wild-pc/README.md

# Wild PC

> Standing to author, run, govern, and maintain your own software.

A personal software platform. Wild PC manages independent services, tools, and
frontends — and launches your coding agents — from a single CLI, with a unified
gateway, systemd integration, and a web dashboard.

Historically, applications have usually been developed by third parties, packaged
for distribution, installed through app stores or package managers, and updated
through channels controlled by someone other than the user. That model still works
for large applications, but it is often too heavy for the small, personal,
situational software people increasingly want to create.

AI-assisted development changes the shape of this problem. Users can now create
useful software directly: small services, scripts, dashboards, agents, automations,
and configurations of existing tools. Many of these programs do not need a public
release process, an app store listing, or a conventional distribution channel. They
need a reliable place to run.

Wild PC provides that place.

Wild PC gives simple applications a consistent local environment for development,
registration, deployment, discovery, and operation. Programs remain independent, but
Wild PC provides the surrounding structure: process management, routing, metadata,
service lifecycle, logs, and a common interface for running and inspecting the
software in your domain.

In this sense, Wild PC is a **personal software estate**: a practical way to organize
the software you create and run yourself, without requiring every tool to become a
fully packaged product.

## How it works

Wild PC separates *what software exists* from *how it runs*:

- **Programs** — the catalog. A program is a source repo Wild PC knows how to work
  with (dev verbs, build) and where it lives. One file per program under
  `~/.wildpc/programs/<name>.yaml`.
- **Deployments** — how a program is realized on this node. One file per deployment
  under `~/.wildpc/deployments/<name>.yaml`, discriminated by its **manager**:

  | manager | what it is | derived **kind** |
  |---------|------------|------------------|
  | `systemd` | a supervised process — or, with a `schedule`, a timer | **service** / **job** |
  | `caddy` | a static site served by the gateway from a build dir | **static** |
  | `path` | a CLI installed on your PATH (`uv tool install`) | **tool** |
  | `none` | an external service on another node (reference only) | **reference** |

  For `systemd`, a nested `run.launcher` (`python` / `command` / `container` /
  `compose` / `node`) says *how* the process starts. The **kind** is always
  *derived* from the manager (+ `schedule`) — never stored.

A program can have several deployments — a CLI that is both a `tool` on PATH and a
scheduled `job` — so a program has no single kind of its own; it *has deployments*,
each with its own.

Standing everything up is one honest step: `wildpc apply` renders systemd units and
gateway config from your config, then reconciles the runtime to match — activating
what's enabled, restarting what changed, deactivating what's disabled. Edit config,
`wildpc apply`; `wildpc apply --plan` shows the diff first.

## Stacks

Wild PC **stacks** are pre-configured development environments that provide starting
points for building Wild PC programs. A stack can define the language, framework,
dependencies, tools, conventions, and Wild PC integration needed for a particular
kind of application — `python-fastapi`, `python-cli`, `react-vite`, `supabase`.

Stacks are designed to work well with coding assistants. They give assistants a
consistent target when generating Wild PC programs, making it easier to produce
applications that are correctly structured, configured, and ready to run under
Wild PC. If your coding assistant understands Wild PC, it can help you create,
register, manage, and evolve custom applications more efficiently.

A stack seeds a new program's scaffold and default dev-verb commands, but it's
optional at runtime: a program stands on its own via its declared `commands:` and
`source:`, so you can adopt any existing repo with `wildpc program add` — no stack
required.

## Agents

Wild PC can launch your coding agents. Declare them in `wildpc.yaml` under `agents:`
— each entry is just a command Wild PC runs in a terminal:

```yaml
agents:
  claude:
    command: claude
    description: Anthropic Claude Code
  aider:
    command: aider
    args: ["--no-auto-commits"]
    cwd: /data/repos/my-project
```

The dashboard has a terminal dock that launches any declared agent in a
pseudo-terminal (over a WebSocket) and manages live sessions (list, resume, kill).
Wild PC is **assistant-agnostic** — it only ever runs `command args` in a pty and
never parses the agent's output, so any interactive CLI works. With no `agents:`
block set, a sensible default set (`claude`, `opencode`, `amplifier`, …) is offered.

## Quick start

**Prerequisites:** a Debian/Ubuntu-family Linux with `apt` and `sudo`, `systemd`
(user services), and `git`. `install.sh` sets up everything else — Docker, Caddy,
`uv`, and the `wildpc` CLI itself.

```bash
git clone <this-repo> ~/wildpc && cd ~/wildpc

# One command: installs uv + the wildpc CLI, sets up infra (Docker, Caddy, MQTT,
# Postgres), creates ~/.wildpc, registers Wild PC's own control plane, builds the UI.
./install.sh

wildpc apply                    # converge the runtime to config (units, routes, run)
wildpc doctor                   # verify — every check should be green
open http://localhost:9000      # the dashboard
```

`wildpc doctor` is your friend at every step: it inspects setup *and* runtime and,
for anything not green, prints the exact next command. Run it any time something
looks off — after an install, a deploy, or a config change.

### Exposure: from localhost to your own HTTPS domain

Localhost is the first rung; you climb only as far as you need. Each rung is a small
config change plus `wildpc apply`, and `wildpc doctor` tells you what a rung still
needs.

| Rung | You get | What it takes |
|------|---------|---------------|
| **localhost** *(default)* | dashboard + services on `:9000` / `host:port` | nothing — this is the quick start above |
| **LAN HTTPS** | real `https://<name>.<your-domain>` on every device on your network, publicly-trusted cert, services stay internal | own a domain; set `gateway.tls: acme` + `domain:`; one wildcard DNS record on your router; a Cloudflare token. → [docs/dns-and-tls.md](docs/dns-and-tls.md) |
| **Public** | a chosen service reachable from the internet | `public: true` on the service + a Cloudflare tunnel. → [docs/tunnel-setup.md](docs/tunnel-setup.md) |

The jump to LAN HTTPS is the involved one (DNS + a token + binding `:443`). Set
`gateway.tls: acme` and run `wildpc doctor` — it enumerates exactly the pieces that
are still missing, each with its fix.

## Creating programs

`wildpc program create` scaffolds the source **and** its deployment from a stack:

```bash
# A service — FastAPI app + a systemd service deployment (health, unit, route)
wildpc program create my-api --stack python-fastapi --description "Does something"
wildpc program test my-api
wildpc apply my-api                       # render unit + route, then start it

# A tool — a CLI installed on your PATH
wildpc program create my-tool --stack python-cli --description "Does something"
wildpc apply my-tool                      # installs its path deployment on PATH

# A static frontend — built once, served by the gateway
wildpc program create my-app --stack react-vite --description "Web interface"
wildpc program build my-app && wildpc apply

# Adopt an existing repo (no stack needed — dev verbs detected or declared)
wildpc program add ~/projects/some-rust-tool
```

## CLI

Operations live under the resource they act on. `program` is the catalog;
`service`, `job`, and `tool` are **views** over the one deployment set. Lifecycle
is convergence — `wildpc apply` — not a pile of per-kind verbs.

```
# Programs — the software catalog
wildpc program list|info|create|add|clone|delete|run
wildpc program build|test|lint|type-check|check [name]        # dev verbs

# Deployment lenses (service = systemd, job = systemd + schedule, tool = path)
wildpc service  list|info|create|delete|restart|logs
wildpc job      …same verbs; create takes --schedule
wildpc tool     list|info                                      # CLIs on your PATH

# Platform-wide
wildpc apply [name] [--plan]                  # converge runtime to config — the workhorse
wildpc list [--kind K] [--stack S] [--json]   # catalog + every deployment view
wildpc status                                 # unified runtime status
wildpc doctor                                 # diagnose setup + health, with fix hints
wildpc restart [name]                         # imperative bounce (one or all)
wildpc gateway               # status + route table (inspection)
```

To turn a deployment off, set `enabled: false` in its config and `wildpc apply` —
there's no start/stop/enable/install verb; the manager decides the mechanism
(systemd unit, PATH install, gateway route), the verb is always `apply`.

`wildpc tool list --json` is the machine-readable tool catalog assistants use to
build context — it surfaces each tool's actual **executable** (which can differ from
the program name, e.g. `litellm-intent-router` installs `intent-router`), its
description, and whether it's installed.

## Configuration

The registry lives under `~/.wildpc/`: a global `wildpc.yaml` plus one file per
resource under `programs/` and `deployments/`.

```yaml
# ~/.wildpc/wildpc.yaml — globals
gateway:
  port: 9000
repo: /data/repos/wildpc     # resolves `source: repo:<name>` for wildpc's own programs
```

```yaml
# ~/.wildpc/programs/my-api.yaml — the catalog entry
description: Does something useful
source: /data/repos/my-api
stack: python-fastapi
```

```yaml
# ~/.wildpc/deployments/my-api.yaml — a systemd service (derived kind: service)
program: my-api
manager: systemd
run: { launcher: python, program: my-api }
expose: { http: { internal: { port: 9001 }, health_path: /health } }
proxy: true                        # served at my-api.<gateway.domain>
manage: { systemd: {} }
defaults:
  env:
    MY_API_PORT: ${port}           # = expose.http.internal.port
    MY_API_DATA_DIR: ${data_dir}   # = $WILDPC_DATA_DIR/my-api
    API_KEY: ${secret:MY_API_KEY}
```

`defaults.env` is the **single, explicit source** of a deployment's environment —
Wild PC injects nothing implicitly. The placeholders `${port}`, `${data_dir}`,
`${name}`, `${public_url}`, and `${secret:NAME}` map your program's own env var names
to Wild PC's computed values. Secrets live in `~/.wildpc/secrets/` (never in a repo).

## Gateway, DNS & TLS

Every gateway-exposed deployment gets its own subdomain — `<name>.<gateway.domain>`
— routed to it by the Caddy gateway (there are no path-prefix routes). Exposure is a
single checkbox: `proxy: true` on a service, while a static deployment is inherently
served. The dashboard is `wildpc.<domain>` and the API `wildpc-api.<domain>`; on a
node with no domain, `:9000` serves the dashboard plus a `/api` proxy.

`gateway.tls` is a per-node choice: `off` (plain HTTP on `:9000`) or `acme` (a real
Let's Encrypt wildcard `*.<domain>` via a DNS-01 challenge — publicly trusted, no CA
to install, while the services stay internal-only). Reaching a service from the
public internet is separately opt-in via a Cloudflare tunnel (`public: true`). See
[docs/dns-and-tls.md](docs/dns-and-tls.md).

## Layout

```
~/.wildpc/                 # instance: config, artifacts, secrets
  wildpc.yaml              #   globals (gateway, repo, agents)
  programs/  deployments/  #   one file per program / deployment
  secrets/                 #   secret files (mode 700)
  artifacts/specs/         #   generated Caddyfile, registry.yaml
/data/repos/<name>/        # your program source (absolute source:)
/data/wildpc/<name>/       # per-deployment data volume
<repo>/                    # wildpc itself: cli/ core/ wildpc-api/ app/ docs/
```

**Independence principle:** your programs never depend on Wild PC. They accept
configuration (data dir, port, URLs) via environment variables; only Wild PC's own
programs (CLI, API, gateway) know Wild PC internals.

## Dashboard & API

The **dashboard** (`app/`, served at `wildpc.<domain>` or `http://localhost:9000`)
lists programs and deployments, edits their config, drives lifecycle, shows the
gateway route table and logs, and hosts the agent terminal dock.

**`wildpc-api`** (port 9020, proxied at `wildpc-api.<domain>`) is the control plane:
`/deployments`, `/programs`, `/services`, `/jobs`, `/gateway`, `/status`, an SSE
`/stream`, config editing under `/config/…`, and the agent session endpoints under
`/agents`. The full endpoint reference is in [CLAUDE.md](CLAUDE.md).

## Mesh (opt-in)

Wild PC nodes can discover each other via MQTT + mDNS to form a personal
infrastructure mesh — the gateway can route to services on other nodes and the
dashboard shows discovered nodes and cross-node routes. It's all off by default;
single-node needs none of it. Enable on `wildpc-api` via `WILDPC_API_MQTT_ENABLED`
and `WILDPC_API_MDNS_ENABLED`.

## Docs

- [docs/registry.md](docs/registry.md) — the registry model, `wildpc.yaml`, deployment fields, lifecycle
- [docs/dns-and-tls.md](docs/dns-and-tls.md) — gateway routing, DNS, the `off` / `acme` TLS modes
- [docs/stacks/](docs/stacks/) — per-stack guides (python-fastapi, python-cli, react-vite, supabase)
- [AGENTS.md](AGENTS.md) — the canonical, assistant-agnostic operator guide (recipes, gateway, tunnel, mesh)