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Graphical User Interface (GUI)

Rocketdoo ships a web-based Graphical User Interface that lets you manage your entire Odoo development environment from a browser — no Docker commands required.

Rebuilt in 3.5. A permanent top bar that always names the active project, grouped sidebar navigation, a new Projects screen, a light theme that meets WCAG AA contrast, and a Spanish/English switch. Since 3.4 the API also requires a session token — see The session token, because it changes how you open the GUI.

Starting the GUI

Launch the GUI from your project directory:

rkd gui

Rocketdoo prints the URL you have to open. It carries a session token, and without it the GUI shows you nothing but a notice asking for one:

  Open this URL (it carries the session token):

  http://127.0.0.1:8070/?token=B0aITaQp0PaUQLodowmXCFGafXJtabZZQr-twSnxNIs

Press Ctrl+C in the terminal to stop the server.

Options

Option Description Default
--port Port to run the GUI server on 8070
--host Host address to bind 127.0.0.1
--open Open the browser automatically on that exact URL false
--cwd Project directory (if different from current) current dir

Examples:

rkd gui --port 9090             # Custom port
rkd gui --open                  # Open the browser on the tokenised URL
rkd gui --cwd /path/to/project  # Specific project directory

The session token

Every rkd gui run generates a fresh token that lives only in the server's memory. The API (/api/* and /ws/*) rejects any request that does not carry it: 401 over HTTP, and the socket is closed for WebSockets. Three consequences worth knowing:

  • Browsing to http://localhost:8070 on its own no longer gets you a working GUI. The page itself still loads — /, /health and the SPA are exempt — but every call for data is refused, so it shows Session token required instead of failing silently. Use the printed URL, or --open.
  • Restarting rkd gui invalidates the previous token. Old tabs stop working; reopen the new URL.
  • The token travels as a query parameter, so it can end up in your browser history. The full threat model is in SECURITY.md.

Interface overview

GUI dashboard

Three parts are always on screen:

  • The top bar names the active project and shows a pill with how many containers are running (3 of 3 active), plus Open Odoo, the language switch and the theme switch. The full project path is in the tooltip of the project name.
  • The sidebar groups the ten screens into Project (Projects, Dashboard, Setup), Environment (Containers, Modules, Instances, Services) and Publish (Deploy, Pack), with a counter next to Containers, Modules and Instances. Help sits on its own at the bottom. The Working dir pill at the top is also the shortcut back to Projects.
  • The main area holds the screen you selected.

Language and theme

Two buttons in the top bar:

  • ES / EN switches the whole interface between Spanish and English. With no saved choice it follows your browser language. What the GUI only relays is deliberately left untouched in either language: Docker logs, addon names and versions, container and image names, and the raw status from docker compose ps (Up 3 hours).
  • The sun/moon button switches between the light and dark theme. With no saved choice it follows your operating system; once you press it, your choice persists across restarts. The screenshots on this page use the dark theme.

The screens

Projects

Projects screen

Find and move between Rocketdoo projects without restarting the server.

  • Active project directory — what every other screen is acting on; Change picks another.
  • Create new project — makes a directory and takes you straight to Setup.
  • Discover projects — scans a folder recursively and lists every Rocketdoo project it finds, each with its container count and an Open Project button — the one you are already on says Currently active instead.

Dashboard

Dashboard screen

The project at a glance: Odoo version, edition, PostgreSQL version, web port and Gitman shown as compact pills, then the service table, then the quick actions (Start All, Restart, Stop, Build, Down).

The screen shows a single primary action depending on state: Open Odoo in the top bar when the Odoo container is running, Start All on the screen itself when it is not.

Setup

Setup screen

The rkd scaffold and rkd init wizard, from the browser: template type, project name, Odoo version, edition, PostgreSQL version, restart policy, Odoo and VSCode debug ports, master password, SSH/private repos and Gitman repos. Two buttons run the steps — Run Scaffold and Initialize Project.

Containers

Containers screen

The same service table as the Dashboard. Each row carries its own start, stop, restart and logs buttons; logs stream live over a WebSocket.

At narrow widths (around 1100px) the table needs horizontal scrolling to reach the Actions column.

Modules

Modules screen

Everything about addons in one screen:

  • Local addons — every module under addons/, with its path, version, whether it is installable and, picking a database in the DB selector, whether it is installed in that database. The Update button per module runs the update with a live log.
  • Nested modules are found too: oca/web_responsive in the screenshot lives in a subdirectory, and since 3.5 Rocketdoo adds that subdirectory to Odoo's addons_path so it is actually reachable.
  • External repos (Gitman) — read and edit gitman.yaml and trigger a Docker rebuild.

Instances

Instances screen

A card per environment configured in .rkd/instance.yaml (stage, prod) with host, domain, Odoo version, deployment type and remote path, plus Deploy and a Dry run checkbox.

Services

Services screen

The optional local services, together:

  • Mailpit — the toggle enables or disables it, and the card reports the service state, the container, the SMTP port and the web UI port, with a button to open it.
  • Traefik — the current mode and whether the override file exists, with a mode selector (local HTTP / production HTTPS), the domain and Enable Traefik.

Deploy

Deploy screen

Deploy modules to the targets configured in .rkd/deploy.yaml, with Validate Modules, Deploy and a Dry run checkbox — the GUI equivalent of rkd deploy run.

Pack

Pack screen

Package the environment to share it (rkd pack) choosing whether to include the database backup, the output path and the database name, or restore one you received with Configure & Unpack.

Help

Help screen

A reference for every GUI feature next to its CLI equivalent, so moving between the two is a lookup, not a guess.

Notes

  • The GUI drives your local Docker engine through the CLI — Docker has to be running for the container actions to work.
  • Log streaming uses WebSockets; keep the tab open while you follow logs.
  • No internet access is needed: everything runs locally.
  • Changes made from the GUI (Mailpit, Traefik, Gitman) land in your project files right away (docker-compose.yaml, odoo.conf, gitman.yaml, .rkd/traefik.yaml).
  • Since 3.2 the API only accepts browser requests from the GUI's own origin — the host and port it was started on, so --port and --host keep working. Earlier versions accepted any origin: while rkd gui was running, any page you visited could list your filesystem and stop your containers. Binding to 127.0.0.1 was never protection against that, since the request comes from your own browser. Upgrade if you use the GUI.
  • rkd gui --host 0.0.0.0 is not the recommended setup. Exposed that way the token is the only barrier left, and it travels over plain HTTP.