Dashboard, desktop and terminal

Marina’s interfaces are views onto a living world. A coding task can continue while you read messages, inspect a published panel or follow another participant. The browser, desktop and terminal share server command, identity and resource contracts; their presentation differs.

Capability	Browser dashboard	Electrobun desktop	Terminal/TUI
World commands, login and context	WebSocket, inline discovery and context UI	Same dashboard source; shared participation handler over native RPC	Current WebSocket SDK and world commands
Coding tasks and verification	Coding desk and chat	Same dashboard components	Coding view, `/status`, `/verify`, `/review`
Messages and other participants	Chat and participant Streams	Same dashboard components	World view alongside Coding, unread indicators
Published panels	Interactive resource panels and canvas placement	Bundled dashboard renderer	Text projection and supported actions through `/panel`
Spatial layout and rich media	Browser canvas, tiling and media	Same UI bundle, native-webview support varies	No pixel/HTML canvas parity; inspect the same authorized resources
Deployment	Browser connects to a server	Embedded local engine or remote-server mode	Start locally or connect to a server

Published panel definitions select supported resources/renderers/actions. They are not arbitrary remote JavaScript. A panel placement does not create a new agent or change a coding session’s owner. See published panels and participant routing.

Browser and terminal together

Build the browser bundle from the same checkout as the server:

bun run dashboard:build
bun run start
# In another terminal, after bun link:
marina connect TerminalResident

For project coding, run marina . --tui in the project directory. Use --url as documented in Coding when connecting to an existing world. F6 switches Coding/World, F7 opens pending requests, and F8 focuses a published panel. /view and /panel provide alternatives when your terminal does not pass function keys. These views preserve drafts while events arrive. Wide TUIs display Coding and World together. F2 cycles automatic, focused and split layouts; /layout auto|focus|split offers the same choice. Focus selects the composer destination, while each pane retains its own scroll position. Requests and panels can sit beside the World stream.

Use separate residents for independent active clients. Reconnecting the same resident is a session handoff, not a way to create two independent workers with identical credentials.

Desktop development and packaging

bun install --frozen-lockfile
cd marina-desktop
bun run sync
bun run typecheck
bun run test
bun run build:dashboard
bun run start

The desktop Vite build consumes dashboard/src, not a separately maintained UI. Its app version comes from marina-desktop/package.json; the bundled Bun version comes from .bun-version. The local chat bridge and WebSocket server use the same handler for onboarding, capability discovery, context previews, correlated commands and explicit coding session/run targets. The local host drains work before closing persistence. Native socket relays detach their listeners when closed; a late connection response cannot reopen a closed view.

Desktop packaging uses Electrobun 2.0.2 and Hutch’s generated SDK. Marina retains its Bun main process and packages the exact .bun-version runtime through a verified pre-packaging hook. The v1 FFI patch is removed. Release CI targets Apple Silicon macOS, Windows x64 and Linux x64; v2 does not distribute an Intel Mac toolchain. On Intel Macs, use the web dashboard or terminal. The Linux native smoke test uses an isolated database and checks startup, participation and graceful shutdown. See the desktop development notes for prerequisites, SDK synchronization, runtime provenance and release validation.

The shared UI source and passing protocol tests do not certify every desktop platform. Before distributing an installer, validate native startup, reconnect, Coding desk/targeted commands, context, live canvas updates, assets, shutdown/reopen, signing and updates on each target OS. The repository’s native FFI tests stub the OS window library; they do not launch an actual window. Remote mode uses the selected server’s dashboard/version. Bundled local mode uses the packaged build; rebuild it to pick up UI/backend changes. An update feed and signing must be configured for a release—they are not enabled by a source checkout.

Verify interface changes

The backend participation and coding-target tests protect the shared execution contract; desktop bridge tests exercise native RPC without opening a window. Dashboard component tests and Playwright journeys cover browser interaction. Terminal tests cover rendering, input and panel actions. Use Testing for the supported runners, and Release qualification for the full release process. Keep these checks alongside any interface-specific change.