CortenDesk gives the free, open-source RustDesk server (hbbs/hbbr) the professional console it never had. It manages your device fleet with live presence, platform icons, aliases, device groups, and pre-registration; users and roles with scoped access, so people only see the devices granted to them; shared address books with tags and share rules; and filterable, exportable audit logs covering connections, file transfers, logins, and security alarms. On top of that sit device policies pushed from the console and enforced on heartbeat, TOTP two-factor authentication, OpenID Connect single sign-on (Keycloak, Authentik, Entra ID, Okta, Google Workspace), delegated administration with a full permission matrix, and a scoped REST automation API. Stock RustDesk clients simply point at CortenDesk as their API server — no client patches needed.
The headline feature is the native web client: a from-scratch TypeScript implementation of the RustDesk wire protocol — rendezvous, relay, NaCl handshake, login — running entirely in the browser over WebSocket relays. It is not a WASM port; the source is readable and auditable. Video is hardware-accelerated through WebCodecs (VP8/VP9/H.264/H.265/AV1), with audio, two-way clipboard, multi-monitor switching, and an in-session dual-pane file manager that browses the remote filesystem and moves files and folders with progress, resume-aware digests, and drag-and-drop. You can view, control, and transfer files to any device in your fleet straight from a browser tab.
Deployment is deliberately boring: Laravel + Livewire with precompiled assets, so there is no frontend build step — clone, configure, migrate, serve, or pull the self-contained Docker image with the WebSocket bridge built in. A one-command importer migrates users (passwords intact), devices, address books, and audit history from lejianwen/rustdesk-api. Every screen is mobile-first with dark and light themes. CortenDesk is licensed AGPL-3.0 and lives at cortendesk.com.
