Every Buoy tool, full screen.
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Buoy Desktop mirrors the Buoy devtools running inside your React Native app — and, in beta, your Flutter app — to a desktop dashboard: the same live session as the floating menu on the phone and the MCP server in your editor. One live app, three ways in.
Buoy Desktop is free. Download the zip for your platform from Releases — macOS, Windows & Linux, x64 + arm64, macOS builds signed and notarized. Unzip, launch. It starts its own local broker on port 42831 and auto-detects devices.
Your app needs Buoy devtools installed — the Quick Start is one component. The connection is automatic: the app derives the broker address from the Metro dev server that served the bundle, so simulators, emulators, and physical devices on the same Wi-Fi all connect with zero config. Only special setups need an explicit socketURL (in the externalSync prop):
| Setup | Broker URL |
|---|---|
| Simulator, emulator, physical device on same Wi-Fi | automatic — nothing to configure |
| Android over USB | automatic — just run adb reverse tcp:42831 tcp:42831 |
| Expo tunnel mode | http://<your-computer-ip>:42831 |
Note
Several devices can connect at once — simulators, physical phones, web, iOS and Android side by side. A title-bar switcher picks which one every tool inspects, mid-session. And the app keeps itself current: it checks for updates on launch and every 10 minutes, downloads in the background, and asks before restarting.
16 tools in the sidebar, in 4 groups:
| Group | Tools |
|---|---|
| Inspect | Network · Storage · Events · Console · Images |
| State | React Query · Redux · Zustand · Jotai |
| App | Routes · Env · Impersonate · Renders |
| Capture | Bench · JS Top · Screenshot |
Fourteen get full-screen panels. React Query renders the real Buoy devtool inline. Screenshot is a one-shot action.
Four channels stream from the device — UI FPS, JS FPS, CPU, memory. The HUD learns the device's real refresh ceiling (60, 90, or 120Hz) and colors FPS against that, not a hardcoded 60. Per-page stats rank which screens are slow. The dashboard even measures its own FPS — a devtool that watches itself.
Not a read-only mirror — the dashboard reaches back into the running app:
- Edit storage — AsyncStorage, MMKV & SecureStore values, proxied live to the device
- Drive React Query — refetch, invalidate & reset queries on a mirrored QueryClient
- Zustand time travel — jump to any past state or reset,
setStateforwarded to the device - Navigate — jump to any route, pop-to-index, pop-to-top
- Gate the firehose — per-tool capture ON/OFF and per-source event toggles
Captures the booted iOS Simulator. Component mode (the default): type a testID, nativeID, or component name — the device locates it live, scrolls it into view, re-measures, and returns a tight auto-crop. Perfect for pasting into an agent conversation. Region mode: drag a rectangle.
A built-in diagnostics console logs device connections and instability — when a device drops, you see why. The broker's own connection log streams in too: handshakes, disconnect reasons, duplicate-name renames, protocol version mismatches — including events from before you opened the console, so a failed connect is never invisible.
No devices yet? The dashboard shows your machine's exact LAN URLs (http://<ip>:42831) with a test you can run straight from the phone's browser, plus a checklist of the common causes. Stale devices don't pile up either — offline entries can be removed with one click and age out on their own after a day.
Buoy Desktop is free — no license needed to download, connect, and watch every tool stream live. Pro unlocks full history and unlimited capture (the free tier locks older entries). Activate by pasting a license key into the navbar License button — stored encrypted via the OS keychain — or connect a device that already has one and the dashboard adopts it automatically.
Weekend Pass: every Saturday and Sunday, all Pro features unlock free for everyone — the navbar shows a violet WEEKEND PASS badge. Built into the product, not a promo.
Paid plans start at $9/month for individuals (Solo) — companies license per seat with Business — with a 14-day trial, and they also unlock the MCP server, which gives your agent the same session. ➡️ buoy.gg/pricing
Important
Buoy's tools run inside your app's process and sync to Buoy Desktop over the local broker — localhost only, no cloud, no remote connections. Nothing ever leaves your machine.
Found a bug or want a panel that doesn't exist yet? Open an issue — feature requests drive the roadmap.
Proprietary software. © Buoy LLC. All rights reserved. See the Terms of Service.
Looking for the legacy open-source React Query desktop tool that used to live here? It has been superseded by Buoy Desktop, which supports the full Buoy toolset.
You read the whole README. See you Saturday. 🖥️