The computer
A teammate can have a computer: a Linux desktop in a container on your machine, with a browser and a window manager, driven through tools. The container is the machine; the agent is the operator. You can open the same screen, watch, and take the keyboard when the agent asks you to.
What you need
Section titled “What you need”One container runtime:
| Runtime | Where |
|---|---|
| Docker (Docker Desktop or OrbStack) | Linux and macOS |
| Podman | Linux and macOS |
Apple container |
macOS only |
Settings → Computer lists every runtime, whether it is installed and running, and what to do if it is not. Leave the choice on automatic and Toad takes the first one that is ready, preferring one that runs rootless.
The desktop image is ghcr.io/1broseidon/toad-computer, pinned to one
version per Toad release, never latest. Settings → Computer → Desktop
image overrides the image for the room; a teammate can override it again
in its pane. The image and its agent live in their own repository,
toad-computer.
Turn it on
Section titled “Turn it on”In the teammate’s pane, Computer. The first start pulls the image, which the conversation notes, and builds the container. From then on, the container wakes with the teammate and stops with it. Stopping keeps the container for the next start; removing it starts over. Thirty minutes idle stops it; seven days idle removes it.
The teammate’s workspace is mounted inside at /home/agent/workspace. Add
further folders as mounts in the pane, read-only if you like. Processes
caps how many processes the container may run.
Watch and take over
Section titled “Watch and take over”While the computer is running, Screen in the title bar opens the desktop in a window of its own. When the teammate needs you, for a login or a tap the agent cannot do, its Needs you card opens the same screen. What you type goes to the desktop and never through the agent. Mark the card done and the desktop is the agent’s again.
What the container can do
Section titled “What the container can do”Nothing in the image runs as root. Toad creates the container with every capability dropped, no new privileges, memory and process limits, and its one port on loopback only. Two named volumes persist packages and source between starts.