Moonshine 🌙
Moonshine lets you stream games from your PC to any device running Moonlight.
Your keyboard, mouse, and controller inputs are sent back to the host so you can play games remotely as if you were sitting in front of it.
Features
Isolated streaming sessions: Each stream runs in its own compositor, completely separate from your desktop environment. Your host PC can still be used for other things while you stream.
No monitor required: Works on headless servers — no HDMI dummy plug needed.
Hardware video encoding: H.264, H.265, and AV1 encoding using the GPU.
⚠️ AV1 Warning: AV1 encoding is experimental and has issues on NVIDIA GPUs that cause frame sizes to grow over time (see issue). This should be fixed in driver version 595.44.3.0. Until then, stick with H.264 or H.265.
HDR support: True 10-bit HDR streaming for supported games.
Full input support: Mouse, keyboard, and gamepad (including motion, touchpad, and haptics).
Audio streaming: Stereo and surround sound (5.1/7.1) with low-latency Opus encoding.
Requirements
Linux only. Tested on Arch Linux, but it's been reported to work on other Linux distributions too.
systemd. Required for launching and managing application processes. Almost all modern Linux distributions include it by default.
A GPU with Vulkan video encoding. NVIDIA RTX, AMD RDNA2+, or Intel Arc.
Moonlight v6.0.0 or higher. Compatibility with older versions or unofficial ports is not guaranteed.
Installation
Arch
The simplest method is to install through the AUR using:
To run Moonshine for your user:
Enable user lingering:
sudo loginctl enable-linger $USER
This allows Moonshine to run applications in the user's session even when the user is not logged in.
If your user is always logged in when you want to stream, you can skip this step.
Enable user lingering:
This allows Moonshine to run applications in the user's session even when the user is not logged in.
If your user is always logged in when you want to stream, you can skip this step.
Enable the service to start on boot and run immediately:
sudo systemctl enable --now moonshine@$USER
Enable the service to start on boot and run immediately:
Source
The following dependencies are required to build:
Then compile and run:
Configuration
A configuration file is created automatically if the path you provide doesn't exist.
When using the AUR package, it defaults to $XDG_CONFIG_HOME/moonshine/config.toml.
Pairing with a client
When you connect with Moonlight for the first time, it will show a PIN.
A notification will appear on the host that you can click to open the pairing page, or you can visit it manually at http://localhost:47989/pin .
You can also pair from the command line:
Adding applications
Each application runs in its own isolated streaming session. Add them to config.toml like this:
title: The name shown in Moonlight.
boxart (optional): Path to a cover image.
command: The command to run. First entry is the executable, the rest are arguments.
pre_command (optional): Commands to run before launching the application. Each entry is a separate command, executed in order. Runs synchronously — the session waits for all to finish.
post_command (optional): Commands to run after the streaming session ends. Each entry is a separate command, executed in order. Runs synchronously — the server waits for all to finish.
Example:
Application scanners
Scanners automatically detect installed applications so you don't have to add them manually.
Steam scanner — finds all installed Steam games:
Desktop scanner — finds applications from .desktop files:
FAQ
How does this compare to Sunshine?
Sunshine supports more platforms and has more features overall. Moonshine is Linux-only.
Moonshine runs each streaming session in its own isolated environment, separate from your desktop. This means your host PC stays usable while you stream, and it works without an active desktop session.
Sunshine supports more platforms and has more features overall. Moonshine is Linux-only.
Moonshine runs each streaming session in its own isolated environment, separate from your desktop. This means your host PC stays usable while you stream, and it works without an active desktop session.
Security
Moonshine is not designed for use on public networks.
The underlying GameStream protocol has limitations that mean traffic is not fully encrypted at the application level.
If you need to stream over the internet, use a VPN such as Tailscale, WireGuard, or ZeroTier.
Do not expose Moonshine ports directly to the internet.
Acknowledgement
This wouldn't have been possible without the incredible work by the people behind the following projects:
Moonlight, without it there would be no client for Moonshine.
Sunshine, which laid a lot of the groundwork for the host part of the API.
Inputtino, for a thorough implementation of input devices.
magic-mirror, for inspiration of using Vulkan and a Wayland compositor for headless streaming.