Installation

The desktop app is the easiest way to use Whittle. It needs no account and no internet connection: your designs are ordinary .whittle files on your computer, and every save keeps the previous version.

Want to share Whittle with other people or use it from several computers? See Self-Hosting or Docker instead.

Windows

One line (PowerShell, no administrator rights needed):

irm https://raw.githubusercontent.com/anand34577/whittle/main/install.ps1 | iex

Or by hand: from the latest release, download

• Whittle_<version>_x64-setup.exe: installs for your user only (recommended), or
• Whittle_<version>_x64_en-US.msi: installs for everyone on the computer (needs administrator rights).

Windows 10 and 11 are supported, on Intel/AMD and on ARM (it runs through Windows' built-in emulation).

"Windows protected your PC"? The installer isn't code-signed yet, so SmartScreen may warn about it. Click More info, then Run anyway. The one-line installer checks the download against the release's published checksums.

macOS

One line (Terminal):

curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/anand34577/whittle/main/install.sh | sh

This installs Whittle.app into /Applications (or ~/Applications if you can't write to /Applications).

Or by hand: download Whittle_<version>_universal.dmg from the latest release, open it, and drag Whittle into Applications. It runs natively on both Apple silicon and Intel Macs, macOS 11 Big Sur or newer.

"Whittle can't be opened because Apple cannot check it for malicious software"? Apps downloaded in a browser get this until they are notarized by Apple. The first time, right-click Whittle → Open → Open. On macOS 15 and newer: try to open it once, then go to System Settings → Privacy & Security and click Open Anyway. The one-line installer avoids this.

Linux

One line:

curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/anand34577/whittle/main/install.sh | sh

It picks the best package for your system:

Your system	What it installs
Debian, Ubuntu, Mint, Pop!_OS, Raspberry Pi OS 64-bit… (apt)	the .deb package (asks for your password)
Fedora, RHEL, Rocky, Alma, openSUSE (dnf, yum, zypper)	the .rpm package (asks for your password)
Anything else (Arch, NixOS, Void…)	the AppImage, into ~/.local/bin, with a menu entry; no root needed

Force the AppImage on any system with curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/anand34577/whittle/main/install.sh | sh -s -- --appimage.

Both x86_64 and arm64 (aarch64) are supported.

Or by hand from the latest release:

# Debian / Ubuntu
sudo apt install ./Whittle_<version>_amd64.deb          # arm64: _arm64.deb
# Fedora / RHEL
sudo dnf install ./Whittle-<version>-1.x86_64.rpm       # arm64: .aarch64.rpm
# Any distribution
chmod +x Whittle_<version>_amd64.AppImage && ./Whittle_<version>_amd64.AppImage

AppImage doesn't start? It needs FUSE 2: sudo apt install libfuse2t64 (Ubuntu 24.04+) or sudo apt install libfuse2 (older), sudo dnf install fuse-libs on Fedora.

Installer options

The Linux/macOS installer takes options after sh -s --:

Option	Does
--version 0.2.0	Install that release instead of the latest
--appimage	Linux: use the AppImage even if a .deb/.rpm would fit
--server	Install the self-hosted server instead (Linux). See Self-Hosting
--uninstall	Remove the desktop app; your designs are never touched

Example: curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/anand34577/whittle/main/install.sh | sh -s -- --version 0.2.0

On Windows, choose a release with $env:WHITTLE_VERSION = "0.2.0" before the one-line command.

Every download is checked against the release's SHA256SUMS. Want to read a script before running it? Open install.sh or install.ps1, or download it and run it yourself.

In the browser, without installing

Anyone running a Whittle server (see Self-Hosting) can open it in Chrome, Edge, Firefox or Safari. A recent desktop browser with WebGL 2 and WebAssembly is needed; Chrome and Edge also allow saving straight to files on your disk.

Where things are stored (desktop app)

What	Where
Your designs	wherever you save them (.whittle files)
Version history and recent files	Windows %APPDATA%\app.whittle.desktop · macOS ~/Library/Application Support/app.whittle.desktop · Linux ~/.local/share/app.whittle.desktop

Next: Getting Started. To update or remove Whittle: Updating and Uninstalling.