turnwire

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Turnwire

One agent session, continued across your desktop browser, terminal, and phone: the host does the work, the phone lets you jump in and approve at any time.

How it fits together

• Clients: Use a desktop browser, CLI, interactive terminal (TUI), or phone PWA; an optional native desktop client is also available. Clients access the same host and session state. See client capabilities and platform requirements.
• Remote connection: The phone reaches the host through a Relay or a configured tunnel. Paired session traffic is encrypted; the Relay forwards ciphertext.
• Host and state: turnwire-host runs Turnwire Core. SQLite stores metadata, cached events, approvals, and command receipts.
• Task execution: Turnwire Core delegates tasks through the AgentRuntime interface to DSH. Model credentials and task execution stay on the host.

What it gives you

• No disconnection when you leave the computer: See the live progress of the same session on your phone and send your next idea back to the host; a message either queues until the current turn ends or steers it directly.
• Approvals happen on your phone: An operation that needs a green light pops up on your phone; a single approval or rejection covers it, and the outcome stays in the inbox for later review.
• One shared state across clients: Desktop, browser, terminal, and phone access share sessions, history, approvals, and model selection rather than keeping separate records. See capability coverage for client-specific gaps.
• The host decides the models: You can switch a session's model and reasoning effort from the phone too, and only models actually registered by the host runtime are listed.
• It runs on your own machine: Remote connections go through a temporary tunnel or a Relay you deploy yourself; the host dials out, so you never expose the daemon port to the public internet.

Three things to look at before you start

Honest up front, so you do not discover them halfway through:

1. The npm preview is published: turnwire@next installs without repository access. It is not a stable release or a signed native desktop installer; source repositories remain private.
2. You need an always-on host. Choose a machine that meets the host requirements — if it is asleep, the phone cannot connect. Host and optional native client platform support are separate; neither implies support for every operating system.
3. You need model credentials, and they stay on the host only. The API key is read by DSH on the host and does not enter a client, the Relay, or a tunnel process.

Minimum deployment requirements

The smallest working deployment is one execution host + Turnwire + DSH + model credentials. Connect a browser or terminal to that host; Relay, containers and a native desktop application are not prerequisites.

No universal CPU, memory or disk minimum has been measured. Resource use depends on DSH, project size and concurrency; do not treat an invented hardware number as a guarantee. See quickstart for persistence, ports and actual platform constraints.

Choose a deployment method

All four methods use the same execution host; choose how clients reach it.

Relay and tunnels do not replace the execution host. npm/npx are installation choices; foreground/background execution and reusing DSH are runtime choices, not additional deployment methods. See quickstart for host setup and detailed steps.

Getting started

Recommended: npm preview

Choose an execution host that meets the current package and runtime requirements, with Node.js 22.13+ and npm. The published npm preview needs no repository access, source build or system-service setup:

npx turnwire@next
# Or install persistently:
npm install -g turnwire@next
turnwire --open

Release channels: pushes to main publish previews to npm next. Only an explicit stable GitHub Release publishes to npm latest; a main push does not promote a stable release. Use turnwire@next for the current preview rather than a pinned preview version. These are Turnwire channels, separate from the DSH runtime's channels.

The source repository remains private; npm installation does not require access. The preview is not a stable release or a signed native desktop installer. This entry point does not imply support for every operating system; package constraints and runtime requirements still apply.

Keep the terminal open: the preview runs in the foreground and installs no system service. Model credentials are prompted for privately and stay on the host. An explicitly configured existing DSH is reused; otherwise the launcher offers installation of npm latest, resolved to an exact version and validated in isolation. Local use needs no Relay; phone access is configured separately.

After stopping your own foreground instance, turnwire start --update-dsh stages and checks a managed DSH update before switching. It does not downgrade, hot-replace an active runtime, or update external DSH. Ordinary startup does not silently update existing installations.

See quickstart, npm installation and release, and DSH compatibility and limits. The runtime compatibility matrix tests configured host environments against baseline/latest/next; it is not a guarantee of compatibility with every future upstream change.

Alternative: background host

For a host that runs in the background, see service setup in the quickstart. Check its platform requirements and safety boundaries before installing; phone access remains a separate explicit configuration step.

Start the execution host

Local use: start the host → open local Web or a terminal. Remote use: start the host → configure remote access → pair and connect. Remote users need not install a native client or complete a task in a local browser first. On a headless host, use --no-open and continue directly to remote access setup.

1. Run node --version and npm --version to check prerequisites, then npx turnwire@next --open.
2. Follow prompts to install missing DSH and privately enter model credentials. For existing DSH, configure the explicit connection first using quickstart.
3. Wait for startup. --open attempts to open authenticated local Web. If browser launch is unavailable, use --no-open, note the printed address, and run npx turnwire@next connect for local connection details. That output contains credentials: do not publish it.
4. In another terminal, run npx turnwire@next status to inspect the running host and runtime. npx turnwire@next doctor --json checks the environment offline; it is not a live health check.
5. Local users can now select a project workspace, create a session and send a task in Web or the terminal. Remote users can perform this verification after configuring remote access and pairing. Connecting to the host does not prove model credentials work; a real task validates model-service access.

If the default Web port is occupied, use npx turnwire@next start --port 9900 --open. Keep the host running. Ctrl-C stops its owned processes, never an external DSH.

Contributors with access to the private repository can follow Developing from source to build, run an offline Demo, or connect a real model through DSH. The Demo needs no model credentials and does not call a model, run a shell, or modify files.

Optional access clients (independent choices, not deployment steps)

Clients let you view sessions, send tasks and handle approvals. They connect to the same execution host rather than maintaining independent task state; multiple clients can be used together.

The execution host runs tasks; tunnels and Relay provide remote connectivity. Neither is a client.

Configure remote access (when needed)

Prerequisites are a running execution host, host-management permission and the configuration for your chosen remote endpoint—not a completed client-selection step. Local-only users can skip this section. After configuring the endpoint, remote users can pair using a phone or another device's browser; no native app installation is required.

The local address 127.0.0.1 refers only to that machine itself, and 127.0.0.1 on your phone is the phone itself — so a remote connection must have a public channel. Three options:

Once the channel is ready, generate a pairing QR code, then open the deployed PWA on your phone and paste the pairing code. The pairing link puts the key in the URL fragment, and the page removes it immediately after receiving it; by default it is kept only for the current browsing session, and only checking "Remember this trusted device" saves it persistently.

Networks in mainland China may be unable to reach the Cloudflare temporary tunnel, or may see latency and instability — it is kept as a quick-try option. For long-term use, prefer a self-hosted Relay verified on the actual networks of your host and phone; a free Quick Tunnel is not the same as the Cloudflare China Network (that is a separately subscribed enterprise service).

What you can do on your phone

• Continue the same session: watch live progress, send follow-up instructions, stop a running turn
• Handle approvals and the inbox: approve / reject, and review operations already handled or expired
• Switch a session's model and reasoning effort: the small chip above the input box, listing only models registered by the host runtime
• When sending while a session is running you can choose to queue (wait for the current turn to end) or steer (guide the current turn directly), and the message is marked with which one you used
• When a session is archived you can still view its history, and unarchive it to continue when you need to

Known limitations

• The host must be awake and online: if the host is offline, the phone sees no progress.
• Phone push requires a self-hosted Relay: temporary addresses do not support long-term push (turnwire notifications status will tell you plainly).
• Changing the address means pairing again: a temporary tunnel changes its address on every restart.
• The native app is ad-hoc signed: suitable only for personal use or internal distribution.
• Without model credentials you can only run the Demo, and cannot perform real coding tasks.

Going deeper

Current status and boundaries

The current delivery includes one-time pairing, per-connection ECDH session encryption authenticated by device credentials, staged connection recovery, a persistent approval inbox, Web Push, and a configurable TLS LAN listener. Start with a dedicated data directory and create client pairings from the host. Keep pairing credentials private. The Relay's connection routing is still in memory, while push keys and the delivery queue are persisted.

It does not yet include Codex / Claude adapters, team accounts, native iOS, auto-update, or release signing. "Which things were verified only under specific conditions" is governed by the verification record.

License

Apache License 2.0 — see LICENSE and NOTICE for details. You may freely use, modify, and distribute it (including commercially), provided you keep the copyright and license notices; this project provides no warranty.