Web dashboard

Run the React web UI for chat, skills, and status — with session history stored in Arka.

Experimental / local only. The web/ frontend is not published on PyPI and is intentionally not tracked in git (buggy WIP). Use the CLI and MCP for hackathon demos and daily use. This page is for contributors running the UI from a local checkout only.

The web dashboard is a React app under web/ in the repo. It talks to your local Arka instance through a small Python bridge that adds CORS, route preview, capabilities, doctor checks, and session history endpoints.

Prerequisites

1. Arka remote server — executes chat commands:

arka serve

Default URL: http://127.0.0.1:8765. Set REMOTE_TOKEN in .env and paste the same token into the dashboard sidebar (or set VITE_ARKA_TOKEN for dev).

2. Bridge server — local HTTP proxy with extra endpoints:

cd web
python3 bridge.py

Default URL: http://127.0.0.1:8766

Development

Terminal 1 — keep arka serve running, then start the bridge:

cd web
python3 bridge.py

Terminal 2 — Vite dev server (proxies /v1/* to the bridge):

cd web
npm install
npm run dev

Open http://localhost:5173.

Screens

Screen	Endpoint	Notes
Chat	POST /v1/agent	Proxied to arka serve; route preview from local /v1/route
Skills	GET /v1/capabilities	Lists dispatch modules from src/arka/agent/
Status	GET /v1/health + GET /v1/doctor	Health from remote; doctor runs in-process

Session history

Chat turns are stored in Arka’s message sessions under channel web and a per-browser chat_id (saved in localStorage as arka.chatId).

arka session list
arka session resume web <chat-id>
arka session reset web <chat-id>

arka “Bridge endpoints:“

arka “Method”	arka “Path”	arka “Purpose”
GET	/v1/sessions/resume?channel=web&chat_id=…	arka “Load conversation for the dashboard”
POST	/v1/sessions/reset	arka “Clear a web session”
POST	/v1/agent	arka “Run command and auto-push user/assistant turns”

Files live under ~/.config/arka/message-sessions/ (or MESSAGE_SESSIONS_DIR).

Production preview

cd web
npm run build
python3 bridge.py

The bridge serves the built app from dist/ on port 8766.

Environment

Variable	Default	Purpose
ARKA_BACKEND_URL	http://127.0.0.1:8765	Remote server for agent/health
ARKA_BRIDGE_PORT	8766	Bridge listen port
REMOTE_TOKEN / ARKA_BACKEND_TOKEN	—	Auth for /v1/agent
VITE_ARKA_TOKEN	—	Optional dev token in the frontend
ARKA_WALKTHROUGH_URL	http://127.0.0.1:5173	URL for dashboard walkthrough capture

Output viewer (lightweight)

For rendering arbitrary JSON, CSV, markdown, or text — without the React dashboard — use the Output viewer:

arka output show data.json
arka output serve --open

This is the recommended way to preview agent output, exports, and tabular data locally.

CLI helpers

arka backend status
arka backend ask "what can you do?"
arka capture video --walkthrough

See Browser video capture for walkthrough recordings.

Troubleshooting

arka “Symptom”	arka “Fix”
arka “Chat returns 401”	Paste REMOTE_TOKEN from .env into Settings
arka “History empty after refresh”	Restart bridge (python3 bridge.py) — old bridge lacked session routes
arka “Bridge port in use”	lsof -i :8766 then stop the old process
backend status connection refused	Run arka serve first