Share your desktop app

The desktop app can share your live chats and terminals with a phone or another browser. You turn sharing on in the status bar, then scan a QR code. The link works on any network, so your phone doesn't need to be on the same Wi-Fi as your computer.

A shared link is view-only. On the other device you can watch your chats and terminals as they run. You can't send prompts, answer approvals, open terminals or change files from it. To do those things from another device, run termul-server instead.

Before you start

Sharing uses cloudflared, a free program from Cloudflare. It creates a temporary public HTTPS address that forwards to Termul on your computer. You don't need a Cloudflare account for this.

Termul doesn't install cloudflared for you. Install it yourself, then make sure Termul can find it. Termul looks for it in this order:

1. The path in the TERMUL_CLOUDFLARED_PATH environment variable, if you set it.
2. A cloudflared program in the same folder as the Termul app.
3. cloudflared on your PATH.

Start sharing

1. In the status bar at the bottom of the window, click the monitor icon (Remote terminal access). The Remote Agent Access popover opens.
2. Turn on Enable remote access.
3. Wait a few seconds. The popover shows Starting tunnel… while cloudflared starts. Then a QR code appears.
4. On your phone, scan the QR code with the camera. Termul opens in the phone's browser.

To send the link to another device instead, click Copy link and paste it there.

While sharing is on, the monitor icon in the status bar is highlighted.

Keep the link private

The link has two parts:

• The address, for example https://<random-words>.trycloudflare.com. It is random and changes each time you turn sharing off and on.
• An access token after #token= at the end. The token is what lets a device in.

Anyone who has the full link can watch your sessions. Share it only with your own devices.

The token stays the same each time you turn sharing on. Termul saves it in a file named web-auth-token in the app's data folder (com.termul-manager.app). To make old links stop working, turn sharing off, delete that file, and turn sharing on again. Termul then creates a new token.

On the phone, the browser remembers the token after the first visit. Termul also removes it from the address bar.

Stop sharing

Open the popover again and turn off Enable remote access. Termul stops cloudflared and the link stops working right away.

Your agents keep running in the desktop app. Turning sharing off doesn't stop any chat or terminal.

Phones that were open on the link show Host offline. See Connection status.

If the QR code doesn't appear

• An error mentions cloudflared binary not found. Termul can't find cloudflared. Install it, or set TERMUL_CLOUDFLARED_PATH to its full path, then restart Termul.
• The error says the tunnel URL was not received. cloudflared started but didn't get an address within 25 seconds. Check your internet connection and try again.
• The popover says Tunnel disconnected. cloudflared stopped after it started. Turn Enable remote access off and on to get a new link.
• The phone says the site can't be reached. A new address can take a few seconds to work everywhere. Wait a moment, then scan again.