remote-development

Remote Development

Current Model

Remote functionality is owned by the workspace server runtime. The Electron app keeps SSH connection management for transport, credentials, host config parsing, and external "open in SSH" integrations, but runtime behavior should go through the workspace-server wire contract instead of desktop-side SSH exec, SFTP, PTY, or shell-profile code.

Main Files

• `apps/workspace-server/src/` — daemon entry point, socket serving, runtime wiring
• `packages/core/src/workspace-server/` — shared wire contract, schemas, protocol

versioning, and workspace-server-specific APIs

• `packages/core/src/workspace-server/releases.ts` — channel-pointer schema, strict

release versions, and protocol-major pointer paths

• `src/core/services/ssh/` — desktop SSH connection management, credentials, config

parsing, and transport setup

• `src/core/services/hosts/` — managed remote install/ensure flow and the

reconnecting Wire client over SSH streamlocal forwarding

• `src/main/core/wire-workers/` — desktop-local wire runtime workers for local

projects while remote runtimes are served by the workspace server

• `src/main/utils/remoteOpenIn.ts` and `src/main/utils/shellEscape.ts` — external

SSH URL/command helpers that intentionally bypass workspace-server runtimes

Authentication And Storage

• SSH credentials are managed through the SSH services and OS-backed secret storage
• host key handling is implemented under `src/main/core/ssh/`
• runtime dependency state for remote hosts belongs to the workspace-server

`hostDependencies` component, not an Electron-side SSH execution context

• the desktop owns the managed install under `~/.emdash/workspace-server`; remote

runtime calls begin only after the workspace-server provisioner reports ready

• managed installs read the desktop channel's pointer for its protocol major, then

run the immutable versioned `install.sh` with the pointer's artifact version pinned

Rules

• treat all shell construction as security-sensitive
• use shared SSH and shell-escaping helpers instead of ad hoc quoting
• do not add new desktop-side SSH exec, SFTP, PTY, or shell-profile paths for

runtime behavior; add or consume workspace-server wire APIs instead

• desktop-side SSH exec is limited to the workspace-server control plane: probing

the host, checksum-verified installation, and daemon lifecycle commands

• port-forward preview control belongs in `workspaceWireContract.portForwards`;

data streams should be transport-native once the workspace-server client layer exists

• confirm whether a feature is local-only before assuming parity on remote projects