App Launcher

App Launcher

The Apps drawer tab lets you launch media apps with a single tap. Each button sends a launch message over WebSocket; the server resolves it to a shell command and runs it detached from the service process.

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Default apps

App	Command tried (in order)
Jellyfin	xdg-open http://localhost:8096
Plex	xdg-open https://app.plex.tv
Kodi	kodi, then flatpak run tv.kodi.Kodi
Netflix	xdg-open https://www.netflix.com
YouTube	xdg-open https://www.youtube.com
Spotify	spotify, then flatpak run com.spotify.Client
Browser	firefox, then chromium-browser, then xdg-open https://

When a value is a list, Glide tries each command left-to-right and uses the first one that succeeds (binary exists and launches without error).

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Customising

Edit APP_COMMANDS in /opt/htpc-remote/server/input/base.py:

APP_COMMANDS: dict[str, str | list[str]] = {
    "jellyfin": "xdg-open http://localhost:8096",
    "plex":     "xdg-open https://app.plex.tv",
    "kodi":     ["kodi", "flatpak run tv.kodi.Kodi"],
    "netflix":  "xdg-open https://www.netflix.com",
    "youtube":  "xdg-open https://www.youtube.com",
    "spotify":  ["spotify", "flatpak run com.spotify.Client"],
    "browser":  ["firefox", "chromium-browser", "xdg-open https://"],
}

A string value runs that command directly. A list value tries each entry in order.

After editing, restart the service:

systemctl --user restart htpc-remote

Note: The file lives inside /opt/htpc-remote/ which is overwritten on every upgrade. If you customise it, keep a copy or consider packaging your own .deb with the changes baked in.

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Adding a new app

1. Add an entry to APP_COMMANDS with a key that matches what the phone sends:

"vlc": ["vlc", "flatpak run org.videolan.VLC"],

2. Add a button for it in the Apps drawer in web/static/glide-controller.jsx:

const APPS = [
  ['J', 'Jellyfin',  285],
  ['P', 'Plex',       60],
  // ... existing entries ...
  ['V', 'VLC',        25],   // hue 25 = orange-red
];

The three values are: monogram letter, display name (must match the APP_COMMANDS key, lowercase), oklch hue (0–360, controls the icon background colour).

3. Rebuild and redeploy the .deb, or restart the service if you edited the files in-place.

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How launch works

The server runs app commands via subprocess.Popen with start_new_session=True. This detaches the child process from the service — if Glide restarts, the launched app keeps running. No output is captured.