Teammates and computers

Add a teammate from the phone

On the team list, the + adds a teammate on the server: a name, an optional goal, and a harness, model and effort. It starts with a workspace of its own under the room, and nothing else: no computer, no reach outside that workspace, no background work. Rename it, change its goal or remove it from the phone too.

Give a teammate a computer

A computer is a Linux desktop in a container on the server that the teammate drives, and that you can watch and take over from your phone. See The computer for what it is.

The server needs Docker or Podman, usable by the hotline account: add the account to the docker group, or run Podman rootless as it.

Turning a computer on is a grant, so it happens on the server, not the phone. Find the teammate’s id, then turn its computer on:

H="sudo -u hotline HOTLINE_DATA_DIR=/var/lib/hotline/room hotline"
sudo grep -o '"id":"[^"]*","name":"[^"]*"' /var/lib/hotline/room/room.jsonl | sort -u
echo '{"id":"TEAMMATE_ID","patch":{"computer":{"enabled":true}}}' | $H wire persona.update

The computer starts the first time the teammate uses it: ask it to, for example “open example.com in your browser”. The first start pulls the desktop image, which takes a minute. After that, the monitor icon in the conversation’s header turns green while the teammate is using its computer. Tap it to watch, and take control when you want the keyboard.

Note

Finding a teammate by grepping the room log is a stopgap. Setting a teammate’s computer from the phone is planned.