Getting Started

Sortie is a self-hosted application launcher that gives your organization one portal to access every internal tool. Users browse a catalog, click launch, and get a running desktop app streamed to their browser — no local install required.

Core Concepts

Concept	What it is
App	An entry in the catalog. Can be a simple URL link, a Linux container streamed via VNC, or a Windows container streamed via RDP.
Session	A running instance of a container app. Sortie creates a Kubernetes pod, streams the desktop to the browser, and cleans up when the user is done.
User	An authenticated person with a role (admin or user). Admins manage the catalog, users launch apps.
Template	A pre-configured app definition from the built-in marketplace. Admins can add apps to the catalog in one click.

Quickstart

Prerequisites

• Go 1.24+, Node.js 22+, Make

Run locally (no Kubernetes needed for URL-type apps)

git clone https://github.com/rjsadow/sortie.git
cd sortie
cp .env.example .env          # edit to set SORTIE_JWT_SECRET
make dev                       # starts frontend (:5173) + backend (:8080)

Open http://localhost:5173, log in with the admin credentials from your .env, and start adding apps.

Run with Kubernetes (container apps)

# Local cluster with Kind
make kind

# Or deploy with Helm
helm install sortie charts/sortie \
  --namespace sortie --create-namespace \
  --set ingress.host=sortie.example.com

Docker

docker build -t sortie .
docker run -p 8080:8080 \
  -e SORTIE_JWT_SECRET=$(openssl rand -base64 32) \
  -e SORTIE_ADMIN_PASSWORD=changeme \
  sortie

How It Works

Browser ──▶ Sortie (Go server) ──▶ Kubernetes API
  │              │                       │
  │  static UI   │  REST API             │  creates pod +
  │  (React)     │  + WebSocket          │  VNC/RDP sidecar
  │              │                       │
  └──── noVNC / Guacamole stream ◀───────┘

1. User picks an app from the dashboard.
2. For URL apps, Sortie opens the link in a new tab.
3. For container apps, Sortie creates a Kubernetes pod with the app image and a VNC (Linux) or Guacamole/RDP (Windows) sidecar, then streams the desktop to the browser over WebSocket.
4. Sessions auto-expire after a configurable timeout (default 2 hours).

Tech Stack

Layer	Technology
Backend	Go, net/http, SQLite
Frontend	React, TypeScript, Tailwind CSS, Vite
Streaming	noVNC (Linux), Apache Guacamole (Windows)
Orchestration	Kubernetes, Helm
Auth	JWT (access + refresh tokens), bcrypt

Configuration

Copy .env.example and set the values for your environment. Key options:

Variable	Purpose	Default
SORTIE_PORT	Server port	8080
SORTIE_JWT_SECRET	Signing key for auth tokens	(required)
SORTIE_ADMIN_PASSWORD	Initial admin password	(required)
SORTIE_NAMESPACE	Kubernetes namespace for pods	sortie
SORTIE_SESSION_TIMEOUT	Session lifetime	120m

See .env.example for the full list.

Project Layout

main.go              Server entry point and HTTP routing
internal/
  config/            Configuration loading
  db/                SQLite database layer
  sessions/          Session lifecycle management
  recordings/        Session video recording
  k8s/               Kubernetes pod orchestration
  websocket/         VNC WebSocket proxy
  guacamole/         Guacamole WebSocket proxy
  middleware/        Auth and security middleware
  plugins/           Extensible plugin system
web/                 React frontend (Vite + TypeScript)
charts/sortie/       Helm chart
deploy/              Kubernetes manifests and Kind config