GreenLight DashBoard is a desktop app, but the same boards, media and editors also open in a browser — on an iPad, an iPhone, an Android device or another computer. This page covers the two ways to do that, the Web version window that sets them up, and how the board and the editors work with touch and Apple Pencil.
Two ways to use the app in a browser
| Local network | Your own GreenLight Dash Server | |
|---|---|---|
| What it is | This computer serves the app to your other devices over your Wi-Fi. | The app runs on a Linux server you control, reachable from anywhere. |
| Where your boards live | On this computer. The tablet is a window onto it. | On the server’s disk. |
| Needs | The desktop app running on the same Wi-Fi. | A host such as Railway or a VPS with Docker. |
| Set up in | Web version ▸ Local network | Web version ▸ Host your own |
Both open the same web build of the app, so the tablet and phone layouts described below apply to both.
The Web version window
Click the globe button in the header (Web version; in a narrow window it is in the More (⋯) menu). The window has four tabs:
- Sync with web — move items between this desktop board and a board on your server. See Sync with a Web Board.
- Host your own — step-by-step setup for a GreenLight Dash Server.
- Local network — use this app from a tablet or phone on your Wi-Fi.
- Agents & API — how external agents and HTTP clients use your server.
The right end of the tab row shows the server you are connected to, or “No server connected”. Once a server is connected, the globe button in the header is highlighted.
The Web version window belongs to the desktop app; a GreenLight Dash Server does not show it. Sync with web and Local network work only from the desktop app itself.
Use the app on your tablet or phone
Web version ▸ Local network turns this computer into a secure (HTTPS) server for the other devices on your Wi-Fi. The full app opens on the tablet or phone, on the same boards with the same media. Nothing is copied to the device: a photo you add on the tablet is uploaded and saved on this computer, in the board’s media folder, as if you had dragged it in here. iPhone and iPad photos in HEIC format are converted to JPEG on import, turned the right way up.
Start sharing
- On the computer, open Web version ▸ Local network and click Start sharing.
- On the tablet or phone, scan the QR code with the camera (“Scan with the device’s camera”). This opens the setup page, Use GreenLight Dash on this device.
- Tap 1 Download certificate and follow the steps the page shows for your device (see below).
- Tap 2 Open GreenLight Dash. The device is paired and the app opens.
The window also shows the addresses:
- First time on a device — open this — the setup page, for a device that cannot scan the code.
- Afterwards, the app lives at — the address to bookmark, by IP address (for example
https://192.168.1.20:18443). On a Mac a second address with the computer’s.localname is shown too; it works from Apple devices and most desktops and survives a change of IP address. - Other addresses — when the computer is on more than one network, try these if the first one does not load.
Sharing is off until you turn it on. It stops when the app quits, and comes back on at the next launch if it was on when you quit. Stop sharing turns it off at any time.
Install the certificate
The app signs its own certificate, and each device installs it once so the connection is encrypted. The setup page shows the steps for the device you open it on:
| Device | Steps |
|---|---|
| iPhone or iPad | Tap Allow to download the profile (if it just downloads, open it from Safari’s download arrow or Files ▸ Downloads). Open Settings, tap Profile Downloaded (or Settings ▸ General ▸ VPN & Device Management ▸ GreenLight Dash Local CA) and tap Install. Then switch it on under Settings ▸ General ▸ About ▸ Certificate Trust Settings — a separate step that is easy to miss. |
| Android | Open the downloaded file from the notification or Files / Downloads. If nothing happens, install it under Settings ▸ Security & privacy ▸ More security settings ▸ Encryption & credentials ▸ Install a certificate ▸ CA certificate, then tap Install anyway. |
| Windows | Open the downloaded file, click Install Certificate ▸ Current User, place it in Trusted Root Certification Authorities, click Finish, then restart the browser. |
| Mac | Open the downloaded file in Keychain Access, double-click GreenLight Dash Local CA under login, expand Trust and set When using this certificate to Always Trust. |
The certificate is created by the app on your computer and never leaves your network: nothing is uploaded, no account is involved, and it works with no internet connection. It only lets the device recognise your computer; it grants no access to the device and can be removed at any time. The window shows its SHA-256 fingerprint under About the certificate.
Pairing and devices
Scanning the QR code pairs the device automatically. If you typed the address by hand, the device asks for the six-digit Pairing code shown in the window. A code pairs one device and lasts ten minutes; New code makes a fresh one.
A paired device stays paired for 30 days. Paired devices lists each one with when it was last seen; Revoke signs it out.
Ports and firewalls
Sharing uses port 18443 for the app and 18080 for the setup page. If another program already uses one of them, sharing cannot start: click Change under Ports, enter two different ports between 1024 and 65535 and click Apply & restart. Every device then has to scan again, because the addresses change.
On Windows, allow GreenLight DashBoard on private networks when Windows Firewall asks. With another firewall, allow inbound TCP on both ports.
Host your own server
A GreenLight Dash Server is the same boards, media and video editor opened from a browser on a Linux server you control: one owner per installation, your data on your disk, and AI agents working in the same workspace through the API. Web version ▸ Host your own is the setup guide.
What a server needs: 2 vCPU and 4 GB of memory (8 GB for heavy renders), 5 GB of disk to start, a linux/amd64 host for the 4.3 GB image, and TLS (HTTPS) in front. Hosts without a long-running process and a disk — Vercel, Netlify, Cloudflare Pages or Workers, GitHub Pages, shared PHP hosting — cannot run it.
Pick a host in the window:
- Railway (Recommended) — one click from the template, nothing to install. The window’s steps: Create account (the link gives you $20 in credits), then Deploy on Railway, which pre-fills the image, a 5 GB volume at
/data, the health check and the variables. The owner password is generated for you; read or change it under the service’s Variables ▸GL_AUTH_PASSWORD(8 characters or more) and redeploy. Optional steps cover growing the volume later and adding a second domain for HTML card isolation (GL_PREVIEW_ORIGIN). - Linux VPS + Docker — Hetzner, DigitalOcean, Linode, OVH and similar, with Docker Compose and Caddy for TLS. The cheapest and fastest option for heavy rendering. The window gives copyable commands, with the image tag pinned to your desktop app’s version, including how to store the owner password as a hash, back up and upgrade.
- Coolify · Dokploy · Fly.io · Render — import the Compose file, or deploy the image with a persistent disk at
/data.
Full docs on GitHub and Hosting guides at the bottom of the tab open the full hosting documentation.
Once the server runs
- Open its address in a browser and sign in with the owner password.
- Open Settings with the API Keys button and go to the Server tab. This server shows its mode, version, licence, whether it can render, and whether the agent API is on.
- Under Agent tokens, create a token for your desktop app (for example “My desktop”): type a name and the owner password and click Create. The token is shown once — copy it.
- In the desktop app, click Connect a server at the bottom of Host your own (or open Sync with web) and paste the address and token.
The server has the same licence and PRO gates as the desktop app; rendering on the server is not gated. When a newer server version is out, the owner sees an Update badge in the header with the upgrade steps: back up first, point your deployment at the new version tag, and restart (or redeploy on a managed platform).
Live links and collaboration work on a server too, with your own Cloudflare account entered in its settings.
Agents and the API
Web version ▸ Agents & API explains how agents work with a server. The browser has no terminal, so in the web version the GLAI (board) and GLEA (video editor and mockups) menus in the header open a connection window instead: pick Claude Code, Codex, Antigravity CLI or OpenCode, and it creates an API token and shows one copyable block to run on your own computer. That block points the bundled greenlight-dash skill at your server, downloads it and starts the agent — the same skill the desktop app ships, covering boards, elements, media, video projects and rendering.
Any HTTP client can use the same API with an Authorization: Bearer token; long operations run as jobs. Tokens are listed and revoked in the web version under Settings ▸ Server ▸ Agent tokens. See Using the Board with External Agents and the API Reference.
Tablets and phones
The desktop app never changes its layout. In a browser the app adapts to the device:
- Tablets in landscape (a touch screen at least 901 px wide, such as an iPad) keep the desktop layout, with touch added.
- Phones and narrow tablets (900 px or less) get a compact header — a view menu for Canvas, Editor and Mockups, and a More (⋯) menu with Share board, Collaborate, Help & Resources, App settings, API Keys and the other header buttons — plus dedicated phone layouts for the editors.
Touch on the board
- One finger pans the empty canvas or drags a card; two fingers pinch to zoom.
- Hold still for about half a second to open the menu you would get with a right-click: the card menu, or the Add menu on empty canvas.
- Two quick taps count as a double-click: open a card in the lightbox or open a sub-board.
- The toolbar gains an Add (+) button with Choose photos or files and Paste clipboard.
- Video cards show their poster and a play button instead of decoding every clip at once. A video card’s play bar (play/pause, frame step, seek, mute, loop) shows whenever the card is selected or playing.
- HTML cards run their live page only while they are on screen and the board is still; while you pan they show a still picture.
Touch in the Video Editor
- A long press opens the same menus as a right-click, and two taps count as a double-click.
- Pinch the timeline to zoom it. Drag clips, keyframes, markers, splitters, the speed curve and the preview’s handles with a finger.
- Hold a media item, a preset or a clip to lift it, then drop it where you want it. A drop snaps to clip edges and the playhead with a guide line.
- The trim grip at each end of a layer reaches about 22 px on both sides of the edge, so a finger trims rather than pans or moves the layer.
- Drag the label of a number field (Opacity, Feather and so on) up or down to change the value without bringing up the keyboard.
- Screen Record is hidden on phones and tablets.
Masks and paths by finger
Mask and motion-path points get a larger grab area on touch, and the point you drag rides above your fingertip so you can see it, with a magnifier beside it. A long press on an anchor deletes it, a second tap on an anchor switches it between smooth and corner, and a still tap on the selected outline inserts a point. See Layer Masks.
Ripple editing on touch
On the desktop you hold R for ripple editing. On touch, a Ripple button latches the same mode: on a tablet it sits in the timeline toolbar next to the layer tools, and on a phone it is in the bottom tool bar right after Split. While ripple is on, trims, deletes and drops close the gap for later layers; the button and its notice pill turn amber and stay that way until you tap it off. See Timeline Workflow.
Apple Pencil
A pencil works like a finger — dragging layers, trimming, long-press menus, tapping to select — with two differences:
- It never pans. Drawn across empty timeline or empty board canvas, it sweeps out a selection box, so you can pick up a group of layers or cards.
- Your palm is ignored. While the pencil tip is down, a hand resting on the screen starts nothing. A pencil hovering above the screen does nothing either.
Text fields do not raise the iPadOS Passwords, Contacts or Credit Card AutoFill pop-over when you tap into them with the pencil.
Phone layouts
| View | On a phone |
|---|---|
| Video Editor | The preview fills the width above the timeline. The top bar has the name, undo, redo, Export and a ⋯ menu (Rename project, Save project, Switch project, Save as new project, Create new project, Remove project, Export project, Import project, Preview mode, Render size, Loop playback, Tidy the timeline, Compact channels, Navigator, Back to canvas). A bottom tool bar holds the timeline tools; with a layer selected it shows Split, Ripple, one button per inspector group and Delete, and the options open as a sheet from the bottom. |
| Mockup Builder | The 3D view fills the screen and turns with a finger. The options are a bottom sheet and the presets a drawer from the left edge. |
| Flipbook Builder | The viewport fills the screen, the inspector is a bottom sheet and the left rail a drawer. |
| HTML editor | The page is scaled to fit the width. A bottom tool bar opens the editor’s panels as one sheet; with an element selected it switches to that element’s Design, CSS, attribute and animation tabs. |
| Smart AI wizards | AI Shorts, AI Reframe, AI Beats, AI Sound Design and AI Transcribe open full screen; the results step has a Results / Options switch. |
What the web version can’t do
Some features need the desktop app because they reach your computer directly:
- Terminals. The agent terminals (GLAI, GLEA and their presets) run only in the desktop app. On a GreenLight Dash Server, the GLAI and GLEA menus connect an agent running on your own computer instead — see Agents and the API.
- Screen recording on phones and tablets.
- The Web version window — Sync with web and Local network run from the desktop app.
A GreenLight Dash Server also leaves out everything that would touch the server’s own files, programs or shell: board folders and Connected Folders, importing a folder from disk, the After Effects, Blender and DaVinci Resolve integrations, and the Telegram bot. It refuses to fetch private, loopback and cloud-metadata addresses.
Where to go next
- Sync with a Web Board — move items between the desktop and your server.
- Using the Board with External Agents — drive boards from any agent.
- Layer Masks — the mask editor that works by finger and pencil.
- System Requirements — what the desktop app needs.
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