Installing is dragging ProdDash to Applications. The app carries the
dashboard and the Node that runs it, so nothing has to be installed first and
nothing can go missing underneath it.
ProdDash.app/Contents/
MacOS/ProdDash the launcher
Resources/node/bin/node Node 24.21.0 LTS, fetched and checksum-verified
Resources/app/ server.js, public/, modules/
Everything mutable stays where it already was, in ~/Library/Application
Support/ProdDash — and that now includes app/, the copy of ProdDash that
actually runs. The copy is not ceremony: ProdDash updates itself in place,
and nothing may write inside a signed .app. So the bundle holds a read-only
baseline and the data directory holds the running copy, which means both
routes to a new version keep working and don't fight — installing a newer
.app replaces the copy, while a copy that has already updated itself past the
bundle is left alone.
build.sh now assembles all of it: fetches Node against nodejs.org's published
checksums (cached in .cache/), embeds the server, compiles each module's
native helper so the Mac running ProdDash needs no compiler, signs nested
code before the bundle, and builds the disk image. --dev skips the payload
for launcher work, which still runs against a checkout.
Signing is set up for a Developer ID with the hardened runtime and
notarisation (--notarize), and falls back to ad-hoc when no such certificate
is installed. Entitlements are split by what each binary actually does: JIT
for node, audio input for the launcher and for module helpers that read one.
Built and run end to end: first-run install, bundled node, dashboard and
admin serving, re-seed in both directions (newer app replaces an older copy;
an updated copy survives), disk image mounts and its app verifies.
Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 5 <noreply@anthropic.com>
A native Swift app (launcher/macos, ~2 MB, no dependencies) that starts,
stops and watches over the server from the menu bar — and holds the macOS
permissions its modules need.
The permissions are the point as much as the buttons are. macOS grants
privacy permissions to the application that owns a process, and a child
inherits its parent's identity, so with the server started from here node —
and the Timers module's ltc-capture — belong to this app bundle and the
microphone and local-network prompts are asked, and remembered, as ProdDash.
Started over SSH or from a launchd job there is nobody to ask: the permission
is silently absent rather than refused, which is the "endless zeroes" failure
ltc-listener.js warns about.
The shell was already built for a supervisor: with PRODDASH_LAUNCHER=1 it
exits 75 instead of respawning itself when the admin page applies an update,
which the launcher reads as a restart request rather than a fault. Crashes
get a backed-off restart (1s, 2s, 5s, 10s) and four in two minutes stops the
cycle. The server is spawned into its own process group, so stopping it also
stops anything it started — an orphaned ltc-capture would otherwise hold an
audio device indefinitely — and signals, a logout and Quit all stop it first.
- Menu bar: ProdDash's own 2x2 tile mark, its accent tile lit green while
serving, amber mid-move, red when something needs a person. Start, stop,
restart, open the dashboard or admin, open at login, quit.
- Window: status and both addresses, plus Log (also written to
~/Library/Logs/ProdDash, kept a week), Settings, and Permissions.
- The port is written to the data directory's proddash.json — ProdDash's own
file — so the port set here holds however it is next started. Something
already on the port is reported, and offered as a takeover when it answers
like a ProdDash started another way.
- Modules declare what they need in their manifests ("permissions": [...],
documented in docs/MODULE-GUIDE.md and ignored by the shell); the launcher
lists exactly that, with each module's reason, asks for the microphone,
and — since macOS reports nothing about local network access — offers a
check that browses for services and tries every configured upstream.
Timers, ProdCom and ProPresenter modules declare their permissions (patch
bumps). Build with launcher/macos/build.sh; output is gitignored.
Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 5 <noreply@anthropic.com>
ProdDash now has a version (package.json, 1.1.0) and modules declare the
shell versions they need ("proddash": ">=1.1.0" in the manifest). A module
whose requirement this shell doesn't meet is listed in the admin page but
never loaded, and cannot be installed from the catalog.
Modules come from two places: bundled with the checkout (modules/) and
installed from the admin page into the data directory (<data dir>/modules/).
Same id in both → the newer version runs; a downloaded copy the bundled one
has overtaken is removed. The admin page's new "Available modules" section
lists modules in the ProdDash repo that aren't installed here — one small
tar.gz of the branch is fetched (at most every few minutes, only while the
admin page is open or for the periodic update check) and read with a
dependency-free tar reader (ustar, GNU long names, pax headers; the pax
global comment carries the commit sha). Install downloads the module folder
into the data directory and mounts it immediately; a module card offers
"Update to vX" when the repo has a newer version. Uninstall removes an
installed module's files; a bundled module is hidden instead (its folder
belongs to the app) and can be restored from Available modules without a
download. Settings are kept across uninstall/reinstall.
Shell updates: the server compares the repo's package.json version and
commit sha with its own (git rev-parse when the app folder is a checkout),
shows a banner in the admin page, and "Update now" brings the app folder up
to date — git pull --ff-only for a checkout that is on the repo branch with
no local changes (file modes ignored), otherwise the archive is unpacked over
the folder (runtime state and .git untouched). The server then exits with
code 75 and starts its own replacement unless PRODDASH_LAUNCHER is set; the
replacement waits for the port to free up (EADDRINUSE retry). The page polls
until the new version answers. PRODDASH_REPO (owner/repo#branch),
PRODDASH_ARCHIVE_BASE and PRODDASH_NO_REMOTE_CHECK configure/disable it.
Docs: MODULE-GUIDE gets the rules every module follows (all settings in the
admin page, dependencies shipped inside the module, everything runs inside
the module's server entry — no helper programs, declare the ProdDash
requirement and bump the version), the proddash/version manifest fields and
the new installation story; README gets "Installing modules and updating";
CLAUDE.md summarises the rules.
Co-Authored-By: Claude Fable 5.1 <noreply@anthropic.com>
Claude-Session: https://claude.ai/code/session_01RNYUv9EyrGSFmCnmH7WYKH
Connection settings, API keys, enabled flags and named layouts were written
to config/ inside the checkout, so a re-clone or reset from main started the
server with nothing configured. They now live in a data directory outside
the app folder:
Windows %APPDATA%\ProdDash
macOS ~/Library/Application Support/ProdDash
other $XDG_CONFIG_HOME/proddash, else ~/.config/proddash
PRODDASH_DATA_DIR overrides the location (a relative path resolves against
the app folder, so "config" restores the old spot). The first start after
upgrading copies an existing config/modules.json and config/layouts/ into
the data directory, so nothing has to be re-entered. If the directory cannot
be created or written, the server warns and falls back to config/ rather
than refusing to start. A proddash.json in the data directory overrides the
checked-in defaults (port, adminPasscode).
The startup banner prints the directory in use, /api/admin/state exposes it,
and the admin page shows it under the Modules heading. Admin config and
layout writes that fail on disk now report the path instead of a generic
server error. README, MODULE-GUIDE and CLAUDE.md updated.
Co-Authored-By: Claude Fable 5.1 <noreply@anthropic.com>
Claude-Session: https://claude.ai/code/session_01RNYUv9EyrGSFmCnmH7WYKH
The initial build is merged; SPEC.md is no longer the live authority.
New-module work should follow the module guide and its ground rules
(self-contained folder, no shell changes, server-side proxying, scoped
CSS-variable styling, resilience checklist, mocks for testing).
Co-Authored-By: Claude Fable 5 <noreply@anthropic.com>
Claude-Session: https://claude.ai/code/session_01RNYUv9EyrGSFmCnmH7WYKH
