toes/CLAUDE.md

Toes - Claude Code Guide

What It Is

Personal web appliance that auto-discovers and runs multiple web apps on your home network.

"Plug it in, turn it on, and forget about the cloud."

How It Works

1. Host server scans /apps directory for valid apps
2. Valid app = has package.json with scripts.toes entry
3. Each app spawned as child process with unique port (3001+)
4. Dashboard UI shows all apps with current status, logs, and links

Key Files

Server (src/server/)

• apps.ts - The heart: app discovery, process management, health checks, auto-restart
• api/apps.ts - REST API for app lifecycle (start/stop/restart, logs, icons, rename)
• api/sync.ts - File sync protocol (manifest, push/pull, watch)
• index.tsx - Entry point (minimal, initializes Hype)
• shell.tsx - HTML shell for web UI

Client (src/client/)

• components/ - Dashboard, Sidebar, AppDetail, Nav
• modals/ - NewApp, RenameApp, DeleteApp dialogs
• styles/ - Forge CSS-in-JS (themes, buttons, forms, layout)
• state.ts - Client state management
• api.ts - API client

CLI (src/cli/)

• commands/manage.ts - list, start, stop, restart, info, new, rename, delete, open
• commands/sync.ts - push, pull, sync
• commands/logs.ts - log viewing with tail support

Shared (src/shared/)

• Code shared between frontend (browser) and backend (server)
• types.ts - App, AppState, Manifest interfaces
• IMPORTANT: Cannot use filesystem or Node APIs (runs in browser)

Lib (src/lib/)

• Code shared between CLI and server (server-side only)
• templates.ts - Template generation for new apps
• Can use filesystem and Node APIs (never runs in browser)

Other

• apps/*/package.json - Must have "toes": "bun run --watch index.tsx" script
• TODO.txt - Task list

Tools

Tools are special apps that appear as tabs in the dashboard rather than standalone entries in the sidebar. They integrate directly into the Toes UI and can interact with the currently selected app.

Creating a Tool

Add toes.tool to your app's package.json:

{
  "toes": {
    "icon": "🔧",
    "tool": true
  },
  "scripts": {
    "toes": "bun run --watch index.tsx"
  }
}

How Tools Work

• Tools run as regular apps (spawned process with unique port)
• Displayed as iframes overlaying the tab content area
• Receive ?app=<name> query parameter for the currently selected app
• Iframes are cached per tool+app combination (never recreated once loaded)
• Tool state persists across tab switches
• App paths: When accessing app files, tools must use APPS_DIR/<app>/current (not just APPS_DIR/<app>) to resolve through the version symlink

CLI Flags

toes list           # Lists all apps including tools
toes list --tools   # Lists tools only
toes list --apps    # Lists regular apps only (excludes tools)

Tool vs App

Aspect	Regular App	Tool
toes.tool	absent/false	true
UI location	Sidebar	Tab bar
Rendering	New browser tab	Iframe in dashboard
Context	Standalone	Knows selected app via query param

Tech Stack

• Bun runtime (not Node)
• Hype (custom HTTP framework wrapping Hono) from git+https://git.nose.space/defunkt/hype
• Forge (typed CSS-in-JS) from git+https://git.nose.space/defunkt/forge
• Commander + kleur for CLI
• TypeScript + Hono JSX

Running

bun run --hot src/server/index.tsx  # Dev mode with hot reload

App Structure

// apps/example/index.tsx
import { Hype } from "@because/hype"
const app = new Hype()
app.get("/", (c) => c.html(<h1>Content</h1>))
export default app.defaults

Conventions

• Apps get PORT env var from host
• Each app is isolated process with own dependencies
• No path-based routing - apps run on separate ports
• DATA_DIR env controls where apps are discovered
• Path aliases: $ → server, @ → shared, % → lib

Environment Variables

Env vars are stored per-app in TOES_DIR/env/:

${DATA_DIR}/toes/env/
  clock.env       # env vars for clock app
  todo.env        # env vars for todo app

TOES_DIR defaults to ${DATA_DIR}/toes. Apps cannot access this directory directly.

Current State

Infrastructure (Complete)

• App discovery, spawn, watch, auto-restart with exponential backoff
• Health checks every 30s (3 failures trigger restart)
• Port pool (3001-3100), sticky allocation per app
• SSE streams for real-time app state and log updates
• File sync protocol with hash-based manifests

CLI

• Full management: toes list|start|stop|restart|info|new|rename|delete|open
• File sync: toes push|pull|sync
• Logs: toes logs [-f] <app>

Check TODO.txt for planned features

Coding Guidelines

TS files should be organized in the following way:

• imports
• re-exports
• const/lets
• enums
• interfaces
• types
• classes
• functions
• module init (top level function calls)

In each section, put the exports first, in alphabetical order.

Then, after the exports (if there were any), put everything else, also in alphabetical order.

For single-line functions, use const fn = () => {} and put them in the "functions" section of the file.

All other functions use the function blah(){} format.

Example:

import { code } from "coders"
import { something } from "somewhere"

export type { SomeType }

const RETRY_TIMES = 5
const WIDTH = 480

enum State {
  Stopped,
  Starting,
  Running,
}

interface Config {
  name: string
  port: number
}

type Handler = (req: Request) => Response

class App {
  config: Config

  constructor(config: Config) {
    this.config = config
  }
}

const isApp = (name: string) =>
  apps.has(name)

function createApp(name: string): App {
  const app = new App({ name, port: 3000 })
  apps.set(name, app)
  return app
}

function start(app: App): void {
  console.log(`Starting ${app.config.name}`)
}

Guide to Writing Tools

This guide explains how to write a Toes tool.

A tool is just an app that is displayed in a tab and an iframe on each app's page. When the iframe is loaded, it's passed ?app=.

Minimal Tool Structure

A tool needs three files at minimum:

.npmrc

registry=https://npm.nose.space

package.json

{
  "name": "my-tool",
  "private": true,
  "module": "index.tsx",
  "type": "module",
  "scripts": {
    "toes": "bun run --watch index.tsx"
  },
  "toes": {
    "tool": true, // can also be set to a string to control the tab's label
    "icon": "🔧"
  },
  "dependencies": {
    "@because/forge": "*",
    "@because/hype": "*",
    "@because/toes": "*"
  },
  "devDependencies": {
    "@types/bun": "latest"
  }
}

index.tsx

import { Hype } from '@because/hype'
import { define, stylesToCSS } from '@because/forge'
import { baseStyles, ToolScript, theme } from '@because/toes/tools'
import type { Child } from 'hono/jsx'

const APPS_DIR = process.env.APPS_DIR!

const app = new Hype({ prettyHTML: false })

// Define styled components using Forge
const Container = define('Container', {
  fontFamily: theme('fonts-sans'),
  padding: '20px',
  paddingTop: 0,
  maxWidth: '800px',
  margin: '0 auto',
  color: theme('colors-text'),
})

// Layout wrapper (every tool needs this pattern)
function Layout({ title, children }: { title: string; children: Child }) {
  return (
    <html>
      <head>
        <meta charset="UTF-8" />
        <meta name="viewport" content="width=device-width, initial-scale=1.0" />
        <title>{title}</title>
        <link rel="stylesheet" href="/styles.css" />
      </head>
      <body>
        <ToolScript />
        <Container>
          {children}
        </Container>
      </body>
    </html>
  )
}

// Serve styles (required)
app.get('/styles.css', c => c.text(baseStyles + stylesToCSS(), 200, {
  'Content-Type': 'text/css; charset=utf-8',
}))

// Main route
app.get('/', async c => {
  const appName = c.req.query('app')

  if (!appName) {
    return c.html(
      <Layout title="My Tool">
        <p>No app selected</p>
      </Layout>
    )
  }

  return c.html(
    <Layout title="My Tool">
      <h1>Tool for {appName}</h1>
    </Layout>
  )
})

export default app.defaults

Required Imports

Every tool imports from three packages:

// HTTP helpers
import { Hype } from '@because/hype'

// Structured CSS
import { define, stylesToCSS } from '@because/forge'

// Tool helpers
import { baseStyles, ToolScript, theme } from '@because/toes/tools'

Environment Variables

Tools have access to these environment variables:

Variable	Description
APPS_DIR	Path to the apps directory (e.g., /home/toes/apps)
TOES_URL	Base URL of the Toes server (e.g., http://192.168.1.100:3000)
PORT	Port assigned to this tool

Query Parameters

Tools receive ?app=<name> when an app is selected. Add custom params as needed:

const appName = c.req.query('app')      // Always present when app selected
const version = c.req.query('version')  // Custom param (code tool)
const file = c.req.query('file')        // Custom param (code tool)

Styling with Forge

Use define() to create styled components and theme() for design tokens:

const Button = define('Button', {
  base: 'button',  // HTML element (optional, defaults to 'div')
  padding: '8px 16px',
  backgroundColor: theme('colors-primary'),
  color: 'white',
  border: 'none',
  borderRadius: theme('radius-md'),
  cursor: 'pointer',
  states: {
    ':hover': { opacity: 0.9 },
    ':disabled': { opacity: 0.5, cursor: 'not-allowed' },
  },
})

const List = define('List', {
  listStyle: 'none',
  padding: 0,
  border: `1px solid ${theme('colors-border')}`,
  borderRadius: theme('radius-md'),
  selectors: {
    '& > li:last-child': { borderBottom: 'none' },
  },
})

Common theme values:

• colors-text, colors-textMuted, colors-bg, colors-bgHover, colors-bgElement, colors-bgSubtle
• colors-border, colors-link, colors-primary, colors-error
• colors-statusRunning, colors-statusStopped
• fonts-sans, fonts-mono
• radius-md

ToolScript

Always include <ToolScript /> in your layout's body. It handles:

1. Theme detection (light/dark mode based on system preference)
2. Iframe height communication with parent dashboard

Accessing App Files

When accessing files in an app, always use the current symlink:

import { join } from 'path'
import { readdir } from 'fs/promises'

const appPath = join(APPS_DIR, appName, 'current')  // ✓ Correct
// NOT: join(APPS_DIR, appName)                      // ✗ Wrong

Linking Between Tools

Use TOES_URL to create links to other tools:

const TOES_URL = process.env.TOES_URL!

// Link from versions tool to code tool
<a href={`${TOES_URL}/tool/code?app=${appName}&version=${version}`}>
  View Code
</a>

Tool Complexity Levels

Simple (single file) - versions tool

• Everything in index.tsx
• Good for straightforward display tools

Medium (re-export) - code tool

• index.tsx re-exports: export { default } from './src/server'
• Actual implementation in src/server/index.tsx
• Good when you want cleaner organization

Complex (multiple modules) - cron tool

• Main server in index.tsx
• Business logic in lib/ directory
• Good for tools with significant logic (discovery, scheduling, state management)

Common Patterns

Error states:

const ErrorBox = define('ErrorBox', {
  color: theme('colors-error'),
  padding: '20px',
  backgroundColor: theme('colors-bgElement'),
  borderRadius: theme('radius-md'),
})

if (!appName) {
  return c.html(
    <Layout title="My Tool">
      <ErrorBox>Please specify an app with ?app=&lt;name&gt;</ErrorBox>
    </Layout>
  )
}

Empty states:

const EmptyState = define('EmptyState', {
  padding: '40px 20px',
  textAlign: 'center',
  color: theme('colors-textMuted'),
})

{items.length === 0 ? (
  <EmptyState>No items found</EmptyState>
) : (
  <List>...</List>
)}

Form handling:

app.get('/new', async c => {
  return c.html(<Layout><form method="post" action="/new">...</form></Layout>)
})

app.post('/new', async c => {
  const body = await c.req.parseBody()
  const name = body.name as string
  // Process form...
  return c.redirect('/')
})

File watching (for live updates):

import { watch } from 'fs'

let debounceTimer: Timer | null = null

watch(APPS_DIR, { recursive: true }, (_event, filename) => {
  if (!filename?.includes('/target/')) return
  if (debounceTimer) clearTimeout(debounceTimer)
  debounceTimer = setTimeout(handleChange, 100)
})

Checklist for New Tools

1. .npmrc contains registry=https://npm.nose.space
2. package.json has toes.tool: true and toes.icon
3. scripts.toes uses bun run --watch index.tsx
4. Dependencies include @because/forge, @because/hype, @because/toes
5. Import baseStyles, ToolScript, theme from @because/toes/tools
6. Layout body includes <ToolScript />
7. Styles served at /styles.css with baseStyles + stylesToCSS()
8. Main route handles missing ?app parameter gracefully
9. Uses APPS_DIR/<app>/current for file paths
10. Exports app.defaults as default export