Install the Maude desktop app for macOS and Windows — canvas browser, git versioning, GitHub sign-in, and live collaboration, no terminal. Auto-updates in the background.

The desktop app is Maude with no terminal. Download it, sign in with GitHub, and start designing — everything the CLI does (canvas browser, git versioning, collaboration, AI editing) lives in the UI. It keeps itself up to date in the background.

Download Maude

Platform-detected download for macOS and Windows.

Install

Download the installer for your platform — .dmg (macOS) or .msi (Windows).
Open it. On macOS, drag Maude to Applications; on Windows, run the installer.
Launch Maude and sign in with GitHub (or open a local folder, or connect a team hub) in the onboarding wizard.
You land in a working project. No terminal at any step.

System requirements

Platform	Minimum	Installer
macOS	13 Ventura (Intel or Apple Silicon)	`.dmg`
Windows	10 (64-bit)	`.msi`

Disk: ~250 MB. The optional AI editing pairs with a Claude Code you already have installed and runs on your own Pro/Max subscription — never API billing.

What AI editing needs

The canvas browser, version history, and collaboration work the moment you open the app — no extra setup. AI editing is the one capability that reaches outside the app: its chat panel drives your paired Claude Code.

So the paired Claude Code needs just:

a logged-in claude (claude → /login) — the single hard prerequisite, running on your own Pro/Max subscription;
the maude CLI on your PATH (npm i -g @1agh/maude) — needed for the full multi-step /design:* workflows (screenshots, critic passes) that shell out to it; the everyday "edit this canvas" path works without it.

You do not run /plugin marketplace add or /plugin install in the desktop app — the plugins load automatically. Those steps remain the path for the web maude design serve flow, or for driving /design:* from your own terminal Claude Code (see Getting Started).

You don't have to hunt for any of this: the first-run welcome screen has an AI editing readiness strip that checks each piece and shows a copy-paste fix for anything missing, and the chat panel surfaces the same breakdown with a Re-check button. None of it blocks the rest of the app.

Auto-update

Maude polls a signed release feed, downloads new versions in the background, and shows a non-blocking banner:

Maude updated · restart to apply — Restart now

Click Restart now and you're on the latest build. There's no npm install, no terminal. Updates are signed with an ed25519 key; the app refuses any update whose signature doesn't verify, so a tampered feed can't push a rogue build.

Unsigned builds (early releases)

Until platform code-signing certificates are wired, installers may be unsigned:

macOS — Gatekeeper blocks the first launch. Right-click the app → Open, then confirm. You only do this once.
Windows — SmartScreen shows a warning. Click More info → Run anyway.

Signed builds remove these prompts; auto-update artifacts are always signed regardless.

Teams

The desktop app connects to a self-hosted hub from the onboarding wizard's Advanced door — no maude design link in a terminal. Once linked, cursors, comments, and edits sync in real time with anyone on the same branch.

What's included

Canvas browser — every screen as a live, multi-artboard canvas; Cmd+Click to edit CSS against your tokens.
Git versioning, no git — See changes, Save a version, Publish, Get latest, browse History, compare visual before/after.
Sign in with GitHub — device flow → OS keychain; start private projects, share by username.
Live collaboration — branch-scoped multiplayer over your own hub.
AI editing — a chat panel that drives your paired Claude Code (needs the Maude plugins + maude CLI in that Claude Code; the readiness strip walks you through it).

Desktop app