GoDeskOpen Source Remote Management SuiteRemote support on your own infrastructure.
GoDesk is a self-hosted remote support solution: your own rendezvous server, your own relay, your own management server with web console. No third-party infrastructure, no dependency on a vendor.
Target picture of a remote session: motion costs bandwidth, a still screen does not. The indicator on the controlled machine always stays visible.
End-to-end encrypted
Without exception. There is no plaintext mode and no switch for one. Rendezvous server and relay only see ciphertext.
A still image costs nothing
If nothing changes on the remote screen, nothing is transmitted. Target below 5 kbit/s.
The person stays in control
A session indicator that cannot be suppressed and a local disconnect button are a precondition for the image stream, not a setting.
Direct whenever possible
ICE and QUIC for the direct connection, your own relay (TURN) as the fallback path. Planned: relay over port 443 and hardware encoding for a smooth image.
Multiple sessions
Planned: several connections at the same time, each in its own detachable tab.
Centrally managed
Accounts, devices and a tamper-evident audit in the management server, with web console and command-line tool. Policies will follow.
- 01
Register
Both machines register with your own rendezvous server using their device ID.
- 02
Direct path
Whenever possible, ICE and QUIC establish a direct connection.
- 03
Fallback
If that fails, the encrypted data stream runs through your own relay.
- 04
Session
The controlled machine shows the session at all times and can disconnect it at any moment.
godesk- Client for Windows and Debian, controls and is controlled
godesk-rendezvous- Rendezvous server for device IDs, connection setup and STUN
godesk-relay- Fallback path when no direct connection can be established
godesk-api- Management server with embedded web console, SQLite or MariaDB
godeskctl- Command-line tool for administration
- iOS
- Controlling client for iPhone and iPad, planned
Remote support without a third-party broker.
GoDesk is still in development. The goal is remote support where brokering, relay and management run entirely on your own servers, open source and without a license fee.
- Cloud remote support
- For example TeamViewer, AnyDesk or Splashtop. Connections there are usually brokered through the vendor’s infrastructure and licensing is mostly by subscription. With GoDesk, the rendezvous server and relay run on your side.
- RustDesk
- Also open source and self-hostable; RustDesk was the inspiration for GoDesk. GoDesk is a separate implementation in Go with its own protocol and its own management server, and deliberately not compatible with RustDesk clients.
- RDP or VNC
- Needs open ports or a VPN all the way to the target machine. GoDesk sets up the connection via your own rendezvous server, directly whenever possible, otherwise through your own relay.
GoDesk
- Source code open under AGPL-3.0
- Anyone who operates GoDesk as a service must disclose their changes
- No license fee, no device count
- Currently in development, source code on GitHub coming soon