super secret fix

dashboard/index.html

@@ -1931,6 +1931,11 @@
                 return fallback;
             };
 
+            // Helper: detect API placeholders like "unknown" (case-insensitive)
+            const isUnknown = (value) => {
+                return typeof value === 'string' && value.trim().toLowerCase() === 'unknown';
+            };
+
             // Process nodes from topology or fallback to node_profiles directly
             let nodesToProcess = {};
             if (clusterState.topology && Array.isArray(clusterState.topology.nodes)) {
@@ -1961,10 +1966,15 @@
                 memBytesAvailable = getBytes(ramAvailVal);
                 const memBytesUsed = Math.max(memBytesTotal - memBytesAvailable, 0);
 
-                // Extract model information
-                const modelId = pick(nodeProfile, 'model_id', 'modelId', 'Unknown');
-                const chipId = pick(nodeProfile, 'chip_id', 'chipId', '');
-                const friendlyName = pick(nodeProfile, 'friendly_name', 'friendlyName', `${nodeId.substring(0, 8)}...`);
+                // Extract model information with graceful placeholders while node is loading
+                const rawModelId = pick(nodeProfile, 'model_id', 'modelId', 'Unknown');
+                const rawChipId = pick(nodeProfile, 'chip_id', 'chipId', '');
+                const rawFriendlyName = pick(nodeProfile, 'friendly_name', 'friendlyName', `${nodeId.substring(0, 8)}...`);
+
+                // When API has not fully loaded (reports "unknown"), present a nice default
+                const modelId = isUnknown(rawModelId) ? 'Mac Studio' : rawModelId;
+                const chipId = isUnknown(rawChipId) ? '' : rawChipId;
+                const friendlyName = (!rawFriendlyName || isUnknown(rawFriendlyName)) ? 'Mac' : rawFriendlyName;
 
                 // Extract network addresses (support snake_case and camelCase)
                 const addrList = [];

src/exo/main.py

@@ -26,6 +26,7 @@ from exo.utils.chainlit_ui import (
     launch_chainlit,
     terminate_process,
 )
+from exo.utils.browser import open_url_in_browser_when_ready
 
 
 # TODO: Entrypoint refactor
@@ -168,7 +169,9 @@ def main():
     # TODO: Refactor the current verbosity system
     logger_setup(EXO_LOG, args.verbosity)
     logger.info("Starting EXO")
-
+    
+    node = anyio.run(Node.create, args)
+    
     ui_proc = None
     if args.with_chainlit:
         cfg = ChainlitConfig(
@@ -177,16 +180,16 @@ def main():
             ui_dir=os.path.abspath(os.path.join(os.path.dirname(__file__), "ui")),
         )
         try:
-            ui_proc = launch_chainlit(cfg)
+            ui_proc = launch_chainlit(cfg, wait_ready=False)
             logger.info(
-                f"Chainlit running at http://{cfg.host}:{cfg.port} (UI -> API http://localhost:8000/v1)"
+                f"Launching Chainlit (non-blocking) at http://{cfg.host}:{cfg.port} (UI -> API http://localhost:8000/v1)"
             )
         except ChainlitLaunchError as e:
-            logger.error(str(e))
-            logger_cleanup()
-            raise
-
-    node = anyio.run(Node.create, args)
+            logger.warning(f"Chainlit not started: {e}")
+    
+    # Open the dashboard once the API is reachable.
+    if args.spawn_api:
+        open_url_in_browser_when_ready(f"http://localhost:{args.api_port}")
     try:
         anyio.run(node.run)
     finally: