GUIShell: Remote Desktop Boilerplate

I built this because I wanted a clean, low-latency starting point for anyone looking to build their own remote control or screen-sharing tools. Most existing solutions are either too complex to dive into or too proprietary to modify. This is a "stripped-to-the-bones" boilerplate that gives you the essentials: real-time signaling, WebRTC streams, and remote input simulation.

Whether you're trying to build an alternative to TeamViewer, a specialized support tool, or just learning how low-level input works in Electron, this is for you.

Why this stack?

I chose these specific technologies because they balance performance with ease of deployment:

• Electron: For the cross-platform shell and native system access (keyboard/mouse control).
• WebRTC: For peer-to-peer screen streaming with minimal lag.
• Supabase: My go-to for handling the session database and auth. It’s fast to set up and scales perfectly.
• Koyeb: Recommended for hosting the signaling server. It handles WebSockets and global routing effortlessly.

How to Get Started

1. Configure the Signaling URL

The app needs to know where your signaling server is hosted.

• Open electron/preload.js and update https://your-signaling-server.com to your URL.
• Open src/index.html and update the Content-Security-Policy meta tag to allow connections to your domain.

2. Compilation (Building for Production)

This project uses electron-builder to package the app into a production-ready installer.

To build for Windows:

npm run build:win

The output will be in the /dist folder. You'll find a portable version and a standard NSIS installer.

3. Setting Up Auto-Updates

The boilerplate is pre-configured with electron-updater to handle background updates via GitHub Releases.

1. Repository Setup: Ensure your package.json and electron-builder.yml point to your actual GitHub repository.
2. Generate a Token: Create a GitHub Personal Access Token (classic) with repo permissions.
3. CI/CD or Local Publish:
   • Set an environment variable: GH_TOKEN=your_token_here.
   • Run the publish command:

     npx electron-builder --win -p always

     This will build the app and automatically upload the artifacts to a "Draft" release on GitHub. Once you publish that release, users running previous versions will automatically detect and download the update on their next startup.

A Note on Input Control

I'm using a fork of nut-js to handle the mouse and keyboard events. It’s powerful but can be finicky on different OS permissions. If you're building for production, make sure to handle the Accessibility/Screen Recording permissions on macOS particularly well.

Feel free to fork this, tear it apart, and build something better.

— Mohamed Yassin