Viewer Backends

Dimos uses Rerun for visualizations. It can be disabled by using dimos --viewer none .... Blueprints add Rerun stream visualization with vis_module(...), which renders typed robot streams according to GlobalConfig.viewer.

Quick Start

Choose your viewer via the CLI:

# Rerun native viewer - dimos-viewer with built-in teleop + click-to-navigate
dimos run unitree-go2

# Disable visualization:
dimos --viewer none run unitree-go2

Control how the Rerun viewer opens with --rerun-open and --rerun-web:

# Open native desktop viewer (default)
dimos --rerun-open native run unitree-go2

# Open web viewer in browser
dimos --rerun-open web run unitree-go2

# Open both native and web
dimos --rerun-open both run unitree-go2

# No viewer (headless) — data still accessible via gRPC
dimos --rerun-open none run unitree-go2

# Serve the web viewer without auto-opening a browser
dimos --rerun-web --rerun-open native run unitree-go2

Viewer Modes Explained

Rerun Native (`rerun`, `--rerun-open native`) — Default

What you get:

dimos-viewer, a custom Dimensional fork of Rerun with built-in keyboard teleop and click-to-navigate
Native desktop application (opens automatically)
Better performance with larger maps/higher resolution
No browser or web server required

Rerun Web (`rerun`, `--rerun-open web`)

What you get:

Browser-based dashboard at http://localhost:7779
Rerun 3D viewer + command center sidebar in one page
Teleop controls and goal setting via the web UI
Works headless (no display required)

Rendering with Custom Blueprints

To enable visualization in your own blueprint, use vis_module:

skip

from dimos.core.coordination.blueprints import autoconnect
from dimos.core.global_config import global_config
from dimos.hardware.sensors.camera.module import CameraModule
from dimos.visualization.vis_module import vis_module

camera_demo = autoconnect(
    CameraModule.blueprint(),
    vis_module(viewer_backend=global_config.viewer),
)

Run the stack locally (this blocks until you stop the process):

skip

from dimos.core.coordination.module_coordinator import ModuleCoordinator

if __name__ == "__main__":
    ModuleCoordinator.build(camera_demo).loop()

Every LCM stream, such as color_image (output by CameraModule), that uses a data type (like Image) that has a .to_rerun method will get rendered (rr.log) using the LCM topic as the rerun entity path. In other words: to render something, simply log it to a stream and it will automatically be available in rerun.

Performance Tuning

Symptom: Slow Map Updates

If you notice:

Robot appears to “walk across empty space”
Costmap updates lag behind the robot
Visualization stutters or freezes

This happens on lower-end hardware (NUC, older laptops) with large maps.

Increase Voxel Size

Edit dimos/robot/unitree/go2/blueprints/smart/unitree_go2.py:

skip

# Before (high detail, slower on large maps)
voxel_mapper(voxel_size=0.05),  # 5cm voxels

# After (lower detail, 8x faster)
voxel_mapper(voxel_size=0.1),   # 10cm voxels

Trade-off:

Larger voxels = fewer voxels = faster updates
But slightly less detail in the map

Direct Visualization from a Module

If you want to log data to Rerun directly from inside a module (e.g. for debugging or one-off visualizations), use rerun_init instead of calling rr.init() yourself. It handles colormap registration and can optionally start a gRPC server so a viewer can connect.

skip

import rerun as rr
from dimos.visualization.rerun.init import rerun_init

# Basic init (no gRPC server — use when RerunBridgeModule is already running)
rerun_init()
rr.log("debug/my_points", rr.Points3D(positions=[[1, 2, 3]]))

# Start a gRPC server so a viewer can connect.  `grpc_config` is required
# whenever start_grpc=True; it carries the connect URL and the server memory cap.
rerun_init(
    start_grpc=True,
    grpc_config={
        "connect_url": "rerun+http://127.0.0.1:9999/proxy",
        "server_memory_limit": "4GB",
    },
)
# Then connect with: dimos-viewer --connect rerun+http://127.0.0.1:9999/proxy

When a RerunBridgeModule is already part of your blueprint, you typically don’t need start_grpc — just call rerun_init() and log directly with rr.log(). The data will appear in the existing viewer.

How to use Rerun on `dev` (and the TF/entity nuances)

Rerun on dev is module-driven: modules decide what to log, and Blueprint.build() sets up the shared viewer + default layout.

Getting Started

Installation

Usage

Capabilities

Platforms

Development

Quick Start

Viewer Modes Explained

Rerun Native (`rerun`, `--rerun-open native`) — Default

Rerun Web (`rerun`, `--rerun-open web`)

Rendering with Custom Blueprints

Performance Tuning

Symptom: Slow Map Updates

Increase Voxel Size

Direct Visualization from a Module

How to use Rerun on `dev` (and the TF/entity nuances)

​Quick Start

​Viewer Modes Explained

​Rerun Native (rerun, --rerun-open native) — Default

​Rerun Web (rerun, --rerun-open web)

​Rendering with Custom Blueprints

​Performance Tuning

​Symptom: Slow Map Updates

​Increase Voxel Size

​Direct Visualization from a Module

​How to use Rerun on dev (and the TF/entity nuances)

Quick Start

Viewer Modes Explained

Rerun Native (`rerun`, `--rerun-open native`) — Default

Rerun Web (`rerun`, `--rerun-open web`)

Rendering with Custom Blueprints

Performance Tuning

Symptom: Slow Map Updates

Increase Voxel Size

Direct Visualization from a Module

How to use Rerun on `dev` (and the TF/entity nuances)