Quackshell Alpha guide

Agentic computing needs a display port

Codex can show you what it made.

Quackshell gives remote agents temporary browser links for local apps, generated previews, videos, PDFs, and reports.

not a screenshot not a deploy live localhost output
Install alpha Watch demo

See Codex hand back a live Quackshell link to a local project.

Getting Started

macOS and Linux are supported.

# Save the provided quackshell-alpha.key file to this working directory.
curl -fsSL https://quackshell.com/install/alpha.sh | sh
quackshell-cli-alpha install-key quackshell-alpha.key
quackshell-cli-alpha install-skill codex --scope user
# agent -> "Please preview this project with quackshell"

The CLI expects QUACKSHELL_ALPHA_API_TOKEN=... in the environment, quackshell-alpha.key in the project root, or ~/.quackshell/quackshell-alpha.key.

Detailed instructions

Alpha access

Want a preview version to play with?

The alpha is intentionally small while the relay, CLI, and agent skill settle down. Email admin@claywaregames.com if you want a key for the alpha version.

Email for alpha access

Include a sentence about what you want to preview with Quackshell.

Workflow

Ask your agent to show the work, then open the live result.

Setup is short: get a token, install the CLI, and optionally install agent instructions. After that, the agent can hand you a relay URL whenever visual proof matters.

Workflow showing setup steps for Quackshell followed by a user asking an agent for a preview, the agent sending a relay URL, and the user opening local work in a browser.

Why it matters

Remote agents are more useful when they can put real output in front of you.

Stop reading UI descriptions

Open the actual interface your agent is building instead of translating a paragraph into a mental picture.

Keep experiments moving

Review throwaway HTML, visual prototypes, static reports, and generated artifacts without turning them into a deploy.

Make files inspectable

Videos, PDFs, images, and generated documents become normal browser links while the agent keeps working locally.

Close the feedback loop

You react to the same thing the agent is serving, so iterations can be about the work instead of the handoff.

How it works

A relay that turns localhost into something your browser can reach.

1

The agent creates something worth seeing

A full web app, a folder of generated files, a report, a video, or a temporary preview starts on localhost.

2

Quackshell opens the channel

The CLI mints a temporary session, connects to the relay, and creates a public URL for that local port.

3

You click and inspect

Your browser request reaches the agent's local server and the response comes back through Quackshell.

See the customer-facing architecture

Guides

Answers for localhost previews, agent work, and temporary browser links.

Quackshell is for short-lived previews, not long-running public-facing endpoints. Start with the guides if you are deciding when and how to use a temporary signed URL.

Localhost sharing

Share a localhost app without deploying

Use a temporary link when localhost needs to be visible from another browser.

 AI coding agents

Show local previews from Codex and other agents

Give agents a browser-visible output channel for work they create locally.

 Security

Is exposing localhost safe?

Understand signed random URLs, private sharing, and what not to expose.

 Comparison

Quackshell vs ngrok for local previews

Choose the right tool for temporary previews, tunnels, and public endpoints.

See all guides

The key idea

The project stays naive. The agent gets a display channel.

Quackshell is being built so the demo project, generated artifact, or local web app does not need to know Quackshell exists. No relay-specific SDK. No session-aware frontend code. No custom asset handling. If the agent can serve it on localhost, Quackshell should make it reachable from a temporary web URL.

Current status

Prototype, but already useful.