Installation

The Powerduck desktop client is a local-first application. It installs like any other desktop program, opens real files on disk, and does not require an account to start.

Download

Get the installer for your platform from the Powerduck website. The following builds are produced with electron-builder:

Platform	Installer	Architecture
macOS	.dmg (and a .zip for auto-update)	Apple Silicon (arm64) and Intel (x64)
Windows	NSIS setup (.exe)	x64
Linux	AppImage (.AppImage)	x64

macOS

1. Open the .dmg and drag Powerduck into Applications.
2. On first launch, macOS may ask you to confirm that you want to open an app downloaded outside the App Store. Allow it from the dialog, or right-click the app and choose Open.
3. Two builds are published: an arm64 build for Apple Silicon (M-series) and an x64 build for Intel Macs. Download the one that matches your machine.

Windows

1. Run the NSIS installer (.exe) and follow the setup steps.
2. If SmartScreen shows an unrecognized-publisher prompt, choose More info and Run anyway.

Linux

1. Download the .AppImage.
2. Make it executable and run it:

chmod +x Powerduck-*.AppImage
./Powerduck-*.AppImage

AppImage runs without a system-wide installation. On some distributions you may need FUSE installed to mount it.

What runs on your machine

The desktop client is an Electron application with two parts:

• A main process (Node.js) that owns file access, outbound HTTP requests, the local mock server, database connections, and the integrated terminal;
• A renderer (the React workspace) that renders the specification, the AI chat, and every tool.

This split matters for security and reliability: requests that need network or filesystem access are handled by the main process, not the web view, so prompts and API keys do not appear in the browser console and direct browser-to-provider CORS restrictions do not apply. See AI and models.

System requirements

• A current release of macOS, Windows 10 or later, or a mainstream Linux desktop distribution;
• Enough disk for the application; the specifications you open remain in their original locations;
• Network access only when you send requests, sync a Git source, or call a hosted AI model — the app otherwise works offline.

Licensing

You can evaluate the desktop client for as long as you like. It is sold as a one-time, perpetual license — buy once, own it, with no subscription. A license key is issued at purchase and shown once. Cloud hosting is a separate, subscription-based service. See Cloud billing for the distinction.

Next: take the Quickstart.