Connecting to Moonraker

Alabaster opens one WebSocket to Moonraker and connects on its own. There is nothing to start.

Where it looks by default

Alabaster looks for /websocket on the same origin as the page. A printer's own Raspberry Pi serves the page from that origin, so a same-origin install connects with no configuration.

A separate host does not serve Moonraker at that origin. Add the printer's address to connect.

Setting the address

Open Settings → Printer service and enter the address. Three forms work:

You type	Alabaster uses
printer.local:7125	ws://printer.local:7125/websocket
http://192.168.1.42:7125	ws://192.168.1.42:7125/websocket
ws://printer.local:7125/websocket	exactly that

Alabaster adds the /websocket path when it is missing. Click Save and connect.

The address is saved in this browser only. Other browsers, and other devices, keep their own.

Letting your browser reach Moonraker

A cross-origin connection is any printer that did not serve the page itself. It needs your browser's address in that printer's moonraker.conf:

[authorization]
cors_domains:
    http://alabaster.local

Restart Moonraker after changing it. See Installation for a fuller example.

Alabaster reports two different connection failures:

• "Moonraker could not be reached": nothing answered. Check the address, the port, and whether the printer is on.
• "Something answered, but refused the connection": a server responded and turned the connection away. This is almost always a missing cors_domains entry.

Alabaster only moves from the first message to the second, never the other way, and only for a printer this browser has never successfully reached. A reconnect after a restart is never reported as a permissions problem.

Logging in

A printer can also require a username and password, set with force_logins in the same [authorization] block. Most printers do not turn it on.

cors_domains and trusted_clients control which browsers Moonraker accepts. They do not control who can act once connected.

If your printer requires a login, Settings shows a Users category. Otherwise it stays hidden. See Settings → Users for logging in, changing your password, and managing other accounts.

What happens after connecting

In order:

1. Alabaster identifies itself to Moonraker.
2. It reads server.info to find out which components and file roots exist.
3. It follows Klipper's lifecycle notifications, and polls while Klipper is still starting.
4. It subscribes to the printer objects the open screens need.

Navigation reflects step 2. Alabaster hides destinations that need something your Moonraker does not have: Timelapse without the timelapse component, History without the history component, Configuration without a config_path.

Step 4 fills the dashboard: every heater, temperature sensor, temperature fan, controllable fan, output pin, macro, motion limit, and the bed mesh. Alabaster discovers all of these from the printer; you do not configure them.

Losing and regaining the connection

The connection status is shown in the header. This is the only global status indicator. Modules do not each show their own status panel.

While a service is unavailable:

• The page stays exactly as it is. No reload, no route change, no empty frame.
• Values stay on screen, dimmed, and are labeled as last-known rather than current.
• Fresh data crossfades back in when subscriptions are rebuilt.

Reconnecting re-reads server state and recreates every subscription. It does not touch what you were doing.

Interrupted Commands Are Not Replayed

A command in flight when the connection drops fails visibly. Alabaster does not resend it, and does not guess whether a heater target or a print start is safe to repeat. Retry it yourself.

Restarting things on purpose

The power menu in the header restarts what you ask it to. The page survives all of it:

Action	What it restarts
Restart Klipper	The Klipper host process.
Firmware restart	Klipper and the microcontrollers.
Restart Moonraker	The Moonraker service.
Reboot host	The whole computer. Asks first.
Shut down host	Powers it off. Asks first, and warns you will need physical access.

Any device power switches Moonraker knows about appear in the same menu. They are locked while a print is running.