Desktop access for macOS hosted agents

We've added desktop access for jobs running on macOS hosted agents. Expand a running step and you'll find a new Open Desktop button next to the job's existing Open Terminal button.

The desktop opens in a browser tab, so there's no local port forwarding, VPN, or client software to set up. We've made it scale to fit the tab and resize with the window. Mouse and keyboard input are sent straight to the remote machine, so you can drive a simulator, click through a UI test, or use any graphical tool on the instance.

We've also added two commands to the Buildkite CLI that connect to the same job from your terminal:

• bk job vnc <job-uuid> opens the job's desktop in your machine's native VNC client, such as Screen Sharing on macOS.
• bk job ssh <job-uuid> opens an interactive shell on the job, forwarding terminal size and resize events.

Rather than introduce a new setting, we've put desktop access behind your organization's existing Hosted Agents Remote Access (SSH and VNC) setting on the Pipeline Settings page. Administrators can use it to turn remote access off across all clusters. Access also requires permission to manage hosted agents. We create connection credentials per session, scope them to a single job, expire them when that job ends, and record every access grant in your audit log.

We're rolling this out now for running command jobs on macOS hosted agents. Linux hosted agents and self-hosted agents aren't supported. If Open Desktop isn't available for your organization yet, contact support@buildkite.com.