kevinbadi/hyperedit/kairos-dashboard

Launch the Kairos Dashboard

Kairos is the open-source CreatorOS agent harness (github.com/kevinbadi/kairos). Its dashboard is a zero-external-services local web app: it reads the Kairos repo's files, the agent activity log (logs/activity.jsonl), and the CreatorOS API with already-configured credentials. Missing credentials never crash it — you get a connect screen instead.

Prerequisites

• Node.js >= 20 (node --version).
• A Kairos checkout on this machine. Find it:

1. which kai — if the kai binary is on PATH (via npm link), Kairos is installed; kai dashboard works from anywhere.
2. Otherwise look for the repo folder (a package.json with "name": "kairos"). Common location: ~/Kairos Agent.
3. Neither? Clone it:

``sh git clone https://github.com/kevinbadi/kairos.git && cd kairos && npm install ``

Steps

1. Launch (from the Kairos repo root — dependencies auto-install via its prestart hook):

``sh npm run dashboard ` or, if kai is linked, from anywhere: `sh kai dashboard `` Run it in the background / a separate terminal — it's a long-running server, and blocking your own shell on it looks like a hang.

1. Open it: http://localhost:4180 — on macOS:

``sh open http://localhost:4180 ` Port taken or need a different one? Set KAIROS_DASHBOARD_PORT: `sh KAIROS_DASHBOARD_PORT=5000 npm run dashboard ``

1. If the dashboard shows a "connect" state instead of data: the CreatorOS API key isn't configured for Kairos. creatoros auth:check verifies the key works; then follow the dashboard's own connect instructions.

Judgment rules

• Don't kill an already-running dashboard to start another. If port 4180 is already serving (step check below), the dashboard is up — just open the URL.
• Never paste the API key into files or the URL. Credential setup goes through the tools' own config flows.
• An empty activity feed is not a bug — it means the agent hasn't logged actions yet (logs/activity.jsonl doesn't exist until the first run).

Verification

• Server is up: curl -s -o /dev/null -w "%{http_code}" http://localhost:4180 returns 200.
• Tell the human the URL (including the port if overridden) and that the server keeps running until they stop it (Ctrl-C in its terminal, or kill the process).