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Desktop App

Desktop App

The desktop app wraps the local host in a native window with a system tray, native menus, OS notifications, and an auto-updater. It is the same web interface you would see in a browser — including all its screen-reader support — in a window that manages the agent's lifecycle for you.

Download and install

Download the installer for your platform from the project's GitHub Releases page (Windows NSIS/MSI, macOS app/dmg, Linux deb/AppImage). The app bundles the full agent host — no separate Python install is needed. It uses the platform's native webview (WebView2 on Windows, WKWebView on macOS, WebKitGTK on Linux) rather than shipping a browser engine. See Installation for the other install methods.

Attach or spawn

On startup the app probes http://127.0.0.1:8765 for a running Holaryn host:

  • A host is already running (an installed service, or holaryn serve in a terminal) — the app attaches as a viewer. It opens a window onto that host, and quitting the app leaves the host running, since the app did not start it.
  • Nothing is running — the app starts its bundled host itself, waits for it to be ready, and owns its lifecycle: quitting the app stops the agent.

So launching the app next to a running service is always safe — you get a window onto the existing agent, never a collision.

System tray, and what "close" means

The app lives in the system tray (tooltip "Holaryn Agent") and distinguishes hiding the window from stopping the agent:

  • Closing the window hides it to the tray — the agent keeps running. Bring it back by left-clicking the tray icon or choosing Show/Hide window from the tray menu.
  • Quit is the only thing that stops the agent (when the app owns the host). Quit from the tray menu, the app menu, or Ctrl+Q.
  • The tray menu also offers Open in browser (opens the UI in your default browser) and Check for updates….

Native menus

  • Edit — standard clipboard operations: Undo/Redo, Cut/Copy/Paste, Select All.
  • Holaryn — Save Chat Transcript… (Ctrl+Shift+S) exports the active chat: every input and response with timestamps and the model that produced each reply, as one Markdown or JSON file (you pick the format, then choose where to save in a native dialog). Quit (Ctrl+Q).
  • View — Reload (Ctrl+R); Zoom In (Ctrl+=), Zoom Out (Ctrl+-), and Reset Zoom (Ctrl+Shift+0) for low-vision use — the level persists across launches and every change is announced to screen readers. The complete workspace menu follows the same order as the navigation rail: Chat (Ctrl+1), Code (Ctrl+2), Browser (Ctrl+3), Computer (Ctrl+4), Agents (Ctrl+5), Teams (Ctrl+6), Scheduler (Ctrl+7), Goals (Ctrl+8), Batches (Ctrl+9), Approvals (Ctrl+0), Packages, Training data, Workflows, Self-improvement, Annotations, and Settings (Ctrl+,).
  • Help — Keyboard Shortcuts (Ctrl+.), User Guide (F1), First-time Setup…, Report an Issue, Check for updates…, and About Holaryn.

All accelerators are defaults; rebind any of them in Settings → Keyboard Shortcuts, and the native menus update live to show the new combinations — no restart. On macOS, Ctrl reads as Cmd.

Notifications

The app raises a native OS notification when the agent needs you or finishes — approval needed, a question asked, task complete, or an error — even while the window is hidden in the tray. OS toasts are announced by screen readers such as JAWS and Orca.

Auto-updater

The installed app keeps itself current from GitHub Releases, on the channel you
pick under Settings → System → Software updates
(Stable, Beta, or Nightly). The whole flow is native — it works even when the
window is hidden in the tray:

  • On startup the app runs a quiet channel-aware check, and the background
    checker keeps watching at the interval you chose. Check for updates…
    (Help menu and tray) checks on demand and gives the same channel-aware
    answer as the Settings page.
  • When a newer build is found in the background, you first get an OS
    notification — "Holaryn Agent X.Y is available on the {channel} channel" — and
    the ask dialog waits for your next interaction with the app (clicking the
    tray icon, showing the window, or the next launch), so it never interrupts
    you mid-keystroke. The native dialog states your current version, the new
    version, and the channel, with Update Now and Not Now buttons.
  • Not Now waits until the next app start. To silence a specific build for
    good, use Skip this version under Settings → System → Software updates.
  • After installing, a native dialog offers Restart Now / Later and says
    the app will close and reopen. Nothing downloads, installs, or restarts
    without your consent, and every prompt is an OS-native dialog or toast a
    screen reader announces.
  • Every update is signature-verified before it installs, and one update
    refreshes both the window shell and the bundled agent host.
  • Update failures never crash the app; it just keeps running the current
    version.
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