LapDeck

Turn your phone into a remote deck for your Windows laptop.

App launcher · touchpad · keyboard · live screen view · media & volume · brightness · lock/sleep/shutdown — all from the phone in your hand, over your own Wi-Fi. One Node.js process on the laptop, a PWA on the phone, zero cloud, zero accounts.

Phone (browser / installed PWA)  ── Wi-Fi / Tailscale ──►  LapDeck agent (Node.js on Windows)

Lying in bed and want to pause the movie, nudge the volume, or shut the laptop down? Presenting and need a remote touchpad? LapDeck is a single npm start away.

Features

• App launcher — tiles for apps, folders, files, and websites. Add/remove tiles from the phone; pick which browser opens a site.
• Touchpad — relative pointer with acceleration, tap-to-click, two-finger scroll, two-finger tap = right-click, double-tap-drag. Pointer speed slider.
• Keyboard — type live into the laptop (IME-safe diffing, so swipe-typing works), plus common shortcuts and your own custom shortcut buttons (any chord like ctrl+shift+p, or sequences like ctrl+k,ctrl+o).
• Live screen view — MJPEG stream with tap-to-click where you tap, a realtime client-predicted cursor overlay, a magnifier loupe, and quality presets.
• Media & system — play/pause/next/prev, volume, mute, brightness, battery readout.
• Power — lock, sleep, restart, shutdown, each with confirm + an abort window (grace period is configurable).
• Settings screen — everything below is tweakable from the phone itself.
• PWA — add to home screen and it feels like a native app.
• Works from anywhere, not just home Wi-Fi — optional: add Tailscale (free) and control your laptop from the other side of the world, no port forwarding, no config. The agent detects it and shows a remote QR/URL automatically.

Quick start

Requirements: Windows 10/11, Node.js ≥ 20, phone on the same Wi-Fi.

git clone https://github.com/ronak-create/LapDeck.git
cd LapDeck
npm install
npm start

The terminal prints a QR code. Scan it with your phone — the UI opens already paired (the token rides in the link and is stored on the phone; you scan once). Then use your browser menu → Add to Home screen.

Phone can't connect? Allow Node.js through Windows Firewall on private networks — the prompt appears on first run. That's the #1 cause.

Run automatically at login (hidden, no console)

powershell -ExecutionPolicy Bypass -File scripts\install-autostart.ps1

Drops a tiny launcher into your Startup folder (no admin needed). Manage it with scripts\stop-agent.ps1 and scripts\uninstall-autostart.ps1. Autostart runs after you log in, because input injection and screen capture need your interactive session.

Customization

Open the ⚙ Settings screen on the phone (or edit data/settings.json on the laptop — see docs/CONFIGURATION.md for every key):

Setting	What it does
Device name	Title shown in the app
Accent color	Theme, synced to every paired phone
Feature switches	Turn screen view / input / media / power / file browsing off entirely — enforced by the agent, not just hidden
Power permissions	Allow/deny sleep, shutdown, restart individually; shutdown grace period (0–60 s)
Custom shortcuts	Your own buttons on the Keyboard screen
Stream presets	fps / width / JPEG quality of the Low/Med/High screen presets (file only)
Port / bind address	settings.json or LC_PORT / LC_BIND env vars
Per-phone prefs	Haptics, natural scrolling, pointer speed (stored on the phone)

Security model

• Pairing is a random 256-bit token, generated on first run and embedded in the QR link. Every command requires it — over WebSocket (first message must authenticate, 3 s or the socket drops) and on the MJPEG stream. Token comparison is constant-time.
• Destructive actions (sleep/shutdown/restart) additionally require a confirm flag, must be enabled in settings, and shutdown/restart honor a grace period during which one tap aborts.
• Feature switches are enforced server-side: a disabled feature's commands are refused even if a client sends them.
• To re-pair from scratch (rotate the token), delete data/secret.json and restart.
• Transport is plain HTTP/WS on your LAN. That's fine for a home network you trust; for anything else use Tailscale, which encrypts end-to-end (WireGuard) and gives you a valid-HTTPS URL via MagicDNS. Never port-forward the agent to the open internet.

Use it from anywhere (remote access)

Out of the box LapDeck works on your local network — phone and laptop on the same Wi-Fi, nothing leaves your house.

Want to control the laptop from work, a friend's place, or another country? Install Tailscale (free for personal use) on the laptop and phone with the same account. That's the entire setup — no port forwarding, no dynamic DNS, no server to rent. Tailscale puts both devices on a private WireGuard-encrypted network, and LapDeck detects it automatically: the agent prints a second "remote" QR, and the UI's Remote access panel offers a one-tap switch plus an HTTPS URL (via MagicDNS/tailscale cert) that makes the PWA installable as a real app from anywhere.

Tailscale is entirely optional — LapDeck never needs the internet and has no cloud component. Any WireGuard/VPN setup that puts your phone on your home network works too; Tailscale is just the zero-config way. What you should not do is expose the agent's port directly to the internet — see the security model above.

Project layout

src/
  index.js        HTTP + WebSocket server, QR pairing
  settings.js     defaults + data/settings.json (the customization layer)
  config.js       pairing token, launcher entries
  auth.js         constant-time token guards
  router.js       command dispatch + feature-switch enforcement
  stream.js       shared MJPEG capture loop (nut.js + sharp)
  handlers/       one module per command namespace (apps, input, media, …)
  win/            all Windows-specific PowerShell/CLI helpers
public/           the phone PWA (vanilla HTML/CSS/JS)
scripts/          autostart install/stop/uninstall (PowerShell)
data/             created at runtime: token, settings, launcher (gitignored)

The full WebSocket protocol is documented in docs/PROTOCOL.md — it's deliberately simple JSON envelopes, so alternative clients (a native Android app, a CLI, an automation script) are easy to build.

FAQ

Why Windows-only? All the OS glue (volume, brightness, power, capture) lives behind src/win/. Ports to macOS/Linux are welcome — the protocol and UI are OS-agnostic.

Sleep hibernates instead? Windows quirk: if hibernation is enabled, SetSuspendState hibernates. powercfg /h off if you prefer S3 sleep.

Screen view shows the primary display only — multi-monitor selection is on the wishlist.

Does it work without internet? Yes — everything is LAN-local. Internet is only involved if you use Tailscale.

Contributing

Issues and PRs welcome — see CONTRIBUTING.md. Keep it dependency-light: plain modern JavaScript (ESM, Node ≥ 20), no TypeScript, no build step.

Found a security problem? Please report it privately — see SECURITY.md.

License

MIT © Ronak Parmar