# Deploying remobi with Tailscale Serve

Expose a tmux session as a mobile-friendly web terminal over your Tailscale network with full PWA support.

## Prerequisites

- [tmux](https://github.com/tmux/tmux) installed
- [Tailscale](https://tailscale.com/) configured with HTTPS enabled (`tailscale cert`)
- remobi installed (`npm install -g remobi`)

## Quick setup (recommended)

### 1. Start remobi serve

```bash
remobi serve
```

This bundles the browser client in memory, starts remobi's built-in HTTP and WebSocket server, and spawns a local PTY-backed terminal session on `:7681` with full PWA support.

By default `remobi serve` binds to `127.0.0.1`, so it is not exposed on your LAN. Tailscale Serve is the thing that publishes it.

### 2. Expose via Tailscale Serve

```bash
tailscale serve --bg 7681
```

Your terminal is now available at `https://<your-machine>.<tailnet>.ts.net`. If you publish remobi behind a path prefix instead of the root, start remobi with `--base-path /that-prefix` so the WebSocket and PWA URLs stay aligned with the external URL.

On mobile, tap **Add to Home Screen** for a standalone app experience with the remobi icon.

### 3. Stop

```bash
pkill -f "remobi serve"
tailscale serve --https=443 off
```

> **Tip — keep your Mac awake:** Add `--no-sleep` so the Mac doesn't go to
> sleep while you're away:
>
> ```bash
> remobi serve --no-sleep
> ```
>
> See [Keeping your Mac awake](keep-awake.md) for persistent options (pmset,
> nix-darwin) and lid-close caveats.

## Shell function

```zsh
# webtermup: expose tmux session via remobi serve + Tailscale serve
function webtermup() {
  local session=${1:-main}
  local port=${2:-7681}

  pkill -f "remobi serve.*--port $port" 2>/dev/null

  remobi serve --no-sleep --port $port -- tmux new-session -A -s "$session" &!

  tailscale serve --bg $port
  echo "Terminal ($session): https://$(tailscale status --self --json | jq -r '.Self.DNSName' | sed 's/\.\$//')"
}

# webtermdown: stop remobi serve and Tailscale serve
function webtermdown() {
  local port=${1:-7681}
  pkill -f "remobi serve.*--port $port" 2>/dev/null
  tailscale serve --https=443 off 2>/dev/null
  echo "Web terminal stopped"
}
```

## Legacy ttyd notes

Current remobi releases do not depend on `ttyd`. If you are migrating an older setup, move it to `remobi serve` rather than trying to preserve the old `ttyd` path.

The old `ttyd` docs in this repo are historical only and are not a supported setup path on current releases.

If you are tempted to run `remobi serve --host 0.0.0.0`, be explicit about the trade-off: that bypasses the localhost-only default and exposes terminal control directly on the bound network interface. Prefer keeping remobi on loopback and letting Tailscale handle reachability.