Installation

Installation

PolyGraph ships as a desktop app for Windows, macOS, and Linux — no toolchain required. If you'd rather build from source or run the web/CLI version, see Development & Building.

Desktop app (recommended)

1. Download the latest build from the Releases page:
   • Windows — .msi or .exe
   • macOS — .dmg
   • Linux — .AppImage or .deb
2. Install and open it.
3. Paste an absolute project folder path into Scan a folder and explore. The app reads the folder directly from disk — nothing is uploaded or copied. Continue at Getting Started.

Builds are unsigned

To keep the project free and toolchain-light, release builds are not code-signed. On first launch:

• Windows shows an "unknown publisher" SmartScreen warning → More info → Run anyway.
• macOS Gatekeeper blocks it → right-click the app → Open, or allow it in System Settings → Privacy & Security.

Auto-update is therefore not enabled — grab new versions from the Releases page.

Verify your download (optional)

Each release attaches SHA256SUMS-*.txt. Compare your file's hash against it:

# macOS / Linux
shasum -a 256 PolyGraph_*.AppImage
# Windows (PowerShell)
Get-FileHash .\PolyGraph_*.msi -Algorithm SHA256

Platform requirements

Platform	Needs
Windows	The Microsoft Edge WebView2 runtime, which the desktop shell (Tauri) uses to draw the UI. It ships with Windows 10 (1803+) and Windows 11, so it's present on virtually all supported machines.
macOS	A recent macOS; the system WebKit webview draws the UI.
Linux	A WebKitGTK-based webview (libwebkit2gtk-4.1) and its GTK stack — generally already present on mainstream desktops; the .deb declares them as dependencies.
Web version	A WebGPU-capable browser (recent Chrome or Edge) — the graph canvas is GPU-rendered.

Why WebGPU/WebView2? The graph canvas is drawn by a GPU vector renderer (Vello). The desktop app draws it through your system's webview; the web version needs the browser's WebGPU. See Rendering & Performance.

Troubleshooting a launch

If the app won't start or the canvas is blank, see Troubleshooting & FAQ (covers WebView2/WebGPU, blank canvas, and large-repo behavior).