🚀 Server Launcher

Server Launcher is a modern, high-performance developer dashboard and process control center for managing local microservices, web servers, background daemons, and remote SSH hosts.

Available in a native GPU-accelerated Rust Desktop application, a lightweight zero-dependency Python Desktop GUI, and a terminal-based Python TUI.

📸 Screenshots & Themes

Server Launcher comes out-of-the-box with 8 handcrafted color palettes, spearheaded by the sleek Nocturnal Command design system:

Nocturnal Command 🌌 (Material 3 Dark / Nocturnal Obsidian — Default)
Dark (Midnight) 🌙 (Modern Slate Dark)
Catppuccin Mocha 🌿 (Pastel Dark)
Catppuccin Latte ☕ (Pastel Light)
Light Mode ☀️ (Modern Slate Light)
Dracula 🧛 (Vibrant Dark)
Nord ❄️ (Arctic Frosty Dark)
Tokyo Night 🌆 (Neon Dark)

🌌 Nocturnal Command Design System

Engineered for modern developer cockpits, server orchestrators, and technical tools:

Obsidian Luminance Tiers: Elevation expressed through calibrated dark surface luminance (#13131a, #1b1b22, #1f1f26) rather than blurry drop shadows.
Electric Accents: Electric Violet (#c4c0ff), Telemetry Cyan (#70d5e4), and Mint (#97f6ca) highlight active processes, ports, and metrics.
Pill Primitives (rounded-full): Smooth pill action buttons, pill search bar, and Material 3 status chips (● Running, ○ Stopped).
Recessed Terminal Wells: Deep obsidian containers (#0a0a0f) for monospace command previews ($ <command>) with live runtime status tags.

✨ Features at a Glance

🖥️ Native Process Management

⚙️ Settings & Preferences Modal (Ctrl+,): Centralized preferences window accessible via the top-bar ⚙ icon button or Ctrl+,:
- 🎨 Theme Picker & Quick Pills: Choose from all 8 themes with live preview and instant switching.
- 🚀 System Startup Autostart: Toggle launch on system boot/login with status chip pills (● ENABLED / ○ DISABLED).
- 📦 Server Configuration Management: One-click 📥 Import servers.json and 📤 Export servers.json file dialogs for effortless backup and restore.
- ⌨ Keyboard Shortcuts Guide: Instant cheatsheet for Ctrl+P/Ctrl+K, Ctrl+,, Ctrl+A, Ctrl+X, and Ctrl+F.
- ℹ️ System Diagnostics: Quick overview of host IP, managed instance count, and active config path.
✨ Streamlined Borderless Top Bar: Minimalist, spacious header layout eliminating overcrowding: includes enlarged branding logo, instance search pill bar, batch controls (▶ Start All, ⏹ Stop All), Quick Launch (⚡ Quick Launch Ctrl+P), + Add Server, and ⚙ Settings.
🚀 Per-Server Launch Autostart: Configure individual servers with the autostart checkbox in the left sidebar and overview cards to start running immediately whenever Server Launcher opens.
🖥️ Run in External Terminal Toggle: Per-server [✓] run in external terminal checkbox in both overview cards and left sidebar containers to launch services into a native desktop terminal window upon start.
Auto-Restart on Crash: Per-server crash guard option that monitors exit codes and automatically restarts failed services after a short delay.
Port-Aware Status Detection: Monitors process sockets and marks services as Running once their configured TCP port is bound and listening.
Pre-Stop Command Hooks: Run graceful shutdown or data backup scripts before process termination (e.g., firebase emulators:export ./data).

🌐 Remote SSH Machines Manager

Multi-Host Left Navigation: Seamlessly switch between This PC and any number of remote SSH servers.
Remote Port Discovery & Management: Inspect listening processes on remote Linux servers via SSH queries (ss / lsof / netstat), filter by port/name, inspect process details (ps), test endpoints (curl), and terminate stuck processes (kill) with one click.
Flexible Authentication: Connect with SSH config aliases, private keys (~/.ssh/id_rsa, ~/.ssh/id_ed25519), or interactive password prompts.
External Remote Terminals: Launch native terminal sessions directly into remote servers with working directory preloaded.

📊 System Resource & Port Monitoring

Live Performance Metrics: Real-time per-process CPU % and RAM (MB) utilization tracking with cached lookup for near-zero CPU scroll overhead.
Top Apps & Process Properties: Inspect resource-heavy processes, view detailed command arguments, working directories, open files, memory maps, and property files with responsive non-blocking background inspection.
Listening Port Scanner: Live overview of all active TCP/UDP ports on your machine, distinguishing launcher-managed servers from unmanaged background services.
One-Click Import: Found an unmanaged daemon listening on port 8080 or 3000? Import it directly into the Launcher with prefilled command and directory paths.
⚡ Ultra-Low Idle Footprint: Engineered with reactive frame rendering, lightweight timer tickers, and optimized release builds (lto = "thin") for minimal CPU, GPU, and RAM consumption.

📟 Interactive Terminal & Shell Execution

Interactive Inline Terminal: Inspect stdout/stderr streams or send arbitrary commands (ps, git status, npm install, curl) directly inside the card view.
High-Performance Virtualized Logs: Smooth scrolling with show_rows virtualization, distinct scroll persistence, and optional auto-scroll toggle (📜 Auto-scroll) eliminating frame drops and jitter.
External Terminal Launcher: One-click opening of desktop terminals (gnome-terminal, ptyxis, alacritty, kitty, konsole, xterm, cmd.exe, powershell) initialized in the server's working directory.
Built-in Slash Commands: Type /start, /stop, /restart, /status, /clear, or run custom action buttons from the interactive command bar.

⚙️ SystemD Services Manager & Sudo Authentication

Local & Remote SystemD Control: Inspect all units across User (--user) and System scopes with live state badges (Active, Inactive, Failed).
Interactive Lifecycle Actions: Start, stop, restart, enable, disable, and reload daemon (systemctl daemon-reload) directly from the GUI.
🔐 Secure Sudo Password Popup: When controlling or creating local system-level services requiring root privileges, a password modal automatically prompts for authentication.
Session Sudo Caching: Optionally remember sudo credentials for the current session, with an inline badge 🔑 Sudo [✕] to clear or forget them at any time.
Built-in Unit Creator: GUI modal to define, install, and immediately enable new systemd service units (.service) into user config or /etc/systemd/system/.
Integrated Journalctl Log Stream: View the last 100 journal log lines per unit with configurable auto-refresh rates (Off, 1s, 2s, 5s, 10s, 30s, 60s) and automatic root fallback.

🌡️ Hardware Telemetry & Power Sensors

Comprehensive Hardware Metrics: Live monitoring of CPU frequency/speed, CPU package power, GPU utilization, GPU core clock, GPU power draw, and VRAM.
Battery & Power Supply Analytics: Real-time battery percentage, charging state, instantaneous power draw/discharge wattage, voltage, and battery health.
Component Temperatures & Fans: Categorized sensor breakdown for CPU cores, GPU dies, NVMe storage drives, motherboard thermal zones, and cooling fan RPMs.
Remote Telemetry via SSH: Fetch hardware sensor snapshots from remote servers with asynchronous, non-blocking polling.

📜 Custom Scripts & ⚡ Saved Commands

Script Runner: Manage and trigger automation scripts with live execution output tracking across local and remote SSH machines.
Quick Command Vault: Store frequently used developer shell commands categorized by tags with one-click terminal execution.

🎨 Customization & Developer Experience

Instant Click Responsiveness: Fully responsive cards with context menu reordering (▲ Move Up / ▼ Move Down) and zero drag-interception or missed clicks.
Quick Launch Command Palette (Ctrl+P): Fuzzy-search commands, toggle servers, jump to tabs, or switch themes via keyboard.
Live Log Search (Ctrl+F): Real-time filtering and highlight for console logs with severity color coding (stdout, stderr, stdin, launcher, warnings).
One-Click IDE, Explorer & Console Integration:
- 📁 Open Folder: Open working directory in native file manager (xdg-open / File Explorer).
- 💻 Open in VS Code: Launch the project directory directly in Visual Studio Code (code .).
- 🖥️ Open in Console: Launch an external desktop terminal emulator (ptyxis, gnome-terminal, alacritty, cmd.exe, etc.) initialized in the server's working directory.
- 🔗 Browser Links: Quick-open web dashboards, API docs, or localhost endpoints in your default browser.

📂 Project Structure

Server_Launcher/
├── server_launcher_rust/          # Native Rust + egui 0.29 Desktop Application
│   ├── Cargo.toml                 # Dependencies & package configuration
│   └── src/
│       ├── main.rs                # Application entrypoint & runtime setup
│       ├── app.rs                 # Primary GUI layouts, panels, and viewports
│       ├── theme.rs               # 7-palette theme engine & visuals
│       ├── service.rs             # Subprocess lifecycle, log pipes & metrics
│       ├── systemd.rs             # SystemD unit controller, journalctl & unit creation
│       ├── sensors.rs             # Hardware sensors collector (CPU/GPU power, battery, temps)
│       ├── scripts.rs             # Custom script manager & execution runner
│       ├── commands.rs            # Saved command vault & integrated terminal sessions
│       ├── scanner.rs             # Local port scanner & sysinfo monitor
│       ├── remote.rs              # Remote SSH connector & port inspector
│       ├── modals.rs              # Add/edit dialogs, SSH modal, Command Palette
│       ├── autostart.rs           # System boot/login autostart (XDG & Windows)
│       └── config.rs              # Configuration schema & JSON persistence
│
├── server_launcher_linux.py       # Python Tkinter Desktop GUI (Linux optimized)
├── server_launcher.py             # Python Tkinter Desktop GUI (Cross-platform)
├── server_launcher_tui.py         # Terminal User Interface edition
├── install_desktop_icon.sh        # Linux desktop launcher installer (.desktop)
├── servers.json                   # Saved server configurations & theme settings
└── assets/                        # Application icons & branding assets

🛠️ Getting Started

1. Rust Native Edition (Recommended)

The Rust edition delivers high performance, low memory footprint, and GPU-accelerated smooth rendering.

Prerequisites

Rust 1.75+ & Cargo installed (rustup.rs):

curl --proto '=https' --tlsv1.2 -sSf https://sh.rustup.rs | sh

Linux Packages (for windowing & clipboard support):

Ubuntu / Debian:

sudo apt update
sudo apt install -y pkg-config libgl1-mesa-dev libx11-dev libxcb-render0-dev libxcb-shape0-dev libxcb-xfixes0-dev

Fedora / RHEL:

sudo dnf install -y pkgconfig mesa-libGL-devel libX11-devel

Arch Linux:

sudo pacman -S --needed pkgconf mesa libx11

Build and Run

cd server_launcher_rust
cargo run --release

Running Tests

cargo test

2. Python Desktop Edition

A zero-dependency option that runs using Python's standard library.

Prerequisites

Python 3.10+
Tkinter system libraries:
- Ubuntu/Debian: sudo apt install python3-tk
- Fedora: sudo dnf install python3-tkinter
- Windows / macOS: Included by default in official Python installers.

Run Desktop GUI

# Standard cross-platform desktop GUI
python3 server_launcher.py

# Linux-optimized GUI
python3 server_launcher_linux.py

3. Python Terminal TUI Edition

Ideal for headless servers, SSH sessions, or lightweight terminal setups:

python3 server_launcher_tui.py

🐧 Linux Desktop Integration

To install Server Launcher as a native Linux desktop application with system launcher search:

chmod +x install_desktop_icon.sh
./install_desktop_icon.sh

This generates a standard .desktop entry in ~/.local/share/applications/ and links the application icon from assets/.

⚙️ Configuration Format (`servers.json`)

All configurations are human-readable and automatically persisted to servers.json:

{
  "theme": "catppuccin_mocha",
  "ssh_hosts": [
    {
      "id": "prod-vps",
      "name": "Production VPS",
      "host": "192.168.1.100",
      "port": 22,
      "user": "ubuntu",
      "identity_file": "~/.ssh/id_ed25519",
      "password": null
    }
  ],
  "servers": [
    {
      "key": "web-api",
      "name": "FastAPI Backend",
      "group": "Backend",
      "cwd": "/home/user/projects/web-api",
      "command": "python -m uvicorn main:app --port 8000",
      "stop_command": "",
      "port": 8000,
      "autostart": false,
      "auto_restart": true,
      "own_console": false,
      "env": {
        "ENV": "development",
        "DEBUG": "true"
      },
      "actions": [
        {
          "name": "Run Migrations",
          "command": "alembic upgrade head"
        }
      ],
      "links": [
        {
          "name": "Swagger Docs",
          "url": "http://localhost:8000/docs"
        }
      ]
    }
  ]
}

Configuration Fields

Field	Type	Description
`theme`	`string`	Selected theme ID (`nocturnal_command`, `dark`, `catppuccin_mocha`, `catppuccin_latte`, `light`, `dracula`, `nord`, `tokyo_night`)
`name`	`string`	Display name of the service
`group`	`string`	Category badge for grouping related microservices
`cwd`	`string`	Working directory where the start/action commands execute
`command`	`string`	Shell command used to launch the service
`stop_command`	`string`	Optional cleanup command executed before termination
`port`	`number`	TCP port monitored to confirm successful startup
`autostart`	`boolean`	Automatically start this server when Server Launcher opens
`auto_restart`	`boolean`	Automatically restart the process if it crashes or exits unexpectedly
`own_console`	`boolean`	Launch service in an external desktop terminal window upon start
`env`	`object`	Key-value dictionary of environment variables
`actions`	`array`	Custom action buttons runnable in the service directory
`links`	`array`	Quick-access URLs opened in your default web browser

⌨️ Shortcuts & Navigation

Keybinding	Action
`Ctrl + P` / `Ctrl + K`	Open Quick Launch Command Palette & Instance Search
`Ctrl + F`	Search & filter console logs / server overview
`Enter`	Submit command in interactive command bar, terminal, or authentication modal
`Escape`	Dismiss modals, sudo password prompt, command palette, or autocomplete suggestions
`⠿ Drag`	Drag card up or down to reorder server list
`/`	Trigger slash command autocomplete in server log views

🛡️ License

This project is licensed under the MIT License - feel free to use, modify, and distribute for personal and commercial projects.

Name		Name	Last commit message	Last commit date
.agents		.agents
.github/workflows		.github/workflows
assets		assets
scratch		scratch
server_launcher_rust		server_launcher_rust
server_launcher_windows		server_launcher_windows
.gitignore		.gitignore
AGENTS.md		AGENTS.md
README.md		README.md
install_desktop_icon.sh		install_desktop_icon.sh
server_launcher.py		server_launcher.py
server_launcher_linux.py		server_launcher_linux.py
server_launcher_tui.py		server_launcher_tui.py

Navigation Menu

Repository navigation

About

Repository files navigation

🚀 Server Launcher

📸 Screenshots & Themes

🌌 Nocturnal Command Design System

✨ Features at a Glance

🖥️ Native Process Management

🌐 Remote SSH Machines Manager

📊 System Resource & Port Monitoring

📟 Interactive Terminal & Shell Execution

⚙️ SystemD Services Manager & Sudo Authentication

🌡️ Hardware Telemetry & Power Sensors

📜 Custom Scripts & ⚡ Saved Commands

🎨 Customization & Developer Experience

📂 Project Structure

🛠️ Getting Started

1. Rust Native Edition (Recommended)

Prerequisites

Build and Run

Running Tests

2. Python Desktop Edition

Prerequisites

Run Desktop GUI

3. Python Terminal TUI Edition

🐧 Linux Desktop Integration

⚙️ Configuration Format (`servers.json`)

Configuration Fields

⌨️ Shortcuts & Navigation

🛡️ License

About

Releases

Packages

Contributors

Languages

Latest commit

History

Folders and files

Repository files navigation

🚀 Server Launcher

📸 Screenshots & Themes

🌌 Nocturnal Command Design System

✨ Features at a Glance

🖥️ Native Process Management

🌐 Remote SSH Machines Manager

📊 System Resource & Port Monitoring

📟 Interactive Terminal & Shell Execution

⚙️ SystemD Services Manager & Sudo Authentication

🌡️ Hardware Telemetry & Power Sensors

📜 Custom Scripts & ⚡ Saved Commands

🎨 Customization & Developer Experience

📂 Project Structure

🛠️ Getting Started

1. Rust Native Edition (Recommended)

Prerequisites

Build and Run

Running Tests

2. Python Desktop Edition

Prerequisites

Run Desktop GUI

3. Python Terminal TUI Edition

🐧 Linux Desktop Integration

⚙️ Configuration Format (servers.json)

Configuration Fields

⌨️ Shortcuts & Navigation

🛡️ License

About

Resources

Stars

Watchers

Forks

Releases

Packages

Contributors

Languages

⚙️ Configuration Format (`servers.json`)