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Installation

How to get TermFlow running on your machine — the one-line answer for most people is download the installer for your OS and run it.

TermFlow is version 0.1.0, an early access · pre-release build, licensed under Apache-2.0. It is a native desktop app (Tauri 2 + React + xterm.js), so installation is a normal "download and run the installer" flow — no runtime, container, or account required.

The short version​

  1. Go to https://termflow.app/download.
  2. Download the installer for your operating system.
  3. Run it and launch TermFlow.

That's it. On first launch, TermFlow generates a local auth token and writes its default settings automatically — you don't create an account or paste a key to open a terminal.

TermFlow ships no AI

TermFlow is a terminal that AI agents can drive — it does not include an agent or any model access of its own. You bring your own agent and your own keys. Installing TermFlow gets you the terminal and its local interfaces; connecting an agent is a separate, optional step covered in Connect an agent.

Download for your OS​

Get every installer from the official download page — https://termflow.app/download. Release notes live at https://termflow.app/changelog.

OSRecommended minimumTypical bundle format
WindowsWindows 10 / 11Windows installer (.exe / .msi)
macOSmacOS 12 or newer.dmg / .app
Linuxglibc 2.31 or newer.deb, .rpm, or AppImage

An honest note: The OS versions above are recommended minimums, not hard requirements enforced by the installer — nothing blocks you from trying an older release, but that's the range we target. The exact set of bundle formats published for each platform is whatever appears on the download page; treat the list above as the general shape, and let https://termflow.app/download be the authoritative source for what's actually available.

Which one do I want?
  • Windows — grab the installer; run it and follow the prompts.
  • macOS — open the .dmg and drag TermFlow to Applications (or run the .app directly).
  • Linux — use the .deb or .rpm that matches your distro's package manager, or the AppImage if you'd rather run a single self-contained file.

Where TermFlow stores its data​

TermFlow keeps two things on disk: its configuration (settings, including the auth token) in your OS application-config directory, and its history database in your OS application-data directory. It uses the standard per-OS base locations:

OSConfig base directoryData base directory
Windows%APPDATA%%APPDATA%
macOS~/Library/Application Support~/Library/Application Support
Linux~/.config~/.local/share

TermFlow creates its own application subfolder under these bases on first run. You normally never need to touch these files by hand — settings are editable in-app under Settings — but it's useful to know where they live if you're backing up or migrating a machine. See Advanced config file for the config-file-only options.

What happens on first launch​

The first time you open TermFlow, it:

  • Generates a local auth token and writes it into the config file. This token is the credential for the local API when you later expose it on your network; you can view, copy, or rotate it under Settings → Connections.
  • Writes its default settings so the app is usable immediately.
  • Starts its two local interfaces bound to 127.0.0.1: the REST + WebSocket API on port 42031 and the MCP server on port 42032.
Localhost by default is unauthenticated — and that's fine

In the default localhost-only mode, TermFlow's local API is bound to 127.0.0.1 and its endpoints are unauthenticated. That is safe because nothing outside your machine can reach a loopback address. The auth token only comes into play if you turn on "Expose on local network" in Settings → Connections, at which point a bearer token is required. See Local API and auth for the full model.

For a guided tour of that first session, head to the First-run walkthrough.

Build from source (advanced)​

Most people should just install the binary above. If you want to build TermFlow yourself, you'll need:

  • Rust (stable toolchain)
  • Bun
  • The Tauri CLI

Then, from the project root:

# Install JavaScript dependencies
bun install

# Run the app in development mode (Tauri dev build)
bun run dev

# Produce a full release build with installers
bun run publish:tauri

bun run dev maps to tauri dev (a hot-reloading development build), and bun run publish:tauri maps to tauri build (a full release build that produces the platform installers).

An honest note: TermFlow is pre-release software (0.1.0). Building from source is meant for contributors and the curious — the supported path for everyone else is the installer from the download page, which is what these docs assume unless stated otherwise.

Next steps​