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Thin client

Doc status: Active

Connect-only shell for browse / social / Big Picture — not Download · Install · Play. Windows, macOS and Linux.

When to use it

Seat Use
Thin Lounge laptop, social-only PC, kids machine that should never hold install ACLs
Full companion The PC that downloads, extracts, and launches DRM-free titles — desktop-companion.md

Thin has no local install pipeline. Install/Update stay on the full companion (or browser download + companion extract).

No binary: install the web app instead (TC-2b)

A Chromebook, a locked-down work laptop, a tablet or a headset cannot run an unsigned Tauri build — and does not need to. Preferences → Install this library installs the member app itself: its own window, its own icon, opening straight on your shelf.

  • Chrome / Edge / Brave / Quest browser: the Install button appears in Preferences, or use the install icon in the address bar.
  • Safari (iPad, iPhone, Mac): Share → Add to Home Screen. Safari has no install prompt to offer, so Preferences shows the instruction rather than a button that cannot work.
  • Firefox desktop: no install path; use a normal window or a pinned tab.

This needs HTTPS. Installing requires a service worker, browsers only allow those on a secure origin, and a LAN address over plain HTTP is not one. If the install row never appears, that is almost always why — see the HTTPS section of unraid-deploy.md if you have not set up TLS yet.

What an installed copy keeps on the device: the app's own code, fonts and theme files. Not games, not cover art, not anything from the API. That is deliberate — an installed app on a shared machine outlives a sign-out, and one member's shelf should never be sitting in another member's browser storage. Offline, the window shows a "no route to your library" page rather than a stale one; signing out clears what little is cached.

An installed seat is still a browser seat: it heartbeats as browser, not as thin, so it has no install ACLs to lose. If you want the seat to show up in the operator's device list as a thin client, use the shell below.

Build (unsigned)

cd clients/desktop
npm install
npm run tauri:build:thin

Produces an unsigned OneirodexThin installer via tauri.thin.conf.json (capabilities: thin-main / thin-library / social only) — .exe on Windows, .dmg on macOS, .deb / .AppImage on Linux. The full companion bundles as Oneirodex, so the two no longer overwrite each other. Details: desktop-code-signing.md · all platforms at once: local-installers.md.

Connect

  1. Account → API tokens → create with the Thin client preset (read:library + read:social + write:presence; no write:download).
  2. Copy the one-time secret with Copy secret (or select the secret field). Format is gt_<prefix>_<urlsafe-secret> — hyphens and underscores in the secret are normal. Paste the entire string; truncating after a - always fails auth.
  3. Enter Oneirodex base URL. Optional API token uses the same paste normalize / shape checks as the full companion. Save stores URL + token; Validate token runs the collections check (same as companion Connect).
  4. Open library / Friends only — lifecycle CTAs are out of scope.

Token lives in the OS credential store under the thin app's own service (com.oneirodex.thin), not plaintext config.json — so installing thin next to the full companion no longer overwrites the companion's token. Credential-store failures surface in status (not opaque “Bad data”).

What this seat will not offer

The library says so instead of failing: Download / Install / Update / Uninstall on the action bar and in Big Picture, Apply with companion on versions, translations and extras, the Updates page's apply, and Open in file explorer (it copies the path instead). Play via Moonlight stays — streaming is not a local install. The Ways-to-play companion card says the launch happens on the companion, not here.

Presence

With a token saved, the thin shell heartbeats as device_kind=thin, so the seat appears in the operator's device list (Admin → Ops → Companions → Devices) as a thin client rather than passing for a companion. It is never sent install/update commands: the server gates that on a companion seat and a download scope, and the thin preset has neither.

No token? Presence stays quiet and the library / Friends windows fall back to site login — everything else still works.

What the library window looks like

The thin shell opens the member app marked as a thin seat, so Game details shows one honest line — “Browse & social seat — download, install and update happen on the desktop companion” — instead of Download / Install / Update / Uninstall buttons that this seat can never complete. Moonlight streaming stays available; it is not a local install.

Honesty

  • Unsigned only — no code-signing cert on any platform.
  • Thin ≠ Android APK. Phone/tablet / Quest sideload is a future spike only.
  • Headset /vr is browse-first (SteamVR / PSVR2 on the PC; Quest = friend PWA) — controllers-and-vr.md.