Universal AI IDE Companion &
Mobile Telemetry Bridge

PulseBridge is an open-source, ultra-low-latency remote companion and telemetry bridge designed specifically for AI IDEs including Google Antigravity, Cursor AI, and VS Code. Built in native Rust (Axum 0.7) and React 19, it captures the host desktop through native Win32 GDI (StretchBlt on the interactive desktop), JPEG-encodes frames, and serves them to mobile browsers from a 150 ms in-memory frame cache that sustains 75+ requests per second. It allows software engineers to monitor background coding agent execution, inspect live project files, scroll through source code via touch-drag gestures, and inject prompts or stop commands directly from a mobile phone over local Wi-Fi or 4G cellular tunnels.

PulseBridge natively supports Google Antigravity, Cursor AI, Visual Studio Code (VS Code), VS Code / Cline and Visual Studio. It automatically discovers active workspaces by scanning local file systems, including Google Antigravity session transcripts in `%USERPROFILE%\.gemini\antigravity\brain`, Cursor workspace storage, and VS Code user state, providing instant telemetry switching across your editor fleet.

Unlike traditional remote desktop tools (VNC, RDP) that introduce heavy GPU pipeline contention or complex video encoders, PulseBridge attaches to the interactive desktop (`OpenWindowStationA(WinSta0)` + `SetThreadDesktop`, with `SetProcessDPIAware()`), scales frames with hardware `StretchBlt` and encodes JPEGs in Rust. A 150 ms in-memory frame cache lets the daemon sustain 75+ requests per second under load without any dedicated GPU video encoder. Stream-quality profiles trade fidelity for bandwidth on weak cellular links.

When a user drags on the mobile viewport, touch coordinates are mapped with letterbox-aware aspect-ratio calibration and translated into native Windows `SendInput(MOUSEEVENTF_WHEEL)` events on the host. This behaves like an authentic desktop mouse wheel, so you can scroll through thousands of lines of code without unwanted text selection or misclicks. A 150% zoom pan mode and a spatial radar navigator help on dense layouts.

Software engineers frequently maintain dozens of historical repositories on their local workstations. When accessing their environment remotely on a mobile screen, navigating hundreds of stale directories is inefficient. PulseBridge implements an automated recency filter that indexes only workspaces modified within the last 7 to 30 days. It renders a clean depth-2 file tree displaying active files, git status, and file sizes, allowing you to focus on currently running agent tasks.

PulseBridge exposes an authenticated command channel. When you submit a prompt, the host attaches to the interactive desktop thread (`AttachThreadInput`), focuses the IDE prompt box, injects the text through a `CF_UNICODETEXT` clipboard buffer and submits with hardware scancodes. Alternatively you can queue prompts to the agent inbox (`.inbox/prompt_queue.json`). Mobile hotkeys include `Ctrl+C` to abort a running task, and optional shell runbooks are opt-in via `--enable-shell-commands` and restricted to an allowlist (`git`, `cargo`, `npm`, `pnpm`, `yarn`, `pytest`).

PulseBridge enforces strict Zero-Trust authentication with PIN and Bearer-token verification. Every action and ingest route (`/api/action/*`, `/api/ingest/*`) and the WebSocket handshake require a verified token (unauthenticated sockets are dropped after 15 s), PIN checks use a constant-time comparison, and brute-force protection keys on the physical TCP socket peer (5 failures trigger a 300 s lockout). CORS is restricted to loopback, your LAN IP and verified Cloudflare tunnels, and the mobile client scrubs `?pin=` / `?token=` from the address bar immediately. Tokens persist across server restarts and are never sent to external telemetry. See SECURITY.md in the repository.

PulseBridge does not bundle a tunnel; you start one and point it at the daemon port. Documented options are Cloudflare Quick Tunnel (cloudflared tunnel --url http://localhost:8080, TLS end to end), LocalTunnel, SSH reverse forwarding, and Tailscale / WireGuard for a private mesh VPN with no public ports. The server accepts verified trycloudflare.com origins in its CORS policy and supports dual QR pairing for local Wi-Fi and WAN. Requests over a tunnel still need the session PIN and token.

No. PulseBridge is 100% self-hosted and zero-telemetry. All screen capture, file indexing, and prompt routing occurs strictly between your local Windows host and your mobile phone over direct LAN Wi-Fi or your private end-to-end encrypted Cloudflare tunnel. No third party, including Infinity AI or Cloudflare, has access to your unencrypted code buffers or LLM prompts.

PulseBridge runs on 64-bit Windows 10 and Windows 11. It is a Rust (Axum 0.7) native server with a React 19 PWA and an MCP server, and needs no Python runtime. You need a Wi-Fi or Ethernet connection and a phone browser. Building from source requires the Rust `msvc` toolchain. macOS and Linux are covered by the multi-OS architecture specification (ARCHITECTURE.md) but are not shipped yet.

The host reuses a 150 ms frame cache instead of re-capturing for every client request, and the Hardware Health HUD shows live workstation CPU, RAM and battery/power state so you can see the cost yourself. Stream-quality profiles reduce bandwidth on cellular, and the PWA uses background Web Push so the phone does not have to stay awake. Exact CPU and memory figures depend on your machine, so measure on your own hardware.

Run the included launcher (scripts/start-bridge.bat or scripts/start-bridge.ps1). It prints your host LAN IP, port 8080, a session PIN and an ASCII QR code, and the server can also render SVG QR codes for pairing. Scan the QR code, or open http://<LAN IP>:8080 and enter the PIN; the client then scrubs the PIN and token from the address bar. Tap Add to Home Screen for a full-screen PWA with no app store.

ask_phone is a Model Context Protocol tool exposed by the PulseBridge MCP server. An AI agent calls it with a question and a list of choices (for example Deploy to Prod, Run Tests First, Cancel). PulseBridge renders them as one-tap decision chips in the mobile chat stream, fires an instant push alert with haptic feedback, and returns your selection to the agent so it can continue. The MCP server also provides notify_phone, update_task_status and check_phone_inbox.

A Security and Governance audit led to: authentication on every action route (CWE-306), opt-in allowlisted shell execution instead of arbitrary PowerShell (CWE-78), rate limiting keyed on the real socket peer instead of the spoofable X-Forwarded-For header (CWE-290), restricted CORS (CWE-942), token-verified WebSockets (CWE-287), in-memory URL credential scrubbing (CWE-598) and honest transport labelling (CWE-319): plain HTTP/WS on a trusted LAN and TLS via Cloudflare Quick Tunnel over 4G. Severities range from Critical (CVSS 9.8) down to Low (3.1), and an adversarial penetration suite plus unit tests ship with the repository.

Yes. The PWA supports background Web Push notifications, workstation clipboard sync, hands-free Web Speech dictation for prompts, harmonic audio chimes, haptic vibration on milestones and approval requests, and a Hardware Health HUD for workstation CPU, RAM and power state.