vera-rubin-bridge

WebRTC bridge for the Vera Rubin Observatory Explorer. It connects telescope control or local AI analysis to the web app with a pairing code. Works over any network; no port forwarding required.

Prerequisites

Node.js 22.4 or later is required.

• macOS: brew install node (install Homebrew first if needed)
• Windows / Linux: download from nodejs.org

Prebuilt WebRTC support is included for macOS (Apple Silicon and Intel), Linux (ARM64 and x64), and Windows x64.

Telescope quick start

npx vera-rubin-bridge@latest

A 10-character pairing code is displayed in the terminal. Enter it in the web app under Observe → Telescope Control → WebRTC Bridge.

On the first run, npx may ask for permission to install the package. That confirmation is normal. Bridge 0.4.9 and later install without the deprecated WebRTC dependencies used by earlier releases.

Local AI quick start

Run this on the computer where Codex, Claude Code, or Gemini CLI is installed:

npx vera-rubin-bridge@latest --agent

A 10-character pairing code is displayed in the terminal. Enter it in the Vera app under Analyze → AI Analysis. Keep the terminal open while analysis is running.

Choose Codex, Claude, or Gemini in the Vera AI Analysis card before pairing. The terminal command does not need a provider flag for normal use.

Options

| Flag | Default | Description | |------|---------|-------------| | --port <n> | 32330 | ASCOM Alpaca port | | --stellarium <port> | — | Use Stellarium Remote Control instead of ASCOM | | --agent | — | Run local AI analysis bridge instead of telescope bridge | | --provider <codex\|claude\|gemini> | app choice | Optional fallback when the browser does not send a provider choice | | --model <name> | — | Optional model name passed to the local AI CLI |

Examples:

npx vera-rubin-bridge@latest --port 11111
npx vera-rubin-bridge@latest --stellarium 8090
npx vera-rubin-bridge@latest --agent
npx vera-rubin-bridge@latest --agent --model <model-name>

Supported backends

• ASCOM Alpaca (default) — NINA, Sequence Generator Pro, any ASCOM-compatible software
• Stellarium Remote Control — desktop planetarium with Remote Control plugin enabled
• INDI via indi-alpaca bridge — StellarMate, Astroberry, Raspberry Pi setups

ASIair Pro/Plus: Does not support direct connection — use the Export Target → ASIair CSV export in the web app instead, then import in the ZWO ASIair app under Plan → Import.

Publishing

Package and publish only through the verified release commands. They build in an isolated staging directory and reject any platform-specific binary in the tarball.

npm run pack:verified
npm run publish:verified -- --dry-run
npm run publish:verified

Direct npm pack and npm publish are intentionally blocked.