Mac App Download¶
The desktop app is the production, no-terminal install path. Release builds
are coordinated from main; the app bundles the
complete CLI runtime and walks you through setup in the app — no terminal
required — including your coding backend, managed voice audio, and iPhone
pairing. (Prefer working from source? See
Developer Setup. On Windows, ./scripts/setup runs
natively in beta — or use the Docker image, the most
battle-tested Windows option today.)
Before you start, check the shared prerequisites. You do not need to install the Tailscale app: onboarding asks you to connect your phone with Openbase VPN or Openbase Direct. The full experience requires Openbase VPN (Recommended), which is built on Tailscale networking technology; choose Direct only when an organization or device policy blocks VPNs. See the shared first-run setup for the connection tradeoff, conditional authentication stages, and Advanced diagnostics.
Download and Open¶
Download the Apple Silicon app from Downloads and open it. The app activates its bundled CLI runtime and walks you through the guided setup flow — see Desktop App for what each step looks like.
The bundled runtime package includes Python, Openbase Coder dependencies,
the console build, and LiveKit server, so no developer tooling (Git, uv,
Node) is required.
Prefer the Terminal?¶
If you would rather run the underlying setup commands yourself instead of letting the app drive them, follow Manual Setup for the Desktop App; it is the same installation, operated by hand from your own terminal.
Optional: Fully Local Audio¶
After setup, for fully local speech-to-text and text-to-speech:
This requires an Apple Silicon Mac — see Local-Only Mode.
After Setup¶
Authenticate with Openbase Cloud (required for iOS app pairing and cloud onboarding):
Then verify the install with the health check commands, and continue with the next steps.
If a development workspace install already exists on this machine, the two cannot coexist — uninstall it first.