",
-    "eslint-plugin-react-hooks": "4.6.2",
     "gettext-parser": "8.0.0",
     "glob": "11.0.0",
     "htmlparser": "1.7.7",
     "jed": "1.1.1",
     "qunit": "2.22.0",
-    "sass": "1.79.6",
     "stylelint": "16.10.0",
     "stylelint-config-recommended-scss": "14.0.0",
     "stylelint-config-standard": "36.0.1",
@@ -50,11 +44,7 @@
     "typescript": "5.6.3"
   },
   "dependencies": {
-    "@patternfly/patternfly": "5.4.2",
-    "@patternfly/react-core": "5.4.8",
-    "@patternfly/react-icons": "5.4.2",
-    "@patternfly/react-styles": "5.4.1",
-    "react": "18.3.1",
-    "react-dom": "18.3.1"
+    "@patternfly/elements": "4.0.2",
+    "lit": "3.2.1"
   }
 }
diff --git a/packaging/cockpit-starter-kit.spec.in b/packaging/cockpit-starter-kit.spec.in
index 14cd470c..e9a650f0 100644
--- a/packaging/cockpit-starter-kit.spec.in
+++ b/packaging/cockpit-starter-kit.spec.in
@@ -57,7 +57,7 @@ appstream-util validate-relax --nonet %{buildroot}/%{_datadir}/metainfo/*
 
 %files
 %doc README.md
-%license LICENSE dist/index.js.LEGAL.txt dist/index.css.LEGAL.txt
+%license LICENSE dist/index.js.LEGAL.txt
 %{_datadir}/cockpit/*
 %{_datadir}/metainfo/*
 
diff --git a/src/app.scss b/src/app.scss
deleted file mode 100644
index 6d2c5d8b..00000000
--- a/src/app.scss
+++ /dev/null
@@ -1,5 +0,0 @@
-@use "page.scss";
-
-p {
-    font-weight: bold;
-}
diff --git a/src/app.tsx b/src/ct-application.ts
similarity index 50%
rename from src/app.tsx
rename to src/ct-application.ts
index 0d3b12fd..a06e7d62 100644
--- a/src/app.tsx
+++ b/src/ct-application.ts
@@ -1,7 +1,7 @@
 /*
  * This file is part of Cockpit.
  *
- * Copyright (C) 2017 Red Hat, Inc.
+ * Copyright (C) 2024 Red Hat, Inc.
  *
  * Cockpit is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify it
  * under the terms of the GNU Lesser General Public License as published by
@@ -17,32 +17,36 @@
  * along with Cockpit; If not, see <http://www.gnu.org/licenses/>.
  */
 
-import React, { useEffect, useState } from 'react';
-import { Alert } from "@patternfly/react-core/dist/esm/components/Alert/index.js";
-import { Card, CardBody, CardTitle } from "@patternfly/react-core/dist/esm/components/Card/index.js";
+import { css, html, LitElement } from 'lit';
+import { customElement, state } from 'lit/decorators.js';
+
+import '@patternfly/elements/pf-card/pf-card.js';
 
 import cockpit from 'cockpit';
 
 const _ = cockpit.gettext;
 
-export const Application = () => {
-    const [hostname, setHostname] = useState(_("Unknown"));
+@customElement('ct-application')
+export class Application extends LitElement {
+    @state() private accessor hostname = _("Unknown");
+
+    static readonly styles = css`
+        .running-on {
+            color: green;
+        }
+    `;
 
-    useEffect(() => {
+    connectedCallback() {
+        super.connectedCallback();
         const hostname = cockpit.file('/etc/hostname');
-        hostname.watch(content => setHostname(content?.trim() ?? ""));
-        return hostname.close;
-    }, []);
-
-    return (
-        <Card>
-            <CardTitle>Starter Kit</CardTitle>
-            <CardBody>
-                <Alert
-                    variant="info"
-                    title={ cockpit.format(_("Running on $0"), hostname) }
-                />
-            </CardBody>
-        </Card>
-    );
-};
+        hostname.watch(content => { this.hostname = content?.trim() ?? "" });
+    }
+
+    render() {
+        return html`
+            <pf-card>
+                <h1 slot="header">Starter Kit</h1>
+                <p class="running-on">${cockpit.format(_("Running on $0"), this.hostname)}</p>
+            </pf-card>`;
+    }
+}
diff --git a/src/index.html b/src/index.html
index 2b06bb4f..f034309f 100644
--- a/src/index.html
+++ b/src/index.html
@@ -29,6 +29,6 @@
 </head>
 
 <body>
-    <div id="app"></div>
+    <ct-application></ct-application>
 </body>
 </html>
diff --git a/src/index.tsx b/src/index.ts
similarity index 64%
rename from src/index.tsx
rename to src/index.ts
index 51254c0a..a85da714 100644
--- a/src/index.tsx
+++ b/src/index.ts
@@ -1,7 +1,7 @@
 /*
  * This file is part of Cockpit.
  *
- * Copyright (C) 2017 Red Hat, Inc.
+ * Copyright (C) 2024 Red Hat, Inc.
  *
  * Cockpit is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify it
  * under the terms of the GNU Lesser General Public License as published by
@@ -17,16 +17,6 @@
  * along with Cockpit; If not, see <http://www.gnu.org/licenses/>.
  */
 
-import React from 'react';
-import { createRoot } from 'react-dom/client';
+// import "cockpit-dark-theme"; // doesn't work for PFE
 
-import "cockpit-dark-theme";
-
-import { Application } from './app.jsx';
-
-import "patternfly/patternfly-5-cockpit.scss";
-import './app.scss';
-
-document.addEventListener("DOMContentLoaded", () => {
-    createRoot(document.getElementById("app")!).render(<Application />);
-});
+import './ct-application.ts';
diff --git a/test/browser/run-test.sh b/test/browser/run-test.sh
index 586583d9..9a33db99 100644
--- a/test/browser/run-test.sh
+++ b/test/browser/run-test.sh
@@ -7,6 +7,19 @@ git init
 rm -f bots  # common local case: existing bots symlink
 make bots test/common
 
+# support running from clean git tree
+if [ -e .git ]; then
+    # move package.json temporarily otherwise npm might try to install the dependencies from it
+    rm -f package-lock.json  # otherwise the command below installs *everything*, argh
+    mv package.json .package.json
+    # only install a subset to save time/space
+    npm install query-selector-shadow-dom
+    mv .package.json package.json
+else
+    # upstream tarballs ship test dependencies; print version for debugging
+    grep '"version"' node_modules/query-selector-shadow-dom/package.json
+fi
+
 # disable detection of affected tests; testing takes too long as there is no parallelization
 mv .git dot-git
 
diff --git a/test/check-application b/test/check-application
index 3e85d0f9..cc362e12 100755
--- a/test/check-application
+++ b/test/check-application
@@ -18,16 +18,16 @@ class TestApplication(testlib.MachineCase):
 
         self.login_and_go("/starter-kit")
         # verify expected heading
-        b.wait_text(".pf-v5-c-card__title", "Starter Kit")
+        b.wait_text("pf-card [slot='header']", "Starter Kit")
 
         # verify expected host name
         hostname = m.execute("cat /etc/hostname").strip()
-        b.wait_in_text(".pf-v5-c-alert__title", "Running on " + hostname)
+        b.wait_in_text("pf-card .running-on", "Running on " + hostname)
 
         # change current hostname
         self.write_file("/etc/hostname", "new-" + hostname)
         # verify new hostname name
-        b.wait_in_text(".pf-v5-c-alert__title", "Running on new-" + hostname)
+        b.wait_in_text("pf-card .running-on", "Running on new-" + hostname)
 
         # change language to German
         b.switch_to_top()
@@ -46,7 +46,7 @@ class TestApplication(testlib.MachineCase):
         b.go("/starter-kit")
         b.enter_page("/starter-kit")
         # page label (from js) should be translated
-        b.wait_in_text(".pf-v5-c-alert__title", "Läuft auf")
+        b.wait_in_text("pf-card .running-on", "Läuft auf")
 
 
 if __name__ == '__main__':
diff --git a/tsconfig.json b/tsconfig.json
index c4b1669d..e0e3c019 100644
--- a/tsconfig.json
+++ b/tsconfig.json
@@ -3,7 +3,6 @@
     "allowJs": true,
     "checkJs": true,
     "exactOptionalPropertyTypes": true,
-    "jsx": "react",
     "lib": [
       "dom",
       "es2020"