Channels and roadmap
Bootscry aims to give an agent the same practical feedback a person needs: eyes, hands, and, where hardware allows, ears. The design gives each channel a driver on a shared interface. The statuses below separate tested capabilities from work in progress as of October 2026.
Observation and action channels
| Channel | What it provides | Current status | Next milestone |
|---|---|---|---|
| Video KVM: GL.iNet Comet | Screen frames, keyboard, mouse | Working reference on one physical test bench; Partial status while the checklist continues | Complete recovery and multi-target checks, then publish limits |
| Other video KVMs | Screen and input on vendor hardware | A Sipeed NanoKVM driver has had first runs on one unit. A PiKVM driver is mock-tested and its client has run against PiKVM's software in a container, not a unit. A VNC console driver has run against QEMU only. One JetKVM is set up with no driver yet. Nothing for TinyPilot. See supported devices for each status | A JetKVM driver, a PiKVM unit, power and Wake-on-LAN on the NanoKVM, then per-device checklists |
| Serial console | Exact console text and input, without OCR | Planned driver; the test path starts with a pseudo-terminal pair | Implement read, write, and wait-for-text, then test on an owned disposable guest |
| Camera | Views of a screen, LEDs, or rack; possible microphone and speaker | A Reolink E1 Zoom is in the lab; local media setup is in progress. No agent driver, audio loopback, or PTZ control is verified | Complete local media setup and loopback, then prototype snap, clip, listen, say, and supported PTZ actions |
| HID-only input | Keyboard and mouse without a video feed | The Comet input path works; a standalone HID-only driver is planned | Pair input with a live serial, camera, or video observation channel; never run blind |
| Server management | Potential text console, virtual input, and power controls | A read-only iDRAC9 driver takes screenshots through Redfish and has run on one Dell server. On that firmware the picture needs a privilege that also allows typing (iDRAC first runs). No input or power through a controller has been sent. Intel AMT and other Redfish controllers are research topics only | Other iDRAC firmware, the iDRAC's own VNC console through the VNC driver, and OpenBMC; each management-interface test only with the operator's explicit go |
Shared work above the drivers
Reading and phase awareness
Screen text comes from readers chosen by configuration: Tesseract or RapidOCR on this machine or on a named OCR host, tried in order, with a dead host skipped. Unset, only this machine reads the screen. A classifier reads BIOS, GRUB, installer, login, shell, and panic states. A local vision model served by Ollama can be listed as a reader too; that reader is experimental, and the vision result so far is an offline four-frame comparison.
Safety across channels
MCP read, input, media, and power tiers, dry-run, audit logs, stale-frame gates and an out-of-band approval step for media and power are implemented and mock-tested. Only the read tier has real-device MCP evidence; containment across other channels remains planned. See the safety design and current limits.
Agent tools
The MCP server has tier-gated tools and one driver layer, so the same tools reach every device that has a driver. Read-tier operation was checked on the real Comet; input, media, and power were checked against a mock. Every input now retires the frame it aimed at and returns a fresh observation, tested on the mock.