App startup and ports
Diagnose launch failures and local server conflicts.
The Electron app starts a local harness and serves the interface from the same machine. The normal port is 8799. If another process already owns it, packaged builds may select a fallback port automatically.
Loading screen and system tray
A loading screen appears while the desktop workspace starts. It gives way to the main window after the interface mounts.
On Windows, X hides MengBot to the system tray, including during startup. Bots and scheduled routines can continue running. To reopen it, click its tray icon (which Windows may place behind the Show hidden icons arrow), choose Open OpenMeng Bot from the tray menu, or launch MengBot again. To exit completely, right-click the tray icon and choose Quit OpenMeng Bot.
Closing the loading screen on macOS or Linux quits startup. Their existing main-window close behavior is unchanged.
App opens but never becomes ready
- Quit MengBot. On Windows, use Quit OpenMeng Bot in the system tray; closing the window only hides it.
- Confirm no old MengBot process remains.
- Start the app once and wait for the local harness.
- If it still fails, inspect the desktop log.
On macOS, packaged logs are under ~/Library/Logs/MengBot. On Windows they are in %APPDATA%\MengBot\logs. See Where are my logs?, or open them from Settings → General → Diagnostics → Open logs folder.
Windows computer-control helper
Packaged Windows builds run the computer-control helper in the background
without opening a command window. If the desktop log reports that the
background CUA driver is missing, reinstall the complete application package.
Custom developer executables selected with CUA_DRIVER_PATH keep their own
console behavior.
Development port overrides
Use OMB_PORT for a source-run harness. A packaged desktop build owns its server lifecycle and may choose a fallback if the preferred port is unavailable.
Isolate a test profile
Developers can set OMB_DATA_DIR to run against a clean MengBot data directory. This is useful for reproduction and screenshots without touching a real workspace.