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Getting Started with Muxit ​

Welcome to Muxit — a hardware orchestration platform for controlling instruments, robots, and sensors through a unified interface with automation scripts, real-time dashboards, and AI.

What Is Muxit? ​

Muxit gives you a single interface to control all your lab and workshop hardware. Instead of juggling vendor-specific software for each device, you connect everything to Muxit and control it all from one place.

What you can do:

  • Control a power supply from your browser — set voltage, read current, ramp parameters
  • Build a live dashboard for your CNC machine — position, feed rate, status, all updating in real-time
  • Write automation scripts — ramp a temperature in steps, monitor a threshold, log measurements to a file
  • Use AI to control devices — tell Claude "set the voltage to 12V and monitor the current" and it happens
  • Stream a webcam to a dashboard widget alongside your instrument readings
  • Connect IoT sensors via MQTT — ESP32, Arduino, Home Assistant, Node-RED
  • Set up autonomous agents — an AI that watches temperature and adjusts power automatically

Muxit runs as a local server on your computer and serves a web-based GUI to your browser. No cloud account required — everything stays on your machine.

Key Concepts ​

ConceptWhat It IsExample
DriverLow-level hardware interface that talks to a physical device. JavaScript, Python, or compiled C# DLLUSB webcam driver, MQTT bridge, serial instrument driver, Python script wrapping a vendor SDK
ConnectorWraps a driver with a friendly name, custom methods, and configpsu.js — configures a PSU driver with serial port, adds rampTo() method
ScriptSandboxed JavaScript automation programRead temperature every second, log it, alert if too high
DashboardDrag-and-drop layout of live widgets bound to device dataGauges, charts, sliders, buttons, video streams
AgentAutonomous AI that plans and executes multi-step goalsMonitor temperature sensor, reduce power if overheating

For more definitions, see the Glossary.

What's Included ​

Muxit ships with a complete demo environment — no hardware needed to start exploring:

  • TestDevice — a simulated instrument with temperature, voltage, counters, and more. Always available, doesn't count against connector limits
  • Example scripts — hello.js (basic logging), examples/sinewave.js (animated dashboard data), examples/psu-voltage-ramp.js and examples/threshold-alert.js (instrument control & alerting), plus a numbered tutorials/ series (01-hello-world.js … 10-ai-vision.js)
  • Example dashboards — demo.dashboard.json (interactive gauges, sliders, charts), test-device.dashboard.json (full device control panel)
  • Built-in drivers — Webcam, ONVIF IP camera, FileAccess (sandboxed file I/O), MqttBridge (IoT integration)
  • Example agents — temperature-monitor (auto-reduce power), pick-and-place (robot coordination)

5-Minute Quickstart ​

1. Install and Start ​

Install the latest release — no prerequisites, the binary is self-contained.

Windows (PowerShell):

powershell
irm https://raw.githubusercontent.com/muxit-io/muxit/main/install.ps1 | iex

Linux (bash):

bash
curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/muxit-io/muxit/main/install.sh | bash

Then start Muxit:

bash
muxit

Your browser opens to http://127.0.0.1:8765. See the Installation Guide for detailed setup.

2. Explore the Hardware Panel ​

Click the plug icon in the left Activity Bar to open the Hardware panel. You'll see the test-device connector with live properties:

  • temperature — a simulated temperature value
  • label — a text label you can change
  • enabled — a boolean toggle
  • threshold — a numeric threshold
  • count — an incrementing counter

These values update in real-time through polling.

3. Open a Dashboard ​

In the Explorer sidebar (files icon), expand dashboards/ and click demo.dashboard.json. You'll see a live dashboard with:

  • Gauge widgets showing sine/cosine waves
  • Sliders you can drag to change values
  • A chart plotting data over time
  • An indicator light showing running state

4. Run a Script ​

In the Explorer sidebar, expand scripts/examples/ and click sinewave.js. Click the Run button in the editor toolbar. Watch the dashboard come alive — the script drives the gauge and chart values with animated sine waves.

Click Stop to end the script.

5. Try the AI Chat (Optional) ​

Click the chat icon in the Activity Bar to open the AI Chat sidebar. With an active Muxit license, try:

  • "What devices are connected?"
  • "Read the test device temperature"
  • "Set the threshold to 75"

Choose Your Path ​

"I have lab instruments" ​

You have SCPI-compatible instruments (oscilloscopes, power supplies, multimeters) connected via USB/serial or TCP/IP.

Start here:

  1. Your First Connector — learn the connector config format
  2. Connector Guide — transports, serial/TCP setup, real hardware examples
  3. Driver SDK — build a custom driver for your instrument

"I already have a Python script that talks to my device" ​

A vendor SDK, an existing analysis script, a model from huggingface — anything you'd rather not rewrite in JavaScript.

Start here:

  1. Python Driver SDK — Generic Python driver — drop a .py into workspace/python/, point a connector at it, done. No Driver class, no JSON-RPC.
  2. Python Driver SDK — Structure — for when you outgrow the generic driver and want a typed, packaged .muxdriver.
  3. Connector Guide — wire your Python functions up as properties and methods.

"I have a CNC, 3D printer, or robot" ​

You have motion-control hardware that communicates over serial (G-code/GRBL) or TCP.

Start here:

  1. Connector Guide — see the G-code/GRBL CNC example
  2. Dashboard Guide — build a control panel with position display, buttons, terminal
  3. Your First Script — automate motion sequences

"I have IoT sensors" ​

You have ESP32, Arduino, Tasmota, or Home Assistant devices communicating via MQTT.

Start here:

  1. MQTT & IoT Guide — connect to an MQTT broker, subscribe to topics, display data
  2. Dashboard Guide — build a sensor dashboard
  3. Your First Script — automate based on sensor readings

"I want to use AI to control hardware" ​

You want Claude, GPT-4, or another LLM to control your devices.

Start here:

  1. AI & Voice Guide — set up the Chat Panel or MCP server
  2. AI & Voice Guide — Agents — autonomous AI with safety boundaries

"I just want to explore" ​

No hardware yet — you want to learn what Muxit can do.

Start here:

  1. UI Tour — understand the interface
  2. Your First Script — write a script using the TestDevice
  3. Your First Dashboard — build a dashboard with live widgets
  4. Your First Connector — create a connector config

Running Muxit ​

bash
node start.js server       # Start the server auto-open browser
node start.js server --nogui # Start , do not  auto-open browser
node start.js server --no-tray  # Start without system tray icon
node start.js server --port=9000  # Custom port
node start.js cli          # CLI mode (driver testing REPL)
node start.js mcp          # MCP server (for Claude Code/Desktop)

Then open http://127.0.0.1:8765 in your browser.

File Structure ​

workspace/
├── connectors/    ← device configurations (.js)
├── scripts/       ← automation scripts (.js)
├── drivers/       ← driver files (.driver.js, .driver.py, .muxdriver)
├── python/        ← Python scripts that connectors expose as devices (.py + optional .requirements.txt)
├── dashboards/    ← dashboard layouts (.dashboard.json)
├── agents/        ← agent config files (.agent.json)
├── data/          ← sandboxed file storage (FileAccess driver)
└── config/        ← server settings (server.json)

The filename of each connector, script, or dashboard becomes its name in Muxit. For example, connectors/psu.js creates a connector called "psu" that you access with connector("psu") in scripts.

Next Steps ​

Muxit — Hardware Orchestration Platform