# shepherd-launcher A child-friendly, parent-guided launcher for Wayland, allowing supervised access to applications and content that you define. Its primary goal is to return control of child-focused computing to parents, not software or hardware vendors, by providing: * the ease-of-use of game consoles * access to any application that can be run, emulated, or virtualized in desktop Linux * with granular access controls inspired by and exceeding those in iOS Screen Time While this repository provides some examples for existing software packages (including non-free software and abandonware), `shepherd-launcher` is *non-prescriptive*: as the end user, you are free to use them, not use them, or write your own. ## Screenshots ### Home screen `shepherd-launcher` presents a list of activities for the user to pick from. ![Home screen at 3:00 PM showing the following set of activities: Tux Math, Putt Putt Joins the Circus, Secret of Monkey Island, GCompris, Minecraft, Celeste, A Short Hike, Big Buck Bunny, and Lofi Beats.](./docs/readme/home-normal.png) The flow of manually opening and closing activities should be familiar. ["Happy path" demo showing home screen --> GCompris --> home screen](https://github.com/user-attachments/assets/1aed2040-b381-4022-8353-5ce076b1eee0) Activities can be made selectively available at certain times of day. ![Home screen at 9:00 PM showing Lofi Beats as the only available activity.](./docs/readme/home-bedtime.png) This example, shown at 9 PM, has limited activities as a result. ### Time limits Activities can have configurable time limits, including: * individual session length * total usage per day * cooldown periods before that particular activity can be restarted [TuxMath session shown about to expire, including warnings and automatic termination](https://github.com/user-attachments/assets/541aa456-ef7c-4974-b918-5b143c5304c3) ### Anything on Linux If it can run on Linux in *any way, shape, or form*, it can be supervised by `shepherd-launcher`. !["Big Buck Bunny" hosted within shepherd-launcher UI](./docs/readme/apps-media.jpg) > [Big Buck Bunny](https://peach.blender.org/) playing locally via `mpv` !["Putt Putt Joins the Circus" hosted within shepherd-launcher UI](./docs/readme/apps-puttputt.png) > [Putt Putt Joins the Circus](https://humongous.fandom.com/wiki/Putt-Putt_Joins_the_Circus) > running via [ScummVM](https://www.scummvm.org/) !["The Secret of Monkey Island" hosted within shepherd-launcher UI](./docs/readme/apps-monkey.png) > [The Secret of Monkey Island](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Secret_of_Monkey_Island) > running via [ScummVM](https://www.scummvm.org/) ![Minecraft hosted within shepherd-launcher UI](./docs/readme/apps-minecraft.jpg) > [Minecraft](https://www.minecraft.net/) running via the > [mc-installer Snap](https://snapcraft.io/mc-installer) ![Celeste hosted within shepherd-launcher UI](./docs/readme/apps-celeste.png) > [Celeste](https://www.celestegame.com/) running via Steam ![A Short Hike hosted within shepherd-launcher UI](./docs/readme/apps-ashorthike.png) > [A Short Hike](https://ashorthike.com/) running via Steam Contributions are welcome for improvements and not yet implemented backends, such as: * Content-aware media player with supervised libraries [TODO: link to issue] * Pre-booted Steam to improve launch time [TODO: link to issue] * Android apps via Waydroid, including pre-booting Android if necessary [TODO: link to issue] * Legacy Win9x via DOSBox, QEMU, or PCem, including scripts to create a boot-to-app image [TODO: link to issue] * Chrome, including strict sandboxing and support for firewall rules [TODO: link to issue] * Awareness of whether an Internet connection is available, and an availability rule that gates activities based on this [TODO: link to issue] * Porting to other *host* platforms, such as a Microsoft Windows shell replacement or macOS kiosk via MDM. `shepherd-launcher` is architected such that `shepherdd`, the core enforcement service, does not render any UI and performs platform-specific functions like process management in platform-specific crates. ## Core concepts * **Launcher-first**: only one foreground activity at a time * **Time-scoped execution**: applications are granted time slices, not unlimited sessions * **Parent-defined policy**: rules live outside the application being run * **Wrappers, not patches**: existing software is sandboxed, not modified * **Revocable access**: sessions end predictably and enforceably ## Non-goals * Modifying or patching third-party applications * Circumventing DRM or platform protections * Replacing parental involvement with automation ## Installation `shepherd-launcher` is pre-alpha and in active development. As such, end-user binaries and installation instructions are not yet available. See [CONTRIBUTING.md](./CONTRIBUTING.md) for how to run in development. Contributions are welcome for: * a CI step that generates production binaries [TODO: link to issue] * an installation script [TODO: link to issue] ## Example configuration All behavior shown above is driven entirely by declarative configuration. For the Minecraft example shown above: ```toml # Minecraft via mc-installer snap # Ubuntu: sudo snap install mc-installer [[entries]] id = "minecraft" label = "Minecraft" icon = "minecraft" [entries.kind] type = "snap" snap_name = "mc-installer" [entries.availability] [[entries.availability.windows]] days = "weekdays" start = "15:00" end = "18:00" [[entries.availability.windows]] days = "weekends" start = "10:00" end = "20:00" [entries.limits] max_run_seconds = 1800 # 30 minutes (roughly 3 in-game days) daily_quota_seconds = 3600 # 1 hour per day cooldown_seconds = 600 # 10 minute cooldown [[entries.warnings]] seconds_before = 600 severity = "info" message = "10 minutes left - start wrapping up!" [[entries.warnings]] seconds_before = 120 severity = "warn" message = "2 minutes remaining - save your game!" [[entries.warnings]] seconds_before = 30 severity = "critical" message = "30 seconds! Save NOW!" ``` See [config.example.toml](./config.example.toml) for more. ## Development See [CONTRIBUTING.md](./CONTRIBUTING.md) ## Written in 2025, responsibly This project stands on the shoulders of giants in systems software and compatibility infrastructure: * Wayland and Sway * Rust * Snap * Proton and WINE This project was written with the assistance of generative AI-based coding agents. Substantial prompts and design docs provided to agents are disclosed in [docs/ai](./docs/ai/).