Bots

HTTP previews

A bot can show you a web app running in its VM — a site it is building, a dev server with live reload, a dashboard — by a link you open in your browser. Each link needs your approval and lives 15 minutes.

How it goes

1. The bot starts the app in its VM and asks to show it: the port, a title and why.
2. You approve. A card in the chat says who wants to show what, the port, where the link will be and that it has no login. Choose Open for 15 minutes or Cancel.
3. The bot sends you the link. Open it in your browser. Pages, assets and WebSockets (live reload) work.
4. It closes when the bot is done, when you press Close, or after 15 minutes. The app keeps running in the VM; only the link stops. Showing it again needs a new approval.

Open previews show on the bot's Overview and on Workspace → Previews, with Close for each.

Who can open the link

Set in Workspace → Settings → HTTP previews:

• This computer only (default) — links on 127.0.0.1: they open only on the machine Household runs on.
• Another address — listen on an address of this machine and give the host people will open, like mac-mini.local. Who can reach it depends on your network and firewall: Household opens no ports or tunnels.

There is no login. Anyone who can reach the link sees the app for those 15 minutes. Approve only what you would show on a shared screen.

Limits

• One port of the bot's own VM per preview; HTTP and WebSocket only, not other TCP.
• 15 minutes at most. Asking again for the same port returns the same link, without extending it.
• Restarting the bot or Household, or turning previews off, closes its links. Changing who can open them closes the open ones too.
• Sideworkers can show previews of their own VM the same way.