Stackoverflow: User inputs for Rmarkdown without shiny
This was the title of a stackOverflow questinon that I answered. The user needed interactivity without shiny as dependency.
This is something that can be done but you need to know a little of JavaScript or use a very specific package like {crosstalk}. I do not think there is another way to get it done.
With that in mind I gave him an option, maybe not exactly what he was looking for, but a useful one.