Q web terminal – DEV Community

This is a submission for the Amazon Q Developer “Quack The Code” Challenge: Exploring the Possibilities

What I Built

The Q Web Interface transforms Amazon Q Developer from a CLI-only tool
into a fully accessible web application, breaking the traditional
terminal barrier. By leveraging PTY processes, Socket.IO, and XTerm.js,
my solution maintains the full interactive capabilities of Amazon Q
while making it available through any web browser on any device.

What makes this project innovative is how it democratizes access to
Amazon Q Developer’s powerful AI capabilities. Users no longer need
terminal access, specialized knowledge, or even a local development
environment to leverage Amazon Q’s assistance. The web interface opens
Amazon Q to non-technical team members, remote workers on mobile
devices, and collaborative environments where multiple stakeholders can
view and interact with the same Q session simultaneously.

By implementing secure authentication and maintaining the full
interactive nature of the CLI through real-time bidirectional
communication, I’ve created a solution that doesn’t compromise on
functionality while dramatically expanding accessibility. This
represents a novel approach to AI tool integration that bridges the gap
between developer-focused CLI tools and the broader needs of modern,
diverse technical teams.

Demo

Default credentials: username: admin, password: 2025DEVChallenge

Code Repository

https://github.com/oscarnevarezleal/q-web

How I Used Amazon Q Developer

For my “Q Web Interface” project, Amazon Q Developer was instrumental
throughout the development process:

1. Initial Project Scaffolding: I started by asking Amazon Q to help me
   set up the basic structure for a web-based terminal interface. Q
   generated the Express server boilerplate and suggested the right
   dependencies for my package.json.

2. PTY Process Integration: One of the most challenging aspects was
   spawning and managing PTY processes that could run the Q CLI. Amazon Q
   provided code examples for using the node-pty library to create and
   manage these processes.

3. Real-time Communication: When implementing Socket.IO for real-time
   terminal output streaming, Q helped me understand the event-based
   architecture and provided code for establishing bidirectional
   communication between the server and clients.

4. Authentication System: Q Developer generated a secure authentication
   system with HTTP-only cookies and session management, saving me
   significant development time.

5. Frontend Terminal Implementation: For the browser-based terminal, Q
   provided code for integrating XTerm.js with the Socket.IO client,
   including handling user input and displaying terminal output.

6. Responsive Design: Q helped optimize the CSS to ensure the terminal
   interface worked well on both desktop and mobile devices.