cmux/daemon/remote

cmuxd-remote (Go)

Go remote daemon for cmux ssh bootstrap, capability negotiation, and remote proxy RPC. It is not in the terminal keystroke hot path.

Commands

1. cmuxd-remote version
2. cmuxd-remote serve --stdio
3. cmuxd-remote cli <command> [args...] — relay cmux commands to the local app over the reverse SSH forward

When invoked as cmux (via wrapper/symlink installed during bootstrap), the binary auto-dispatches to the cli subcommand. This is busybox-style argv[0] detection.

RPC methods (newline-delimited JSON over stdio)

1. hello
2. ping
3. proxy.open
4. proxy.close
5. proxy.write
6. proxy.stream.subscribe
7. async proxy.stream.data / proxy.stream.eof / proxy.stream.error events
8. session.open
9. session.close
10. session.attach
11. session.resize
12. session.detach
13. session.status

Current integration in cmux:

1. workspace.remote.configure now bootstraps this binary over SSH when missing.
2. Client sends hello before enabling remote proxy transport.
3. Local workspace proxy broker serves SOCKS5 + HTTP CONNECT and tunnels stream traffic through proxy.* RPC over serve --stdio, using daemon-pushed stream events instead of polling reads.
4. Daemon status/capabilities are exposed in workspace.remote.status -> remote.daemon (including session.resize.min).

workspace.remote.configure contract notes:

1. port / local_proxy_port accept integer values and numeric strings; explicit null clears each field.
2. Out-of-range values and invalid types return invalid_params.
3. local_proxy_port is an internal deterministic test hook used by bind-conflict regressions.
4. SSH option precedence checks are case-insensitive; user overrides for StrictHostKeyChecking and control-socket keys prevent default injection.

Distribution

Release and nightly builds publish prebuilt cmuxd-remote binaries on GitHub Releases for:

1. darwin/arm64
2. darwin/amd64
3. linux/arm64
4. linux/amd64

The app embeds a compact manifest in Info.plist with:

1. exact release asset URLs
2. pinned SHA-256 digests
3. release tag and checksums asset URL

Release and nightly apps download and cache the matching binary locally, verify its SHA-256, then upload it to the remote host if needed. Dev builds can opt into a local go build fallback with CMUX_REMOTE_DAEMON_ALLOW_LOCAL_BUILD=1.

To inspect what a given app build trusts, run:

1. cmux remote-daemon-status
2. cmux remote-daemon-status --os linux --arch amd64

The command prints the exact release asset URL, expected SHA-256, local cache status, and a copy-pasteable gh attestation verify command for the selected platform.

CLI relay

The cli subcommand (or cmux wrapper/symlink) connects to the local cmux app through an SSH reverse forward and relays commands. It supports both v1 text protocol and v2 JSON-RPC commands.

Socket discovery order:

1. --socket <path> flag
2. CMUX_SOCKET_PATH environment variable
3. ~/.cmux/socket_addr file (written by the app after the reverse relay establishes)

For TCP addresses, the CLI dials once and only refreshes ~/.cmux/socket_addr a single time if the first address was stale. Relay metadata is published only after the reverse forward is ready, so steady-state use does not rely on polling.

Authenticated relay details:

1. Each SSH workspace gets its own relay ID and relay token.
2. The app runs a local loopback relay server that requires an HMAC-SHA256 challenge-response before forwarding a command to the real local Unix socket.
3. The remote shell never gets direct access to the local app socket. It only gets the reverse-forwarded relay port plus ~/.cmux/relay/<port>.auth, which is written with 0600 permissions and removed when the relay stops.

Integration additions for the relay path:

1. Bootstrap installs ~/.cmux/bin/cmux wrapper and keeps a default daemon target (~/.cmux/bin/cmuxd-remote-current).
2. A background ssh -N -R process reverse-forwards a TCP port to the authenticated local relay server. The relay address is written to ~/.cmux/socket_addr on the remote.
3. Relay startup writes ~/.cmux/relay/<port>.daemon_path so the wrapper can route each shell to the correct daemon binary when multiple local cmux instances or versions coexist.
4. Relay startup writes ~/.cmux/relay/<port>.auth with the relay ID and token needed for HMAC authentication.