bext companion
A native desktop app built with Tauri that gives you a GUI for your bext fleet. It sits in your system tray and connects to your bext instances over HTTP.
What it does#
| Feature | Description |
|---|---|
| System tray | Color-coded status indicator, quick actions, native notifications |
| Instance management | Connect to local and remote instances, health polling, auto-discovery |
| Request inspector | Auto-refreshing request list with per-request detail and filtering |
| Cache explorer | Browse ISR, fragment, and tenant caches, manual invalidation |
| Config editor | Visual TOML editor for bext.config.toml with validation and diff view |
| Flow debugger | Durable workflow timeline, SQLite WAL viewer, crash recovery replay |
| Realtime monitor | Topic tree visualization, pub/sub inspection, message replay |
| Plugin workshop | Plugin scaffolding, live QuickJS playground, WASM inspector |
| Observability | Structured log tailing, metrics sparklines, distributed trace viewer |
| Conformance | Run the bext conformance suite against any instance and track scores |
Licensing#
The companion app is free with Community for basic features (instance management, request inspector, cache explorer). Premium features (flow debugger, plugin workshop, advanced observability) require an Enterprise license key.
Installation#
Pre-built binaries#
Download from companion.bext.dev/download:
- macOS —
.dmg(Universal binary, Apple Silicon + Intel) - Linux —
.deb(Debian/Ubuntu) or.AppImage(universal)
Build from source#
Requires Rust 1.75+ and system dependencies for Tauri:
cargo install bext-companion
Quick start#
- Download and install the companion app
- Launch it — it appears in your system tray
- Click the tray icon and select Add Instance
- Enter your bext server's admin URL (e.g.
http://localhost:3000/__bext/admin) - The companion connects and starts polling health data
For remote instances, see Connecting Instances.
Global shortcut#
Press Cmd+Shift+B (macOS) or Ctrl+Shift+B (Linux/Windows) to toggle the companion window from anywhere.
Tip
Advanced features (flow debugger, plugin workshop, advanced observability) are part of bext Companion. See Licensing.
Related#
- Download — platform binaries, checksums, and build-from-source
- Connecting Instances — local, remote, and multi-instance setup
- Request Inspector — live HTTP traffic waterfall
- Cache Explorer — browse and invalidate cached content
- MCP Server — AI-agent tools for managing your bext fleet
- Licensing Overview — what each tier unlocks