Guide · RF Swift

You have installed RF Swift and opened your first lab with the Quick start. This guide covers everything after that. It is grouped the same way as the sidebar: start with Everyday use, then read the other groups when you need them.

New here?

If words like image, container or workspace are unfamiliar, read Key ideas in 5 minutes first. Every page below is marked Beginner or Advanced so you know what to expect.

Everyday use

The pages you will come back to most: the desktop app, choosing a toolbox, getting files and radios in and out, and changing a lab after you created it.

Workbench (desktop app)Missions, terminals, notes, findings and reports in one windowBeginner Choose a toolboxWhich image to pick for radio, Wi-Fi, RFID, cellular, cars and moreBeginner Included toolsEvery tool in every image, with a filter box Files & devicesYour workspace folder, USB radios, serial readers, Bluetooth and Wi-FiBeginner Daily workflowCreate, re-enter, record and update your labs from the terminal Change a container laterAdd devices, folders, ports or capabilities without starting over Add more softwareInstall functions, apt, recipes and Nix packages compared Assessment reportsTurn a container and its workspace into a report from the CLI

Platforms & engines

RF Swift runs the same toolboxes on Linux, macOS and Windows, with Docker, Podman, Lima or the native Nix engine. Read the page for your platform or engine when something behaves differently from the Quick start.

WindowsThe installer bundle, WSL 2, USB passthrough with usbipd-win PodmanRootless containers, no daemon, and what changes for devices Nix engine (no containers)The same tool sets installed natively, pinned, with rollbackAdvanced QubesOSRunning RF Swift in a Qubes qube, step by stepAdvanced Offline / air-gapped installExport images and install them on a machine without internetAdvanced Known limitsWhat each platform and engine cannot do, and why

Advanced

Configuration, host plumbing, remote labs and automation. None of this is needed to get started.

Configuration file & profilesconfig.ini, container profiles, environment variables and overrides Host actionsHost setup on Linux, sound for containers, USB device management Caches & fast deliveryWhere downloads are cached, and running your own cache for a team Remote agentDrive a lab machine from your laptop over mutual TLS AI assistant (MCP)Connect a coding agent to a mission through a permission-gated bridge VPN inside containersWireGuard, OpenVPN, Tailscale or Netbird per container

Looking for a specific command?

Every flag of every command is in the command reference. Press Ctrl K to search the whole documentation.