The desktop app
The desktop app is the same Tatu as the terminal, in a window of its own. It brings its own tatu, so you do not install the terminal version first. If you have both, they share your sign-ins, settings and sessions. To get it, see Download.
Install
Section titled “Install”On a Mac, open the disk image and drag Tatu to Applications. It needs Apple Silicon and macOS 12 or later. The app looks for a newer version when it opens and once a day. When there is one, an Update available row appears in the sidebar; click it to update. tatu → Check for Updates… asks on demand.
On Linux, one command installs the app under your home folder. See Install and update.
Add your projects
Section titled “Add your projects”The computer you are on is listed as This Mac, or This computer on Linux. Choose Add project, and pick a folder in the system’s folder picker. A project can be anywhere on disk. Cancelling the picker changes nothing.
The sidebar lists your projects, and the open sessions of each one are tabs above the conversation:
- New session opens a session in the project in front.
- Cmd+K (Ctrl+K on Linux) finds any open or saved session of the computer.
- Needs you lists the sessions that wait for an answer, then those whose last run failed.
The rest of the conversation works as in the terminal: plans, subagents, background tasks, questions and model switching.
Sign in and settings
Section titled “Sign in and settings”The app uses the same folder as the terminal, ~/.tatu, or TATU_HOME when you set it. If you already signed in from the terminal, the app is signed in. If not, open a project and choose Sign in in the session. See Sign in.
Settings is in the sidebar. The keys are Cmd+, on a Mac and Ctrl+, on Linux.
Notifications
Section titled “Notifications”The app shows a notification when a session needs your answer, finishes or stops with an error. It says only what happened, such as Needs your answer, and never what the conversation says. Click it to open the session.
On a Mac, the app asks for permission the first time. On Linux there is nothing to allow: the desktop’s notification service shows them, and with none running nothing is shown. The app has to be running to notify you; a notification cannot start it.
Closing the window
Section titled “Closing the window”Quitting, or closing the last window, asks first when the app started the background process that runs your sessions and some of them are working. If you confirm, those sessions end. A background process that something else started, such as tatu daemon, is left running.
The app does not start with your computer, and automations run only while it, or a daemon, is running.
Other computers and your phone
Section titled “Other computers and your phone”Choose the computer in the sidebar’s footer. Pair a new computer… adds another one, and its sessions are listed there as if they were local. See Another computer’s agents. To follow your sessions from your phone, see The app.
On Linux
Section titled “On Linux”On GNOME and on most Wayland desktops, the app draws its own window buttons and follows the layout your desktop asks for. On X11 outside GNOME, the window manager keeps its own title bar. On a tiling Wayland desktop such as sway or Hyprland, the window has no title bar. TATU_WINDOW_FRAME with app, native or none forces one.