| name | moo-desktop |
| description | Give a moo machine a clickable Linux desktop served in the browser, or provision it with the common agent toolkit (dev tools, Node.js, Chromium). Use when the user wants to see or click around an app running in a moo machine, asks for a desktop, GUI, VNC, or browser view of a machine, or wants a machine equipped for browser-based testing. |
Desktop and toolkit provisioning for moo machines
Machines are headless Linux systems; a desktop is just packages plus a
port. Both provisioners compose the four moo verbs — no special moo
surface — and end with moo save, so the result is part of the
machine's versioned state: it survives moo drop + moo new, and
forks of the machine carry their own copy.
Prerequisite: moo installed and healthy
moo doctor >/dev/null 2>&1 || curl -fsSL https://github.com/heyito/moo/releases/latest/download/install.sh | sh
Prerequisite: forward the desktop port
The project's moo.toml must forward guest port 6901:
[network]
ports = [6901]
If the machine already exists without the port, recreate it:
moo drop <name> && moo new <name>.
Set up the desktop
Run from inside the project, with the target machine name (defaults to
desktop). From a source checkout:
scripts/desktop.sh my-machine
Binary-only install (script is attached to every release):
curl -fsSL https://github.com/heyito/moo/releases/latest/download/desktop.sh | bash -s -- my-machine
One-time setup installs XFCE + VNC + noVNC inside the machine (a few
minutes), wires it to start on every boot, waits until it answers, and
saves a snapshot. It prints a http://localhost:<host-port>/vnc.html
URL when ready. Desktop terminals open in the synced working tree.
Reopen later
The desktop starts on every boot. To get the URL again (read-only,
touches nothing):
moo open my-machine 6901 '/vnc.html?autoconnect=true&resize=scale'
Agent toolkit (compilers, Node.js, headless Chromium)
To equip a machine for development and browser testing — and snapshot
it as a baseline other machines fork from in under a second:
scripts/agent-base.sh base
moo new attempt-1 from base
Run both provisioners against the same machine and the desktop gets a
working browser.
Troubleshooting
- URL never answers:
moo run <name> -- 'cat /var/log/desktop-*.log'.
- "does not forward guest port 6901": add the port to
moo.toml and
recreate the machine (see prerequisite above).
- Services must listen on
0.0.0.0 to be reachable from the host; the
provisioner handles this for the desktop itself.
