Platypus

A host management hub for fleets of Linux machines. Install the Platypus agent on every host you own; the agent dials back to your Platypus server over TLS + protobuf; from the server you get an interactive shell, file management, and network tunnelling on every managed host — through one central control plane.

Screenshots

A Vercel-style flat-nav UI with a project dashboard, a host/listener/session browser, a multi-host dispatch console, and an admin user manager. See the full gallery at docs/screenshots/. Re-run make screenshots to regenerate them from the live app.

Architecture

Platypus ships as two backend binaries plus a standalone desktop client:

Binary	Role
platypus-server	Daemon. Accepts inbound agent connections on TLS ingress ports; exposes a REST + WebSocket API for admin tooling; serves agent binaries for distribution.
platypus-agent	The process that runs on each managed host. Dials back to the server over TLS + protobuf.
platypus-desktop	Native (Wails v2) desktop GUI. Connect to any reachable server with URL + secret; tabbed UI for sessions, terminals, listeners, files, tunnels. See desktop/.

The server is purely an API — no embedded web UI. Multiple desktops can connect to the same server simultaneously.

Features

• TLS + protobuf channel between agent and server
• Multiple ingress ports so fleets in different networks share one hub
• Interactive shell per host, streamed over WebSocket
• File read / write / upload / download with chunked transfer
• Network tunnels: local-port-forward, remote-port-forward, dynamic SOCKS5
• Bearer-token-authenticated REST API
• Python SDK
• Auto-start listeners from config.yml
• Graceful shutdown (drains connections on SIGINT/SIGTERM within 30s)

Documents

• Chinese | 中文文档

Quick start

One-Click Deployment (Recommended)

The fastest way to get a full Platypus system running (including the Server, Web UI, and a MinIO-backed Agent Distributor) is using Docker Compose:

git clone https://github.com/WangYihang/Platypus
cd Platypus
docker-compose up -d

• Web UI: Open https://localhost:9443 in your browser (the container ships with a self-signed cert; your browser will prompt you to accept it on first visit).
• Login: The bootstrap_secret is written to /app/data/bootstrap.secret inside the container on first boot (mode 0600). Read it with docker compose exec platypus-server cat /app/data/bootstrap.secret, use it once to create the first admin, then delete the file. After bootstrap completes the secret is no longer accepted.
• Add Agents: Click "Add Agent" in the UI to get a one-line curl ... | sh command, signed and pinned to the project CA, to deploy agents to your fleet.

Build from source

Requires Go 1.24+ and protoc (only if you regenerate protobuf code).

git clone https://github.com/WangYihang/Platypus
cd Platypus
make build              # → ./build/{platypus-server,platypus-agent}

Other useful targets: make test, make lint, make snapshot (cross-platform via goreleaser), make help.

Development (pre-commit hooks)

Contributors should install the git hooks so gofmt / goimports / go vet / golangci-lint run before each commit:

pip install pre-commit   # or: pipx install pre-commit
make hooks               # one-time: wires .git/hooks/pre-commit
make pre-commit          # optional: run all hooks against every file now

Build the desktop app

Requires Node 22+, Wails CLI dependencies (wails doctor), and the platform's WebView libraries (webkit2gtk-4.1 on Linux, WebView2 on Windows, WKWebView on macOS).

make desktop-deps       # one-time: install Wails CLI + pnpm packages
make desktop-build      # → desktop/build/bin/platypus-desktop
make desktop-dev        # hot-reload dev mode

Or: use the standalone web UI (no install)

Same pages, same features (minus real-time event push), runs in any browser:

make web-ui             # → desktop/frontend/dist-web/ (static bundle)
make web-ui-serve       # preview at http://localhost:8080

dist-web/ is fully static; drop it on GitHub Pages / S3 / nginx. Point it at any platypus-server via the login form.

Full notes in desktop/README.md.

Install from release binaries

Download the appropriate archive for your OS/arch from the Releases page, extract, and run.

Run with Docker

docker build -t platypus-server .
docker run --rm -p 9443:9443 \
  -e PLATYPUS_DEV=1 \
  -v $(pwd)/config.yml:/config.yml \
  platypus-server

PLATYPUS_DEV=1 enables the on-disk KEK fallback so a fresh start "Just Works"; for production, drop that env var and set PLATYPUS_CA_KEK (32 bytes hex; openssl rand -hex 32) instead so the CA private-key encryption key is never written next to the encrypted database.

Run

./build/platypus-server                # foreground; Ctrl-C for graceful shutdown

For production, run the server under systemd rather than backgrounding it manually.

Production caveats

• Single-instance only. The opaque-token verifier caches verified tokens in a per-process LRU. Revocation (logout, password change, AAT revoke, user delete) drops the entry on the same process synchronously — but a multi-replica deployment has no cross-process invalidation channel today, so a revoked token can keep working on other replicas for up to the cache TTL (30s). Don't run more than one platypus-server against the same DB until cross-process revocation lands. Vertical scale + an HA stand-by is the supported shape; horizontal load-balanced replicas are not.
• PLATYPUS_CA_KEK in the environment. The CA private key is sealed with AES-256-GCM against this 32-byte hex value. Without it set, the server refuses to start unless PLATYPUS_DEV=1 is also present (which enables a dev-only on-disk fallback at <data-dir>/ca.kek — unsafe for production because the ciphertext and key end up on the same volume).
• Desktop-class viewport, no mobile layout (yet). The Web UI targets ≥ 1280px viewports; the rail / sidebar / status-bar chrome takes ~300px, leaving the content body in the 80–100 character reading sweet spot. There is no responsive collapse for narrow windows today — sub-1024px viewports will show horizontal scrollers on tables. Tablet / phone support is on the backlog (P4 in the UX audit) but not blocking; admin work is desk work.
• Object-store credentials. When the distributor is enabled (distributor.store.endpoint set), set PLATYPUS_DISTRIBUTOR_STORE_ACCESS_KEY_ID and PLATYPUS_DISTRIBUTOR_STORE_SECRET_ACCESS_KEY rather than baking them into config.yml. The bundled config.docker.yml ships with the YAML fields blank for that reason.

Usage

Topology

• Server: 192.168.88.129
  • Unified TLS ingress (REST API + agent link + installer): 0.0.0.0:9443
• Managed host: 192.168.88.130 (runs platypus-agent)

Quick tour

First, run ./platypus-server. A config.yml is generated from assets/config.example.yml if none exists. Defaults are sensible.

To enrol a new managed host:

1. Open the Web UI / desktop app, navigate to the project, click Add Agent.
2. Pick the target OS / arch and TTL, click Generate.
3. Copy the one-liner the UI displays and run it on the managed host.

The server-rendered one-liner looks like:

curl -fsSL https://<server>:9443/api/v1/install/<one-shot-token> | sh

The single-use install token expires shortly after issuance and is burnt on the first successful hit. The script the server returns:

• embeds the project CA so the agent binary download is verified with curl --cacert (no -k, no TOFU);
• injects a single-use PAT so the agent can complete enrolment and obtain its mTLS client certificate;
• refuses to run if the server has no project CA configured, unless the operator explicitly sets PLATYPUS_INSECURE_DOWNLOAD=1.

Do not hand-write curl http://... URLs against the legacy /agent/<host>:<port> path — that flow is removed. Always render the install command via the UI so it carries the trust anchor.

Desktop / Web

Open the desktop app (platypus-desktop) or the web UI (make web-ui-serve), fill in the server URL and secret, and you're in. Tabs: Sessions (every agent that's dialled in), Terminal, Files, Tunnels, Listeners.

Advanced usages

• REST API
• Python SDK

Other materials

• Presentation on KCon 2019
• Presentation on GCSIS 2021

Contributors

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