# Operator console

> The QuickDesk web admin shows devices, live sessions and files, recordings, address books, and client release management.

The **operator console** is the web admin for a QuickDesk deployment. It is
served at `quickdesk.firstbyte.fast`. It reads the same data that your
[account server](/modalities/quickdesk/self-host) collects: device registry,
audit logs, recordings, and address books. It adds live controls and client
release management.

> **NOTE:**
> Two kinds of users can open the console:
> 
> - **Platform operators.** An operator allow-list holds their email addresses.
>   An operator sees all organizations and all screens.
> - **Owners and admins of an organization.** They see the devices, groups,
>   policies, sessions, files, alarms, Wake-on-LAN and web viewer of their own
>   organization. The console uses the organization that is active in the
>   portal. Recordings, address books and releases are for operators only.
> 
> The console refuses other members of an organization.

## Screens

  - **Devices** — See every registered device with online state, system info, and last-seen
    time. From here, you can force a device to **disconnect** its live
    sessions. Select a device name to open its page: the settings that it
    gets, its network adapters, relay protection, and its sessions and alarms
    of the last 30 days.
  - **Sessions & files** — See connection sessions grouped by session id: who connected to what, the
    duration, and the live state. The screen also shows the file-transfer
    log.
  - **Recordings** — Play back session recordings. The console generates links on demand, and
    the links expire. The recording store is thus never publicly listable.
  - **Address books** — See per-user personal directories for support and review. Each directory
    is resolved to the account that owns it.
  - **Releases** — Publish and promote client builds. This is the update channel that the
    desktop and mobile apps check for new versions.

## Live device control

The **Devices** screen is the one place with a live action rather than a
read. When you disconnect a device, the account server's presence channel
signals the box to drop the listed live connections. The box enforces the
disconnect locally on its next heartbeat. Control thus does not depend on the
relay.

## Release management

QuickDesk clients check an update channel on launch. From **Releases** you
can:

- **Publish** a new client build as the latest for a platform.
- **Promote** a previously published build to the release channel.
- Review the **history** of what was published and when.

A self-hosted fleet gets desktop-build updates this way, without app-store
round-trips.

## Relationship to the account server

| Console shows | Source |
| --- | --- |
| Device list & online state | Device registry + presence cache |
| Sessions & files | Audit log (connection + file transfer) |
| Recordings | Object storage, via expiring links |
| Address books | Relational store, joined to accounts |
| Releases | Release metadata store |

The console only reads and signals through the account server. It thus runs
wherever that server runs, including fully self-hosted, together with your
own identity, database, and storage.

## Related

- [Self-host the account server](/modalities/quickdesk/self-host) — the data this console reads
- [Security & audit](/modalities/quickdesk/security) — retention and the audit trail
- [Clients & downloads](/modalities/quickdesk/clients) — the builds Releases publishes