User Guide · Your computer

Zaelar on your computer.

The desktop app (we also call it the Local Daemon) is a small program for your Mac or PC. It gives your agent two things only your own computer has: a browser window where you sign in to your sites, and the folders you choose to share.

Install it

Download it from zaelar.com/download: the page picks the right build for your computer (Mac with Apple silicon, Mac with Intel, or Windows). It installs for your user only, so it never asks for an administrator password.

Mac: the installer is signed with our Apple Developer ID and notarized by Apple, so it opens without any warning. macOS 13 or later.
Windows: the build isn't signed with a publisher certificate yet, so SmartScreen may say «Windows protected your PC» the first time. Click More info → Run anyway. Windows 10 (22H2) or 11.

Once installed it lives in the menu bar (Mac) or the tray (Windows). From there you open your agent in its own window, choose folders, and quit. It starts again on its own when you log in; the system tells you it added a login item.

Developers can install it from a terminal instead; the one-line commands, and how to check a download against its signature, are on the download page.

Your folders, one by one

None is shared by default. You choose each folder in the 🖥 screen of your agent; Documents is suggested, nothing more. The first time you add Documents, Desktop or Downloads, macOS asks you once, in its own window.

Access is read-only: your agent can find and read documents there when you ask, and it never writes, moves or deletes anything. You can see the list at any time and stop sharing a folder with one click. Very broad folders, like your whole home folder, are refused, and it tells you why.

Searching inside many documents is slow. The app reads files when you ask; it doesn't build an index of your disk. Point your agent to the right folder and it goes much faster.

The sign-in window

Some sites ask you to log in or prove you're human. Instead of giving up, your agent tells you and opens that page in a Chrome window on your screen. You sign in yourself; the window closes on its own and the errand carries on. You can cancel it at any time.

You sign in once per site. The session is kept on your computer, in the app's own browser profile. It never reads or imports cookies, passwords or history from your everyday Chrome, Safari or Edge. It uses your installed Google Chrome; if there's none, it offers to download Chromium (the same engine) and shows the size first. Other browsers aren't supported yet.

With Zaelar Cloud beta

A self-hosted Zaelar on the same computer finds the app on its own. To connect it to your Zaelar Cloud agent, pair them once: in your agent, open the 🖥 screen and choose Pair to get a one-time code; in the app's menu choose Pair… and type it. The code works once and expires in a few minutes. After that your cloud agent can open a sign-in window or read an allowed folder on this computer — also when you talk to it from your phone.

The tunnel beta

Some sites block traffic from data centres, where cloud agents run. The tunnel lets your cloud agent browse those sites through your own internet connection instead. It is off until you switch it on, and before it starts you are told the two things that matter:

Your connection's address is the one those sites see while your agent browses.
If a site penalises automated browsing, the penalty falls on your connection.

The app only passes encrypted traffic to public websites: never to your home network, your router or other devices. Switch it off from the menu at any time; it stops at once.

From your phone

The app lives on your computer, not on the phone, so the phone gets part of what it does:

what	from the phone	why
Your files	Yes	When your phone talks to an agent paired with your computer, ask about a document in a folder you allowed: the computer reads it and the answer reaches you.
A sign-in or a check	No	That window opens on the computer, and you aren't sitting at it. Your agent says so itself and asks you to do it on a computer.

Updates

The app checks for a new version once a day, verifies its signature and checksum, and only then replaces itself. A version that fails the check is not installed.

Remove it

Quit it from the menu bar or tray, then run one line in a terminal. Your choice of folders is kept in case you install it again; the second line forgets them too.

macOS · Terminal

curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/asimovia/zaelar/main/daemon/packaging/macos/uninstall.sh | bash
# and forget the folders you chose:
curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/asimovia/zaelar/main/daemon/packaging/macos/uninstall.sh | bash -s -- --purge

Windows · PowerShell

irm https://raw.githubusercontent.com/asimovia/zaelar/main/daemon/packaging/windows/uninstall.ps1 | iex
# and forget the folders you chose:
& ([scriptblock]::Create((irm https://raw.githubusercontent.com/asimovia/zaelar/main/daemon/packaging/windows/uninstall.ps1))) -Purge