kollabor-webui

kollabor-webui is the browser UI shell for kollabor-engine.

It serves the assistant-ui single-page app, proxies engine configuration to the browser, and connects to the local engine API for sessions, assistant-transport streaming, permission prompts, profiles, MCP, and hub controls.

Architecture

The checked-in frontend source is the source of truth. hatch_build.py runs npm ci and npm run build when npm is available, then force-includes Vite's frontend/dist output in a wheel under kollabor_webui/static/assistant. The source checkout also serves frontend/dist directly, which makes editable installs useful without copying generated files into git. Python-only builds continue to serve the legacy static/index.html and static/app.js fallback if Node/npm is unavailable.

Interface

• Sidebar: New Session starts a session with the current picks in one click; the options button next to it opens Agent, Gem, Model and Workspace. Each session row shows its gem as a live 3D avatar that acts out what the agent is doing (thinking, typing, searching, messaging, error).
• Agents by computer: the sidebar lists every agent under the computer it runs on. This computer comes first: its chats and every agent running in a terminal or as a daemon, each one click from a full chat (the web UI only attaches to an agent it did not start, so it offers no Delete). Then each of your other computers. Agents on other computers show while a chat runs here and this computer is connected to your network. One click opens one as a full chat, through the network, as that computer's trust allows: under open (the default) every computer of your network, under agents only the agents it lets this one message, under manual none.
• Chat: pill composer with attachments, a /voicemode mic, and a send/stop button; tool calls show while they run and keep their duration. Messages from other agents show as messages from their gems ("Aquamarine → Lapis"), the way the terminal draws its hub boxes; one the agent only overheard is dimmed. Turns the page did not run (a hub message that woke the agent, a turn typed in the terminal) appear without a reload. A failed turn shows its error under your message, also after a reload.
• Trajectory: every turn, request and tool call as a Table, or as a Waterfall built on @assistant-ui/react-o11y (one block per turn, tools under their model request, each turn on its own time scale).
• Settings: daemon-owned panels, see docs/features/web-settings-panels.md.
• Gem Studio (sidebar footer): every agent is born with a random look (eyes and hat) that sticks; dress any gem over it (eyes, hat, color) and set the season for all, previewed live. Random Look rolls a new outfit, Reset goes back to the born look. The engine keeps the looks, so every browser and every gem in the app (session rows, chat, Who Is Online) follows. Each agent has its own look: the studio's list dresses the gems of the folder the web UI runs in, and an agent of the same name in another folder or on another computer is born with its own eyes, hat and color (dress it from its chat's Properties).
• Session Properties: right-click a session row (long-press on a phone) or double-click its gem to dress that one gem in place. The Chat tab takes the agent off the hub (your other agents stop seeing it; your chat keeps working) or puts it back, with no restart. /hub leave and /hub join do the same in the terminal.

Usage

Quickest path — kollab --web-ui spawns the engine and this package together (reusing an already-running engine on 7433 if one is healthy) and cleans both up on Ctrl+C or SIGTERM:

kollab --web-ui

To run the two pieces separately (useful when iterating on one of them):

Start the engine:

python -m kollabor_engine serve --host 127.0.0.1 --port 7433

Start the web UI:

KOLLAB_ENGINE_URL=http://127.0.0.1:7433 \
KOLLAB_WEBUI_PORT=8080 \
kollabor-webui

Then open:

http://127.0.0.1:8080

To open it from another device, such as a phone on your VPN, list the extra addresses in KOLLAB_WEBUI_HOSTS (comma-separated; it also works with kollab --web-ui). Pages opened there reach the engine through the web UI's /engine proxy, and they get the engine token, so list private addresses only:

KOLLAB_WEBUI_HOSTS=10.8.0.1 kollab --web-ui

For an editable checkout without installed console scripts:

python -c "from kollabor_webui import main; main()"

Frontend development

cd packages/kollabor-webui/frontend
npm ci
npm run typecheck
npm run build
npm run dev

Vite proxies /api, /sessions, /profiles, /mcp, and /hub to the local engine while developing. The production build uses relative asset paths, so FastAPI can serve hashed assets from any mount path and route client-side navigation back to index.html.

The app is not wrapped in <StrictMode>: its dev-only double render breaks @assistant-ui/store 0.3.2 and the composer drops typed text under npm run dev (production is unaffected). Restore it with the assistant-ui 0.15.25 upgrade. src/dev/gem-lab.html previews every gem, activity, hat and season.

Engine endpoints used

• POST /sessions
• GET /sessions
• DELETE /sessions/{session_id}
• POST /sessions/{session_id}/assistant
• POST /sessions/{session_id}/cancel
• POST /sessions/{session_id}/permission
• GET /sessions/{session_id}/permissions
• POST /sessions/{session_id}/permissions/mode
• GET/DELETE /sessions/{session_id}/history (with last_turn_error, why the last turn failed)
• GET/POST/PUT/DELETE /profiles...
• GET/POST/PUT/DELETE /mcp/servers...
• GET/POST /sessions/{session_id}/mcp...
• GET /agents (gem pool: colors, live state, hub agent ids)
• GET/PUT /agents/appearance (Gem Studio looks)
• GET /hub/agents
• POST /hub/messages

Session rows keep session_id as the API key and expose a separate name for display. Kollab-generated timestamped names display as their slug; opaque UUIDs receive a stable two-word label.

Authentication

The browser gets the current engine bearer token from /api/config, which reads ~/.kollab/engine.token. Every request waits for that first config load, and retries once after a 401 by refreshing it, covering engine restarts that rotate the token.

Validation

python -m py_compile packages/kollabor-webui/src/kollabor_webui/*.py
python -m pytest tests/unit/test_webui_auth_wiring.py -q
cd packages/kollabor-webui/frontend
npm run typecheck
npm run build
node --test tests/*.test.ts

License

MIT