A small, single-operator application on the existing OpenWorker server API. Submit tasks, stream progress, answer questions/approvals, cancel, and explicitly save a completed assistant response as a durable downloadable Markdown artifact. There is no second agent loop, database adapter, or tool execution in this app.

The dependency-free Node backend holds an owned-scope operator key with an explicit environment grant. It refuses administrator/observer/all-scope keys. The browser authenticates with a separate workspace access key and receives an HttpOnly, SameSite cookie. Exact Host/Origin checks, route allowlisting, body/ connection bounds, inert artifact downloads and a restrictive CSP apply. Keys are never browser configuration, URLs or command-line arguments. Trusted custom API CAs can be supplied with NODE_EXTRA_CA_CERTS; verification is not disabled.

Run

Node 20.19+ (or current supported LTS). No npm install/build step is needed. Create a private JSON config outside version control:

{
  "apis": ["https://harness.internal.example"],
  "api_token_file": "/private/task-desk-operator",
  "access_key_file": "/private/task-desk-access",
  "environment_id": "env_CONFIGURED",
  "coworker": "assistant-example",
  "workspace": "/sandbox",
  "port": 54350,
  "mode": "live"
}

node harness/task-desk/server.mjs /private/task-desk.json

Open http://127.0.0.1:54350 and enter the access key. HTTP upstream APIs are allowed only on explicit loopback IPs. Default app binding is loopback; keep it there for a kubectl port-forward pod/... 54350:54350 private deployment. An explicit private_network: true permits all-interface binding behind a trusted proxy. Such deployments must configure an exact https://... origin and TLS at the proxy; this flag is not permission to publish an unauthenticated service.

For the existing dedicated local Helm fixture, resume its backing services and harness, port-forward its API to localhost:9443, then:

node harness/task-desk/local.mjs
NODE_EXTRA_CA_CERTS=.ow-helm/private/api.ca.crt node harness/task-desk/server.mjs .ow-helm/task-desk/config.json

The setup tool creates only the app's owned-scope operator and separate browser key. An exact setup retry returns the original credential, not a new identity. This fixture uses a deterministic model, visibly labelled in the UI. Real MCP tools still execute inside OpenShell. It is not live-model quality evidence.

Qualified local live workspace

The 2026-10-11 experiment also qualified a separate live Sol principal on the same dedicated local stack, without resetting earlier session/history data. Its config is .ow-helm/task-desk/live-config.json; its browser access key is .ow-helm/task-desk/access. Keep both private; do not paste keys into chat. After resuming the existing backing services/harness, restart the API tunnel and app in separate terminals:

kubectl --kubeconfig /absolute/path/to/test.kubeconfig --context YOUR_TEST_CONTEXT -n ow-helm-eval port-forward service/ow-openworker 9443:443 --address 127.0.0.1
NODE_EXTRA_CA_CERTS=.ow-helm/private/api.ca.crt node harness/task-desk/server.mjs .ow-helm/task-desk/live-config.json

These paths are this development machine's fixture, not portable installation defaults. local-live.mjs is an explicit, scoped promotion helper: provider key on stdin, model Secret only in workers, no automatic secret discovery. It has already run for this workspace; normal restart does not require re-running it. Do not regenerate Helm fixtures, which would replace saved live settings. Local certificates expire after 30 days. The shared sandbox remains mutually trusted, not per-user isolation. Live model calls incur provider charges when used.

Cloud deployment and measured results are documented in deploy/aws/README.md and the server journal.

Reliability and tests

Browser submissions retain their original IDs/payloads across response loss or reload. Unknown mutation outcomes are not automatically replayed with new IDs. Controls carry the snapshot's exact four identity/policy digests. SSE reconnects with its cursor; snapshots remain authoritative. Saving a response uses a stable per-turn artifact request and SHA-256 over the actual assistant text. It does not claim to publish workspace files or interpret a model-written path on the host.

node --test harness/task-desk/server.test.mjs
OW_PLAYWRIGHT_MODULE=/absolute/path/to/playwright/index.mjs node harness/task-desk/qualify.mjs

Browser qualification uses the real local TLS API/PostgreSQL/OpenShell/S3 stack: submit, restore a pending approval after reload, Allow Once, completion, publish/ download/reload, cancel a waiting turn, and desktop/mobile layout checks. Evidence is saved privately under .ow-helm/task-desk/. Seven backend tests cover scope, CSRF/Host, route restrictions, exact session parameters, unknown outcomes, artifact content and logout interrupting a stream.

Deliberate limits

One operator workspace, not user/tenant identity or SSO. All users with the access key share its principal. The example shared sandbox is for mutually trusted tasks only; it does not isolate sessions from each other's files.
Browser cookies are in-memory, so app restart requires sign-in again; harness sessions, approvals and artifacts remain in PostgreSQL/S3. Run one app replica.
Outstanding browser intents are local to that browser; no offline submission daemon. Don't clear browser storage to hide an uncertain outcome.
API GET failover is allowed; mutations have no automatic network retry.
Saved results are assistant responses, not automatically collected workspace files. Cancellation is not a promise to undo or kill already-started effects.
No public hosting, live provider key, AWS deployment or production-readiness claim is implied by the local qualification.