Peerlify

Helpdesk & IT support

Remote support that never leaves your network.

Watch or take control of a signed-in desktop over the mesh you already run — governed by its own rule family, gated by consent, and recorded on every attempt, including the refusals.

Start freeRead the shadowing docs
  • separate rule family
  • consent with 30s auto-deny
  • view-only or full control
  • audit log on business+
An IT support professional wearing a headset while working at a desktop monitor.

Authorization

Reaching a desktop is not a traffic permission.

Shadowing rules live in the same policy document as your traffic rules — and grant nothing else. Giving someone TCP access to a machine does not let them watch it, and a shadowing grant opens no ports.
  • Two gates: the network policy switch, and a rule that matches viewer, target, and session
  • A shadowable device is visible by name even with no traffic rule connecting you
  • An unparseable policy fails closed — it denies rather than falling back
The rule shape in full
Product screenshot
The access policy editor in the Peerlify console, showing a shadowing rule with control and consent enabled alongside traffic rules
Shadowing rules live beside traffic rules, in the same policy document.

Reaching a desktop is not a traffic permission.

The access policy editor in the Peerlify console, showing a shadowing rule with control and consent enabled alongside traffic rules

Scroll to explore details. Press Escape to close.

Consent

Nothing streams until the person says yes.

With a consent-required rule the signed-in user sees a prompt naming the viewer and whether control was requested. Nothing is captured or transmitted before they accept — and the prompt auto-denies after 30 seconds.
  • A declined or unanswered request shares no screen
  • Unattended machines can never be shadowed under a consent-required rule
  • Asking for control under a view-only rule connects read-only rather than refusing
  • The person at the desk can end the session at any time with Stop or Ctrl+Alt+S (⌃⌥S on a Mac)
Diagram
Consent flow: a support agent requests view or control. The desktop waits up to 30 seconds. Accept starts the session; decline or timeout shares no screen. Both outcomes are logged.
A consent-required session, illustrated. The screen stays private until the signed-in user accepts.

Nothing streams until the person says yes.

Consent flow: a support agent requests view or control. The desktop waits up to 30 seconds. Accept starts the session; decline or timeout shares no screen. Both outcomes are logged.

Scroll to explore details. Press Escape to close.

Audit

Sessions and denials are on the record.

Five event types land in the trail — denied, started, terminated, revoked when a live session is cut off because policy changed underneath it, and stopped_by_target when the person at the device ends it. Activity logs, including this trail, are part of the Business and Enterprise plans and are kept for 90 days.
  • The viewing device and its assigned IP on every event
  • Target session and the account signed into it, plus duration
  • Denials carry the reason, so you can tell a policy problem from a missing session
What gets recorded
Product screenshot
The Peerlify Shadowing log lists ended, started, and denied events, with viewer, target, duration, and denial reasons including Consent timeout and Acl.
The shadowing log in the console: completed sessions, starts and refusals.

Sessions and denials are on the record.

The Peerlify Shadowing log lists ended, started, and denied events, with viewer, target, duration, and denial reasons including Consent timeout and Acl.

Scroll to explore details. Press Escape to close.

What you get

Controls that survive an audit.

Support tooling usually trades away either privacy or accountability. These are the properties that let you keep both.

  • Its own rule family

    Shadowing rules sit beside traffic rules but grant nothing else. TCP access to a device does not let you watch it.

  • Sessions named explicitly

    Rules match the target machine’s own accounts and groups. An empty session list matches nothing — deliberately.

  • View-only or full control

    Control is a conjunction: the viewer gets input only if they asked for it and the winning rule grants it.

  • Consent, with a deadline

    A consent-required rule prompts the signed-in user and auto-denies after 30 seconds, so an empty desk is never shadowed.

  • Streams inside your mesh

    The session rides the same end-to-end encrypted channel (AES-256-GCM) as the rest of your traffic. No third-party service is involved.

  • Denials are recorded too

    On Business and Enterprise, a refused shadowing request lands in the log with its reason, such as an ACL denial.

Frequently asked

Questions we actually get.

Can a helpdesk agent watch anyone they can reach?
No. Shadowing has its own rule family, so a traffic rule grants nothing here. An attempt has to clear the network’s Allow shadowing policy, match an enabled shadowing rule, name a session that rule permits, and — if the rule says so — get the signed-in user’s consent. Any failure denies.
Does the screen stream leave our network?
No. It travels the same encrypted mesh as everything else — a direct peer-to-peer path when one is available, an encrypted relay otherwise. No data touches a third-party service, and the relay only ever forwards ciphertext.
Can we shadow an unattended server or kiosk?
Yes, but not with a consent-required rule — that prompt auto-denies after 30 seconds, so an unattended machine can never be reached under one. For those targets, use a rule without consent and lean on the session allow-list plus the audit trail instead.
What if two rules could match the same request?
First match wins, not best match. The first enabled rule whose source matches the viewer decides the request — so a broad rule sitting above a narrow one will decide everything the narrow rule was written for. Order shadowing rules most-specific first.
Which plans include this?
Shadowing itself works on every plan. The audit trail is part of activity logs, available on Business and Enterprise. The policy model is platform-neutral; capture support is rolling out per operating system, and a target that cannot yet be captured refuses with unsupported. Details in the shadowing docs.

Pricing

Start free. Grow when you need to.

Every paid plan starts with a 14-day trial, and a trial never asks for a card.

  • Personal

    Free

    Your own private mesh, free forever.

  • Team

    Popular

    $6/user/mo

    Small teams sharing a private network.

  • Business

    $16/user/mo

    Growing organizations with operational needs.

  • Enterprise

    Custom

    Custom controls and procurement.

Compare every plan and limit

Support a desktop without shipping it to a third party.

Write one shadowing rule, prompt for consent, and read the trail afterwards. All on the network you already control.

Start freeNext: Remote access to private infrastructure