Share your desktop app
Open your live desktop sessions on a phone with a QR code.
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 wrangl-server instead.
Before you start
Sharing uses cloudflared, a free program from Cloudflare. It creates a temporary public HTTPS address that forwards to Wrangl on your computer. You don't need a Cloudflare account for this.
Wrangl doesn't install cloudflared for you. Install it yourself, then make sure Wrangl can find it. Wrangl looks for it in this order:
- The path in the
WRANGL_CLOUDFLARED_PATHenvironment variable, if you set it. - A
cloudflaredprogram in the same folder as the Wrangl app. cloudflaredon yourPATH.
Start sharing
- In the status bar at the bottom of the window, click the monitor icon (Remote terminal access). The Remote Agent Access popover opens.
- Turn on Enable remote access.
- Wait a few seconds. The popover shows Starting tunnel… while
cloudflaredstarts. Then a QR code appears. - On your phone, scan the QR code with the camera. Wrangl 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. Wrangl saves it in a file named web-auth-token in the app's data folder (dev.wrangl.app). To make old links stop working, turn sharing off, delete that file, and turn sharing on again. Wrangl then creates a new token.
On the phone, the browser remembers the token after the first visit. Wrangl also removes it from the address bar.
Stop sharing
Open the popover again and turn off Enable remote access. Wrangl 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. Wrangl can't findcloudflared. Install it, or setWRANGL_CLOUDFLARED_PATHto its full path, then restart Wrangl. - The error says the tunnel URL was not received.
cloudflaredstarted but didn't get an address within 25 seconds. Check your internet connection and try again. - The popover says Tunnel disconnected.
cloudflaredstopped 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.