punktfunk/README.md

Low-latency desktop and game streaming with first-class Linux and Windows hosts.

Run the host on a Linux or Windows PC and stream your desktop or games to a Mac, PC, phone, tablet or TV. Each client gets its own virtual display at its own native resolution and refresh rate, so a laptop at 1080p60 and a TV at 4K can stream from one box at once without rearranging your real monitors.

📖 docs.punktfunk.unom.io — How it works · Quick start · Support matrix (what works where) · Roadmap

💬 Discord · r/Punktfunk

🔒 Vulnerabilities go privately to security@punktfunk.com, not to an issue — SECURITY.md.

What makes it different

• Displays you configure, not just create. Keep a game's display alive across disconnects so a reconnect drops straight back in; make the stream your sole desktop or extend alongside your monitors; turn several devices into monitors of one desktop. Presets in the console — Virtual displays.
• A real virtual display on Windows, too. Linux uses per-compositor virtual outputs; Windows gets the same on-the-fly display from Punktfunk's own signed IddCx driver (pf-vdisplay) — no dummy HDMI plug, no Desktop Duplication or WGC screen-scraping, and it survives the secure desktop (UAC, lock screen).
• GPU end to end. Frames reach the encoder with no CPU copies (dmabuf → CUDA/Vulkan → NVENC on Linux; NVENC/AMF/QSV/Media Foundation on Windows). On a wired link, PyroWave — an intra-only wavelet codec run as Vulkan compute — spends bandwidth to cut codec latency by an order of magnitude, and every frame is a keyframe, so loss costs one frame instead of a recovery round-trip.
• Two protocols, one process. punktfunk/1 is the native plane: QUIC control, a GF(2¹⁶) Leopard-RS FEC + AES-GCM data plane that breaks the ~1 Gbps FEC wall, mid-stream mode renegotiation. serve --gamestream additionally serves any Moonlight client — opt-in, trusted-LAN only, because GameStream has inherent on-path weaknesses.
• A library that fills itself. Steam and non-Steam titles appear as a grid on every client, and plugins add their own sources — ROM Manager, Playnite, Ubisoft Connect, Battle.net, itch.io, Flatpak and more.
• Secure by default. One-time SPAKE2 PIN pairing, then pinned-identity reconnects. No accounts, no cloud. Hosts advertise over mDNS, so clients find them without typing an IP.

Install the host

One command on Linux (preview) — it detects your distro, adds the repo, installs the host and console, opens the firewall, and tells you how to pair:

curl -fsSL https://punktfunk.unom.io/install.sh | sh

On Windows 11 22H2+ it's a signed installer (host + virtual-display and gamepad drivers):

winget source add -n punktfunk https://winget.punktfunk.unom.io -t Microsoft.Rest
winget install unom.PunktfunkHost

Prefer to add the repo yourself? Every platform has a one-page guide — apt, dnf, pacman, the Bazzite sysext, NixOS, SteamOS on-device build, and the Windows setup.exe: /docs/install. Updating, rolling back and uninstalling are /docs/updating and /docs/uninstall.

Connect a client

Streaming to…	Use
Mac	The Apple app — notarized DMG, or TestFlight
iPhone, iPad, Apple TV	The Apple app on TestFlight
Linux desktop / laptop	punktfunk-client — Flatpak (any distro), or apt / rpm / pacman
Steam Deck	The Decky plugin in Gaming Mode; the Flatpak in Desktop Mode
Android phone or TV	The Android app on Google Play
Windows	Native punktfunk-client — signed installer (portable zip and MSIX too)
LG webOS TV	pf-webos, a community client in its own repo
Scripts and launchers	punktfunk, the headless CLI in the Linux client packages
Anything else	Moonlight over GameStream

Every client discovers hosts automatically and does a one-time PIN pairing. Per-device steps: /docs/install-client.

Build & test (from source)

cargo build --workspace
cargo test  --workspace          # unit + loopback + proptest + C ABI harness
cargo clippy --workspace --all-targets -- -D warnings
cargo fmt --all --check

cargo run -p loss-harness                   # FEC loss-resilience sweep (no network needed)
bash crates/punktfunk-core/tests/c/run.sh   # standalone C-ABI link + round-trip proof

include/punktfunk_core.h regenerates from crates/punktfunk-core/src/abi.rs on every build (cbindgen via build.rs). The Apple, Android and Windows clients have their own toolchains — see each client's README and Build from source.

Layout

crates/
  punktfunk-core/   protocol · FEC · pacing · crypto · QUIC control plane — the C ABI
  punktfunk-host/   the host (Linux + Windows): sessions · input · GameStream · punktfunk/1 · mgmt API
  pf-capture/       PipeWire (Linux) and IDD-push (Windows) capturers behind one `Capturer`
  pf-encode(-win)/  hardware encode: NVENC · AMF · QSV · Media Foundation · PyroWave · software
  pf-vdisplay/      client-sized virtual outputs, one backend per compositor
  pf-client-core/   shared client plumbing: session pump · decode ladder · audio · gamepads · discovery
  pf-vkdecode/  pf-dxvadec/  pf-vaadec/  pf-bitstream/   the native decode rungs and their parser
  pf-presenter/  pf-console-ui/   Vulkan presenter and the gamepad-driven console shell
  punktfunk-setup/  the guided installer binary served by install.sh
clients/
  apple/    macOS · iOS · tvOS (Swift · VideoToolbox · Metal · GameController)
  linux/    GTK4 launcher shell that spawns the session client
  session/  punktfunk-session, the Vulkan streaming session — also standalone (gamescope, Decky)
  windows/  Windows desktop app (Rust · WinUI 3 · D3D11 · WASAPI · SDL3)
  android/  Android phone + TV (Kotlin · Rust JNI core · AMediaCodec · AAudio)
  cli/  probe/  decky/  shared/    headless CLI · measurement client · Deck plugin · test vectors
web/                web console (TanStack) over the management API
api/openapi.json    management-API spec (regenerated via `punktfunk-host openapi`, checked in)
sdk/  plugin-kit/   `@punktfunk/host` TypeScript client · `@punktfunk/plugin-kit` authoring kit
packaging/          apt · rpm · Arch · Flatpak · Bazzite · bootc · Windows installer + drivers · winget · Nix
docs-site/          the public docs (Fumadocs) — https://docs.punktfunk.unom.io
tools/  ci/         measurement harnesses · CI container images

The browser client and the LG webOS client live in their own repositories and take these crates as pinned git dependencies.

Design invariants

• One core, linked everywhere. Protocol, FEC and crypto live in punktfunk-core once, behind a versioned C ABI (punktfunk_abi_version(); PunktfunkConfig carries its own struct_size).
• No async on the hot path. The per-frame pipeline is native threads only; tokio/quinn are gated behind the off-by-default quic feature — control plane only.
• Native client resolution, no scaling. Each session gets an output at exactly the client's WxH@Hz; every compositor keeps its own backend behind a shared VirtualDisplay trait.
• FEC is the wall-breaker. GF(2⁸) (≤255 shards/block) for Moonlight compatibility; GF(2¹⁶) (≤65535 shards, SIMD, O(n log n)) for punktfunk/1.

License

Licensed under either of

• Apache License, Version 2.0 (LICENSE-APACHE or https://www.apache.org/licenses/LICENSE-2.0)
• MIT license (LICENSE-MIT or https://opensource.org/licenses/MIT)

at your option — SPDX-License-Identifier: MIT OR Apache-2.0.

Contribution

Unless you explicitly state otherwise, any contribution intentionally submitted for inclusion in the work by you, as defined in the Apache-2.0 license, shall be dual licensed as above, without any additional terms or conditions. See CONTRIBUTING.md.

Third-party components

Punktfunk's own source is MIT/Apache-2.0. Shipped binaries additionally link third-party components under their own (permissive) licenses — see THIRD-PARTY-NOTICES.txt (regenerate with scripts/gen-third-party-notices.sh). The Windows host build also bundles FFmpeg under the LGPL v2.1+ (dynamically linked, replaceable DLLs; the license text ships in the installed licenses/ folder). The clients link no FFmpeg at all — they decode natively.

Trademarks

Punktfunk is an independent project and is not affiliated with, endorsed by, or sponsored by NVIDIA, Microsoft, Sony, Valve, or the Moonlight project. "GameStream", "Moonlight", "Xbox", "DualSense", "DualShock", and "PlayStation" are trademarks of their respective owners and are used here only to describe interoperability.