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Genesis Desktop is an app you install. Nothing else is needed: no Docker, no Kubernetes and no cloud account.

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What it is

Genesis Desktop runs Genesis on your own computer. You sign in with your Genesis account, and Genesis’s agents, chats, connections and settings live on that computer. Genesis listens only on a local address (127.0.0.1), so other computers on your network cannot reach it. Your Genesis account includes Genesis AI, so there is no AI provider to set up. Your coding tools (Claude Code, Codex, Cursor, Claude Desktop and others) can use Genesis’s agents and data from the same computer.

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Download

Download Genesis Desktop from the Try Me site: try.genesiscomputing.io. Sign in there, and the page offers the download for your computer. Direct links to the current public build: These links always lead to the newest public build on the stable channel. Each download is about 600–800 MB.

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System requirements

On a Mac, Genesis does not need Apple’s Command Line Tools. Features that work with Git repositories need Git installed; the /usr/bin/git placeholder that macOS ships without the Command Line Tools does not count.

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Install and first run

  1. Open the downloaded .dmg file.
  2. Double-click Genesis in the window that opens. If macOS asks whether to open an app downloaded from the internet, choose Open. Genesis is signed and notarized by Apple.
  3. Choose Install. Genesis moves itself to Applications and opens from there. Dragging Genesis to Applications works too.
The first launch takes longer while Genesis sets itself up.

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Sign in

  1. Choose Sign in (or Create an account). Genesis opens the sign-in page in your web browser and shows a Sign in to Genesis window while it waits. That window has Copy link (paste the link into another browser), Open in browser (open the page again) and Cancel.
  2. Sign in with your Genesis account in the browser.
  3. When the browser page says you are signed in, it tries to switch you back to Genesis Desktop on its own. If it does not, choose Return to Genesis Desktop on that page; your browser may ask permission to open the app. Or just switch back to the Genesis window.
  4. The waiting window notices the sign-in on its own, shows Signed in as your email, and closes. If the sign-in fails or expires, it says why and lets you try again.
After you sign in, Genesis opens a chat with Eve, its main agent, and offers a card to connect your coding tools. You can skip the card and do this later. Closing the window keeps Genesis running, so it reopens instantly. On a Mac, Genesis stays in the menu bar; use Quit Genesis there, or ⌘Q, to stop it completely.

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Genesis AI

Genesis Desktop uses Genesis AI for every AI request. It is included with your Genesis account as a monthly allowance:
  • The app shows how much of this month’s allowance is left as a percentage, with the date it resets, for example 63% left · resets Nov 9.
  • The allowance resets every month.
  • If you use it all before the reset, Genesis tells you when it resets and how to keep going, for example by asking the Genesis team for more.
  • The allowance belongs to your account, so it is shared by every computer you sign in on and by your hosted Try Me instance.

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Other AI providers

Genesis Desktop does not use other AI providers. Using your own provider, such as OpenAI, Anthropic, Amazon Bedrock, Azure OpenAI or Snowflake Cortex, is available in Genesis Enterprise, which you deploy in your own environment with one of the other deployment options (for example Snowflake Native App, Databricks or Kubernetes on AWS). Contact Genesis for more information.

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Automatic updates and version names

Genesis Desktop updates itself from the stable channel:
  • Updates download in the background. When one is ready, a Software Update window offers Install and Relaunch, Install on Quit or Skip This Version.
  • With Automatically download and install updates in the future ticked, Genesis installs a downloaded update on its own when you are not using it: no agent is working, nothing is being sent, and nobody has used the app for a couple of minutes. A 10-second notice with Cancel comes first. Clear the box to be asked before anything downloads.
  • On a Mac, Check for Updates… in the Genesis menu opens the same window at any time.
  • If an update is required, Genesis shows an Update required screen that downloads and installs it from inside the app.
Genesis Desktop is named after the Genesis release it is built on. The first build on Genesis 1.19.98 is 1.19.98. Later Desktop builds on the same release are 1.19.98d1, 1.19.98d2 and so on, until the next release (1.19.99). The hosted Try Me version of the same build has the same name.

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Use Genesis from your coding tools

Genesis Desktop can add itself to the coding tools on your computer as an MCP server named genesis-desktop. Your coding agent can then ask Genesis’s agents to do work, search your data context and run queries through Genesis. Use the card after the first sign-in, or the MCP button at the top of the window, then Use Genesis from your coding tools. Genesis lists the tools it finds on this computer. Check the ones you want and choose Connect. Genesis adds itself to each tool and checks that the connection works. Before it edits a tool’s settings file, it makes a backup and keeps every other setting. After you connect, start a new session in the coding tool (or restart the app) so it loads Genesis.
For Claude Code and Codex, Genesis needs the claude or codex command on this computer. Genesis Desktop 1.19.98d1 and later also connect Codex through the ChatGPT desktop app alone. Finding Claude Code when only the VS Code extension is installed, without the claude command, comes in a later update.

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Command mode

Command mode lets agents run commands on your computer. It is off by default, and it is available on Mac. To turn it on:
  1. Open Settings → Advanced Settings.
  2. Type local_cli_enabled in Filter settings….
  3. Turn on desktop.local_cli_enabled and apply the change. It takes effect on the agent’s next turn, with no restart.
How it works:
  • Commands run with bash inside a sandbox (Anthropic’s sandbox-runtime, which ships with Genesis Desktop). In the sandbox a command can read and write its working folder and read system files. The rest of your home folder stays unreadable, except the settings and sign-in of the aws, gh, az or git command it runs.
  • A single plain read, such as ls, cat, grep, git status or a read-only aws … list-… command, runs at once.
  • Every other command, including anything with a pipe, &&, ; or a redirect, waits for your approval. An approval card in the chat shows the exact command, and flags destructive ones. Nothing runs until you approve it.
  • Sign-in commands are handed to you to run yourself.
For the full rules, see Genesis Desktop command mode and run_local_command.

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Your data and diagnostics

What stays on your computer:
  • Your chats, agents, connections, saved credentials and settings are stored on your computer: on a Mac in ~/Library/Application Support/Genesis, on Windows in %LOCALAPPDATA%\Genesis.
  • Genesis connects to your databases and other data sources directly from your computer.
What leaves your computer:
  • AI requests. What an agent sends to the model, including your messages and any data it has read for the answer, goes to Genesis AI.
  • Check-ins. Every few minutes Genesis Desktop checks in with Genesis: your Genesis account ID, the app version and operating system, which features, tools and agents you used (by name), which coding tools you connected, the types of your connections and AI models, query counts and outcomes, and error codes.
  • Diagnostics. Genesis Desktop sends Genesis diagnostic logs to help fix problems: log lines around an error when it happens, and recent logs regularly (at most once an hour). Logs can include the names of your files, tables and connections, the text of queries, and what Genesis was working on. Passwords, keys, access tokens, sign-in headers, credentials inside connection strings and email addresses are removed on your computer before anything is sent. Diagnostics are kept for 30 days.
  • Startup failures. If Genesis Desktop cannot start, it sends a short failure report with the app version, the operating system, why it stopped and the last lines of that start’s log, with secrets removed. If the report cannot be sent, for example because the computer is offline, it is kept on the computer and sent at a later start.
Help → Send diagnostics shows you a preview of the logs and sends them right away. Settings → Advanced Settings has a Diagnostics section that describes what is sent. For the technical details, see Genesis Desktop diagnostics.

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Can’t install apps? Use Genesis online

If you cannot install apps on your computer, use Genesis online instead. Sign in on try.genesiscomputing.io and choose Start hosted Genesis. Hosted Try Me runs the same Genesis build in Genesis’s network, with nothing to install, and uses the same Genesis AI allowance. Because it runs in Genesis’s network rather than on your computer, it is less able to reach data on your internal network.