Collab Shell — Run cloud notebooks, interactive terminals & manage files natively on your phone

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Download

Platform	Download	Notes
🤖 Android		Recommended for Android mobile users
🪟 Windows		Automated standalone setup installer with desktop shortcut integration
🐧 Linux (Debian/Ubuntu)		Desktop package tailored for Ubuntu, Debian, Linux Mint & Pop!_OS
🎩 Linux (Fedora/RHEL)		Desktop package tailored for Fedora, openSUSE, RHEL & CentOS
📦 Linux (Universal Portable)		Universal standalone portable archive for Arch, Alpine, Steam Deck & all distros

Android Architecture Build Splits

Variant	Download	Notes
📱 ARM64 (most phones)	collabshell-arm64-v8a.apk	Modern 64-bit Android devices
📱 ARMv7 (older phones)	collabshell-armeabi-v7a.apk	Legacy 32-bit Android devices

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Core Capabilities

Capability	Description
Interactive PTY Terminal (TTY)	Real-time live interactive terminal sessions directly connected via Google Colab's /api/terminals WebSocket tunnels. Themes follow the app's light/dark mode, and every terminal starts in /content.
Tabbed Workspace	Seamlessly toggle between Notebook cell execution and live Terminal shell tabs inside active cloud runtimes.
Session Lifecycle Control	Instantly create, list, restart, and stop active Google Colab sessions directly from your device with smart intent routing.
Hardware Tiers	Provision CPU (always free), T4 GPU, or TPU v5e/v6e runtimes based on your Google tier limits.
Native OS File Picker & Transfers	Save downloaded files and archives anywhere on your device via the native OS File Picker without Android storage permission issues.
Folder Zip-and-Download	Archive and download entire remote directory structures (/content/folder) right to your local device with live sweeping progress bars.
Google Drive & GCP Mounts	Mount your personal Google Drive storage (/content/drive) or propagate Google Cloud credentials with real-time execution progress.
Exportable Event Logs	Maintain universal history profiles (storage/history/) and export session logs as Jupyter Notebooks (.ipynb), Markdown (.md), or plain text.
Sandbox Security	Secure OAuth2 credentials management sandboxed directly on your device storage.

Screenshots

Onboarding & Security Verification

Google Sign-In Onboarding — native auth guide for managing instances	Verification Flow — OAuth2 verification sandboxed securely on your device

Dashboard & Provisioning

Initial Dashboard (Light Theme) — clean starting view for creating cloud instances	Session Provisioning — select accelerators (CPU, GPU, TPU v5e/v6e) and set run names	Active Runtimes Dashboard (Dark Theme) — list active instances with direct shortcut links

Interactive Notebook & Code Editor

Interactive Editor — mount Google Drive, toggle keep-alive, and edit code cells	Rich Markdown editor — write documentation with live render support	Result Output Console — view streaming code execution output in real time

Remote File Manager

Remote File Manager — breadcrumb navigation, multi-select files for bulk Download & Delete	Native Download & Upload — save files directly to device Downloads folder with toast alerts

Interactive PTY Terminal & AI TUI Execution

Ollama LLM Execution — run open-weight AI models live inside Colab TTY terminal	OpenCode AI Coding Assistant — interactive terminal TUI with full soft-key controls

Terminal Customization & App Settings

Terminal Customization — select themes (JetBrains Dark, Dracula, Matrix Green, Colab Light), cursor blink & zoom	Matrix Green Theme — customized TTY styling with built-in output search bar	Settings Manager — toggle app themes, inspect Activity Terminal logs & re-authenticate

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Features

• React-Like Declarative UI (Flet 0.86) — The entire app is built on Flet's new functional component model (@ft.component, @ft.observable, use_state, use_effect): state mutations trigger surgical re-renders instead of full-page repaints.
• Collab Shell-Branded Design System — Adaptive light and dark themes styled to the Google Colab branding palette; terminal, cards, and glass surfaces all follow the active mode automatically.
• Interactive TTY Terminal Emulation — Dedicated PTY terminal engine connecting directly to Colab WebSocket endpoints (/api/terminals).
• Universal Storage & History Normalization — Monkey-patched backend state persistence (storage_patch.py) guaranteeing history and execution logs save reliably across Android and Linux desktops.
• Native OS File Picker & Zip-and-Download — Save files anywhere on your OS/Android device without permission headaches, and archive entire cloud folders on the fly.
• Dynamic Onboarding Guide — 3-step walk-through onboarding introducing features with gesture-swipe controls.
• Preloaded Interstitial Ads — Intelligent Google AdMob integration displaying ads seamlessly on mobile platforms.
• Non-Blocking Execution — Asynchronous connection wrappers ensuring the Flet UI stays fully responsive during long remote computations.
• Ruff Compliance — Clean, formatted, and strictly linted Python codebase.

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Architecture

Layer	Technology	Purpose
Frontend	Flet 0.86 (declarative components)	Cross-platform React-like UI with observable state models and surgical re-renders
Client Service	google-colab-cli SDK	Wrapper for Colab session management and code execution
Local Database	Flat JSON Storage (storage.json)	Key-value store for app settings, theme state, and credentials
Auth Provider	Google OAuth2	Secure user authentication to manage personal Google Cloud instances

Visual Flow

graph TB
    subgraph COLLABSHELL_CLIENT ["📱 COLLABSHELL CLIENT (Android App)"]
        UI["🎨 Flet Reactive UI (Home | Session | Terminal | Settings)"]
        Service["⚙️ Colab Service wrapper"]
        Storage["💾 Local Storage (settings & credentials)"]
        UI --> Service
        UI --> Storage
    end

    subgraph GOOGLE_SERVICES ["🌐 GOOGLE COLAB INSTANCES"]
        OAuth["🔐 Google OAuth2 Auth Server"]
        VMs["🖥️ Google Colab Runtimes (CPU / GPU / TPU)"]
    end

    Service ==>|Google Auth Client| OAuth
    Service ==>|gRPC / REST Commands| VMs

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Privacy & Security

Collab Shell is designed with a strict Privacy-First philosophy:

1. Direct VM Connections: All commands, file accesses, and script executions are sent directly to Google Colab. No intermediate proxy.
2. Zero Metadata Tracking: We do not trace, log, or collect your code, file lists, or Google account credentials.
3. Device Sandboxing: Local settings and tokens are kept in secure application directories.
4. Data Sovereignty: Saved logs and exports reside 100% locally in your device Downloads folder.

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Legal Disclaimer

Collab Shell is an independent Flet-based client application wrapping the Google Colab CLI and is not affiliated with, authorized, maintained, sponsored, or endorsed by Google LLC, Google Colaboratory, or any of its affiliates.

Users are responsible for complying with Google Colab's Terms of Use, resource usage policies, and local data protection regulations. The authors are not responsible for any issues resulting from Google account suspensions or resource limits.