chan

Chan Desktop

Chan Desktop is the native version of the IDE for macOS and Linux. It hosts the same workspace surface as chan serve in a native window (no browser chrome), and it can attach to workspaces running on other machines, both outbound and inbound.

Install

Download the desktop package for your platform from the install page:

  • macOS: .dmg (the .app bundle).
  • Linux: AppImage or .deb.

Desktop packages are release artifacts; the shell installer (curl -fsSL https://chan.app/install.sh | sh) installs only the standalone chan CLI, not the desktop app.

Local workspaces

Open a folder on disk and Chan Desktop launches a local chan serve for it and mounts the editor in the window. This is the same single-user, single-machine model as the CLI; your files stay ordinary files under the workspace root.

Remote workspaces

A remote workspace is a chan serve running on another machine (a VM on your laptop, a box on your LAN, a VPS). Chan Desktop reaches it two ways.

Outbound: you dial the remote

The remote listens; the desktop connects to it over HTTP/2.

1. On the remote machine, install chan and start a server:

``sh # On the remote host (e.g. a Linux VM): curl -fsSL https://chan.app/install.sh | sh git clone https://github.com/fiorix/chan chan serve ./chan ``

Copy the URL chan serve prints (it carries the per-launch bearer token).

2. In Chan Desktop: New -> Remote -> Outbound, and paste that URL. The workspace opens in a native window and feels local.

If the remote port is not directly reachable, forward it over SSH first, then paste the resulting http://localhost:<port>/... URL:

ssh user@host -L 8787:localhost:8787
# then, in that session on the remote host:
#   curl -fsSL https://chan.app/install.sh | sh && chan serve ./repo
# paste the printed localhost URL into New -> Remote -> Outbound

A Lima VM on a Mac is a convenient remote: it is a real Linux host reachable from the Mac, so the outbound flow exercises the full remote path locally.

Inbound: the remote dials you

When you cannot listen on the remote machine, Chan Desktop can accept a reverse tunnel: the desktop listens, and the remote chan serve dials back to it.

1. In Chan Desktop: New -> Remote -> Inbound, and pick a port to listen on (or 0 to let the OS choose). 2. Copy the chan serve ... --tunnel-url=<desktop-listener> command the dialog shows, and run it on the remote machine. The workspace then appears in the desktop window.

Verification status

  • chan serve (local and on a remote host) is verified.
  • The in-app New -> Remote -> Outbound / Inbound click-paths run in the

desktop webview (WKWebView on macOS), which the automated tooling cannot drive. They are PENDING a hand-smoke by the maintainer before this page is presented as fully verified.