Read-only sessions

Use read-only mode when you want someone to watch — a demo, a walkthrough, a livestream of a long-running job — without the risk of them touching your shell.

porthole host --readonly

The viewer sees everything in real time but cannot send input.

It is not a one-way door

--readonly sets the starting state, not a permanent one. Mid-session you can hand over the keyboard with Ctrl+] w and take it back with Ctrl+] r, and viewers can ask.

That is usually what you want — pairing is rarely read-only for its whole length. See Write access for the grant, request, and revocation model, including how to switch requests off entirely:

porthole host --readonly --no-requests

When to use it

• Presenting to a group where only you should drive.
• Sharing a public or semi-public link.
• Streaming build or test output to teammates who just need to see it.

What read-only does not protect

It governs input, not output. A read-only viewer still sees everything your terminal prints, and can screenshot or record it.

If the concern is what they can read rather than what they can type:

• --mask redacts credentials before output leaves your machine.
• --password and --allow control who gets in at all.
• --expire and --once bound how long the window stays open.