The WebUI is the browser workbench served by nanobot gateway. If you installed nanobot-ai from PyPI, the WebUI bundle is already included; this webui/ source tree is only needed when you are changing the frontend.

For the project overview, install guide, and general docs map, see the root README.md and docs/README.md.

Pick a Path

Goal	Start with	Opens at
Use the bundled browser UI	Just want to use the WebUI?	`http://127.0.0.1:8765`
Use the WebUI from another device	Access from another device (LAN)	`http://<your-ip>:8765`
Change WebUI source code	Develop the WebUI (Vite HMR)	`http://127.0.0.1:5173`
Debug setup failures	`docs/troubleshooting.md#webui-problems`	Diagnosis order and common fixes

Just want to use the WebUI?

If you installed nanobot via python -m pip install nanobot-ai, the WebUI is already bundled in the wheel. You do not need Node.js, Bun, Vite, or anything in this directory unless you are changing the WebUI source code.

First prove the provider path:

nanobot agent -m "Hello!"

If the shell cannot find nanobot, use the module form from the same Python environment:

python -m nanobot agent -m "Hello!"

Then merge this WebSocket snippet into your existing ~/.nanobot/config.json instead of replacing the whole file:

{ "channels": { "websocket": { "enabled": true } } }

If you are new to JSON snippets, see docs/start-without-technical-background.md#how-to-merge-json-snippets.

Start the gateway:

nanobot gateway

Leave this terminal running while you use the WebUI. Closing it stops the browser UI and WebSocket connection.

Open http://127.0.0.1:8765. The gateway's 18790 port is only the health endpoint, not the browser UI. For setup failures, use docs/troubleshooting.md.

This webui/ tree is for people changing the WebUI source code. It is built with Vite + React 18 + TypeScript + Tailwind 3 + shadcn/ui, talks to the gateway over the WebSocket multiplex protocol, and reads session metadata from the embedded REST surface on the same port.

Layout

webui/                 source tree (this directory)
nanobot/web/dist/      build output served by the gateway

Develop the WebUI (Vite HMR)

1. Install nanobot from source

From the repository root:

python -m pip install -e .

Editable installs intentionally skip the WebUI bundle step — Vite HMR is faster than rebuilding dist/ on every change.

2. Enable the WebSocket channel

In ~/.nanobot/config.json, merge:

{ "channels": { "websocket": { "enabled": true } } }

3. Start the gateway

In one terminal:

nanobot gateway

4. Start the WebUI dev server

In another terminal:

cd webui
bun install            # npm install also works
bun run dev

Then open http://127.0.0.1:5173.

By default the dev server proxies /api, /webui, /auth, and WebSocket traffic to http://127.0.0.1:8765.

If your gateway listens on a non-default port, point the dev server at it:

NANOBOT_API_URL=http://127.0.0.1:9000 bun run dev

Access from another device (LAN)

To use the WebUI from another device on the same network, set host to "0.0.0.0" and configure a token or tokenIssueSecret in ~/.nanobot/config.json:

{
  "channels": {
    "websocket": {
      "enabled": true,
      "host": "0.0.0.0",
      "port": 8765,
      "tokenIssueSecret": "your-secret-here"
    }
  }
}

The gateway will refuse to start if host is "0.0.0.0" and neither token nor tokenIssueSecret is set.

Then open http://<your-ip>:8765 on the other device. The WebUI will show an authentication form where you enter the secret. It is saved in your browser so you only need to enter it once.

Build for packaged runtime

You usually do not need to run this by hand: python -m build invokes the WebUI build automatically when packaging the wheel.

If you want to preview the production bundle locally without rebuilding the wheel:

cd webui
bun run build          # writes to ../nanobot/web/dist

The gateway picks up the new bundle on the next restart.

Test

cd webui
bun run test

Acknowledgements

agent-chat-ui for UI and interaction inspiration across the chat surface.