punktfunk/docs-site/content/docs/clients.md

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Clients	The ways to connect to a Punktfunk host — the Apple app, Moonlight, or the Linux client.

A Punktfunk host accepts clients over its own punktfunk/1 protocol (the macOS, Linux, Windows, and Android apps) and over GameStream (Moonlight). Pick whichever fits the device you're streaming to. Ready to install? Install a Client has the step-by-step for every device — plus how to update and remove each one.

Two things apply to every app, whichever you pick: profiles and punktfunk:// links, and the keys and chords that work while you're streaming. What each one lets you change — resolution, bitrate, codec, HDR, audio, controllers — is catalogued in Client settings.

Apple app (Mac, iPhone, iPad, Apple TV)

The native app for Apple devices speaks Punktfunk's own punktfunk/1 protocol — the lowest-latency, most resilient path, with the full feature set:

• Automatic host discovery — hosts on your network appear under On this network; no IP typing.
• PIN pairing built in, and pinned reconnects after that.
• Controllers, including DualSense — rumble, adaptive triggers, lightbar, motion, and touchpad.
• A game library — browse the host's installed games with cover art and launch one straight into the stream.
• A live stats overlay (resolution, fps, bitrate, latency) and a built-in network speed test to pick a bitrate for your link.
• Widgets, Live Activities and Shortcuts — a hosts widget for the home screen, a Live Activity while a session runs, and App Intents so Siri and the Shortcuts app can start a stream.

Open the app, pick your host, pair once, and stream. It builds from the clients/apple directory in the repo (Swift / VideoToolbox / Metal).

Moonlight (anything else)

Punktfunk also speaks the GameStream protocol, so any Moonlight client — a browser, a smart TV, an old phone, a games console — connects with no punktfunk-specific software. (Most platforms also have a native Punktfunk app below — Moonlight is the catch-all.) See Connect with Moonlight.

This is the broadest-compatibility option and great for couch gaming. It doesn't use the native protocol's FEC/encryption extensions, but for a healthy LAN that rarely matters.

Linux desktop client (GTK4)

punktfunk-client is the native graphical Linux client — a GTK4 / libadwaita app that speaks punktfunk/1 directly, with vendor-ordered hardware decode (Vulkan Video first on NVIDIA and AMD, VAAPI dmabuf first on Intel; whichever isn't first is the fallback, and software decode is last), PipeWire audio, and SDL3 controllers (rumble, lightbar, DualSense touchpad/motion). To force one, pick it in Preferences → Display → Video decoder or set PUNKTFUNK_DECODER=vulkan|vaapi|software. Like the Apple app it discovers hosts on your network automatically, does PIN pairing, pins reconnects, and browses the host's game library (with cover art) so you can launch a title straight into the stream.

It ships as a real package, not just a source build — full steps in Install a Client:

• Any Flatpak distro (recommended) — one command from the hosted flatpak.unom.io repo; the guide linked above has the exact command and how updates work. It's also the client the Decky plugin uses by default, though the plugin drives a native punktfunk-client just as well.
• Ubuntu 26.04 or newer — apt install punktfunk-client from the Punktfunk apt registry. The client package needs SDL3 and GTK4 ≥ 4.20, which Ubuntu 24.04 LTS doesn't ship — on 24.04 use the Flatpak above.
• Fedora — sudo dnf install punktfunk-client from the Gitea RPM registry (add the repo as in the Fedora guide).
• Fedora Atomic / Bazzite — use the Flatpak above. rpm-ostree install punktfunk-client works, but layering slows every OS update, so it's a last resort on an image-based system (see Bazzite).
• Arch — sudo pacman -Syu punktfunk-client from the signed binary repo (see Arch Linux).

Launch it, pick your host from the list, and stream. For scripting, use the punktfunk CLI that ships in the same packages:

punktfunk launch <host-ref>              # start a session, waking the host first if it's asleep
punktfunk-client --connect <host>:9777   # the older flag — still supported for existing scripts

The client also updates itself (punktfunk-client --check-update / --apply-update) — see Keeping a client up to date.

Android app (phone + Android TV)

The native Android app speaks punktfunk/1 directly, on both phones and Android TV. It does hardware HEVC decode (including HDR10), Opus audio with a mic uplink, game controllers with rumble and DualSense feedback, automatic host discovery, PIN pairing with pinned reconnects, the host's game library with cover art, and a live stats overlay — with D-pad and game-controller focus navigation for the couch. It builds from the clients/android directory (Kotlin + a shared Rust core).

Controllers. Plug a DualSense, DualSense Edge or DualShock 4 into the phone or tablet by USB and grant the USB permission Android asks for when it attaches — Punktfunk then drives the pad itself instead of taking what Android's gamepad layer exposes, so the host gets rumble, adaptive triggers, the lightbar and gyro. The app's Controllers screen lists attached pads and their capture state, and the switch that turns this off is DualSense / DualShock passthrough (USB) in Settings. Over Bluetooth the pad still works as an ordinary gamepad, but adaptive triggers and the lightbar need the USB connection.

The app is on Google Play as a test track (closed testing for stable, internal testing for canary) — request a tester invite on our Discord and we'll add you, or sideload the public APK instead (see Install a Client). Then open the app, pick your host, pair once, and stream.

Windows desktop client

punktfunk-client for Windows (clients/windows) is the native graphical client for Windows — pure Rust, the same punktfunk/1 core as the Apple, Linux, and Android apps, with a WinUI 3 UI (host list, settings, PIN pairing); the stream itself runs in Punktfunk's Vulkan presenter. Its decoder order is per-vendor: Vulkan Video, then D3D11VA, then software on NVIDIA and AMD, and D3D11VA first on Intel and other GPUs (Intel's driver advertises Vulkan Video, but DXVA is the proven path there), with 10-bit/HDR present, WASAPI audio + mic, SDL3 controllers (rumble, lightbar, DualSense), network discovery, the host's game library with cover art, and the full PIN-pairing trust surface. It builds for both x86_64 and aarch64 and ships as a signed MSIX. Launch it and pick a host from the list, just like the other native apps.

The package installs two Start-menu entries — Punktfunk, the desktop window, and Punktfunk Console, a controller-driven fullscreen interface for a TV or HTPC (host list, pairing, settings and game library, all navigable with a pad) — plus the headless punktfunk command on your PATH.

Hardware decode and HDR10 present are validated on glass on NVIDIA and Intel (including HDR pass-through on the Intel D3D11VA path). If anything misbehaves, Moonlight is a proven alternative for Windows.

For scripting, prefer the punktfunk CLI. The window binary's own headless flags stay supported too:

punktfunk-client                                              # open the WinUI 3 window (host list / settings)
punktfunk-client --discover                                  # list hosts on the network
punktfunk-client --headless --speed-test --connect <host>:9777  # no window: probe the link, print measured/recommended bitrate

Prefer the broadest compatibility, or no install? Moonlight also streams to Windows (see below).

webOS (LG TV) — community

pf-webos is a native client for LG webOS TVs, built and maintained by the community (dyptan-io) on top of Punktfunk's punktfunk/1 protocol and core. It's not an official Punktfunk app, but it speaks the real protocol directly (not Moonlight/GameStream) — LAN discovery or add-by-IP, PIN pairing with pinned reconnects, hardware video decode via webOS's NDL DirectMedia API, and a browsable game library with cover art, navigable with the Magic Remote.

It ships as a sideloadable .ipk (homebrew package) rather than through the LG Content Store — see Install a Client for the sideload steps.

Scripting: the punktfunk CLI

punktfunk is the headless client — the same core the graphical apps use, with no window. It ships in every Linux client package (apt, dnf, pacman and the Flatpak) and in the Windows MSIX, so if you have a desktop client you already have it:

punktfunk hosts list --probe                  # saved hosts, each with a live reachability check
punktfunk pair <host>[:port] --pin 1234       # enrol this device with a host
punktfunk library <host-ref> --json           # the host's games, machine-readable
punktfunk launch <host-ref> --game <id>       # stream, waking the host first if it's asleep
punktfunk open 'punktfunk://connect/<host-ref>'
punktfunk speed-test <host-ref>               # measure the link, print the recommended bitrate

A <host-ref> is a saved host's id, its name, or an address — the same reference a punktfunk:// link takes. There is also hosts add / hosts forget, wake, reachable, profiles list and reset; run punktfunk help <command> for a verb's flags.

Exit codes are stable, so a script can branch without parsing prose: 0 ok, 2 connect failed, 3 trust rejected (re-pair), 4 the renderer couldn't start, 5 nothing matched what you named, 6 it needs a person (pairing, or an unknown host).

Under the Flatpak, run it as flatpak run --command=punktfunk io.unom.Punktfunk <args>.

The older headless flags stay supported for existing scripts — punktfunk-client --connect, --discover and --headless --speed-test on both Linux and Windows. punktfunk is the surface to build new things on: it wakes a sleeping host before connecting, which those never did.

punktfunk-probe is a different thing again — an in-repo protocol test and latency-measurement tool for development. It isn't shipped in any package; you build it from source.

Profiles and links (every app)

Two things work the same in the Apple, Linux, Windows and Android apps. Settings profiles are named sets of stream overrides — bitrate, resolution, codec, HDR and the rest — that you bind to a host or pick for a single connect, with every field you didn't touch still following your defaults. And a punktfunk:// link starts a stream from a browser, a desktop shortcut, a home-automation rule or punktfunk open, carrying only references to things that already exist on your device — never a setting, and never a trust decision.

Profiles and links has both in full: the link grammar, where each app puts Copy link and Create shortcut…, and what a link is refused for. From a script, punktfunk profiles list and punktfunk launch --profile <ref> reach the same profiles.

While you're streaming

Click the stream and the desktop clients capture your keyboard and mouse — everything goes to the host until you let go. Ctrl+Alt+Shift+Q (⌃⌥⇧Q or ⌘⎋ on a Mac) gives it back.

That chord, the three others a stream reserves, the controller chord that works with no keyboard in reach, which app honours which of them, the two mouse modes, the three touch modes and stylus input are all on Mouse, touch and pen.

Copying between the two machines is a separate opt-in: the host operator allows it in host.env and you turn it on for that one host in your client. Content crosses today from the macOS, Windows and Android apps — the Linux client has the switch but no bridge behind it yet, and iOS, iPadOS and tvOS have neither. See Shared clipboard.

Which should I use?

You're streaming to…	Use
A Mac, iPhone, iPad, or Apple TV	The Apple app
A Linux desktop or laptop	punktfunk-client (GTK4)
A Steam Deck	The Decky plugin in Gaming Mode, or the GTK4 client in Desktop Mode
An Android phone or TV	The Android app
Windows	The native punktfunk-client (signed MSIX) or Moonlight
An LG webOS TV	The community pf-webos client, or Moonlight
A browser, another smart TV, or any other device	Moonlight
Scripts, plugins, home automation	The headless punktfunk CLI
Protocol development / latency measurement	punktfunk-probe (source build only)

Whichever you choose, the first connection needs a one-time pairing, and Install a Client covers installing, updating and removing it.