Instant Preview

Instant Preview lets you prove Rover on a live site before you install the production snippet. The website hosts preview creation, while the open-source Rover repo exposes the client-side preview tools you can inspect and extend.

Three ways to try Rover

Hosted website playground

Start from Rover Instant Preview. Sign in, stay on the Hosted Preview tab, and Rover creates a temporary preview for you.

Try on Other Sites from Workspace config

Start in Workspace, copy the test config JSON, then open Try on Other Sites to generate the exact Helper, Console, or Bookmarklet artifact.

Open-source Preview Helper

Use the public extension app in the Rover repo to inject Rover from generic config JSON or from hosted preview handoff URLs.

SDK preview helpers

Generate a console snippet, bookmarklet, or script-tag snippet directly from Rover config in your own tooling.

Path matrix

Path	Needs config?	Persistence	Best use
Hosted Preview	No. Rover creates temporary preview state for you.	Rover-managed preview session.	Fast demos and mobile fallback.
Preview Helper	Yes. Workspace config or hosted handoff.	Re-injects after navigation.	Best live desktop path.
Console	Yes. Generated snippet.	Current page only.	DevTools and debugging.
Bookmarklet	Yes. Generated bookmarklet.	Current page only.	Drag-and-click demos.
Workspace config	Yes. `siteId` + `publicKey` from Workspace.	Persistent site config.	Source of truth for Helper / Console / Bookmarklet and production install.

Two config sources

Workspace production config: persistent siteId, publicKey, optional siteKeyId, domains, and domain scope.

Hosted preview handoff config: temporary preview identifiers and runtime tokens created by the hosted preview backend.

Get config from Workspace

To use Rover outside the hosted preview flow, open Workspace, create or rotate a site key, then copy the test config JSON from the Try Rover on Other Sites card. The underlying values are:

siteId
publicKey (pk_site_*)
optional siteKeyId
allowedDomains and domainScopeMode

Then either paste that JSON into Try on Other Sites, or use the same values directly in the SDK or Preview Helper. See Workspace docs and Try on Other Sites for the full flow.

Preview tokens vs site keys

Hosted preview tokens are short-lived demo credentials. Workspace site keys are persistent production install credentials. Do not treat preview tokens as production keys.

Preview flow: temporary token, exact-host demo scope, easy handoff to helper/console/bookmarklet.

Production flow: Workspace-managed site config, persistent public key, generated install snippet.

Direct hosted preview API

If you want to call the hosted preview service directly instead of using only the website UI, start with Instant Preview API docs. That page covers the signed-in auth model, curl examples, the response contract, and the OpenAPI spec.

Create route: signed-in Firebase bearer auth via POST /v2/rover/previews.

Follow-on routes: preview token in query/body or bearer auth for get/events/input/cancel/share/bootstrap.

Source of truth: OpenAPI spec in rtrvr-cloud-backend.

Open-source links

Rover GitHub repo for the public runtime, helper app, and SDK.

Instant Preview API docs for curl examples, auth rules, route behavior, and field reference.

Preview Helper app for the extension source and usage guide.

SDK preview helpers for console snippet, bookmarklet, script-tag, and launch attach APIs.

Try on Other Sites for the Workspace-first live-inject walkthrough.

Instant Preview architecture for the split between OSS clients and the hosted preview control plane.

OpenAPI spec for the machine-readable hosted preview contract.