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Getting started

Warning

Alpha software. Cortex Desktop is not recommended for production use. Features can change or break between commits, nothing is guaranteed to be stable, and builds are unsigned (no code signing, no notarization). Back up anything you care about and expect rough edges.

Requirements

  • Bun 1.4 and Node 22 or newer.
  • macOS, Windows or Linux. Packages are unsigned.

Build and run

git clone https://github.com/CortexLM/desktop.git
cd desktop
bun install
node node_modules/electron/install.js
bun run build
bun run start

Bun skips Electron's postinstall script, which is why the install.js step exists. On a Linux machine without a display, install Xvfb and run xvfb-run -a bun run start. Keep the Chromium sandbox on: if Electron refuses to start because chrome-sandbox is not set up, run sudo chown root node_modules/electron/dist/chrome-sandbox && sudo chmod 4755 node_modules/electron/dist/chrome-sandbox. Only the automated Linux end-to-end tests pass --no-sandbox (see tests/e2e/fixtures.ts); never use it for normal use.

Add a provider

  1. Open Settings, Providers and models.
  2. Pick a provider from the catalog. Anthropic, OpenAI, Google and OpenAI-compatible endpoints are supported (providers).
  3. Paste your key. It goes to the main process and is never shown again, only its last four characters.
  4. Pick a model and open a new chat (Cmd/Ctrl+N).

The catalog comes from models.dev. Offline, the app falls back to its cached copy.

Packaging

bun run pack       # unpacked app in dist/
bun run dist:mac   # dmg and zip

Develop on the renderer only

bun run dev:api
bun run dev:app    # http://localhost:5299

Next

Configuration, Troubleshooting, CONTRIBUTING.