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Desktop App Quickstart

Get the desktop app running and complete your first agent task.

1. Install​

Download the installer for your OS from the Codebolt website.

Windows

# Installer
Codebolt-Setup-x64.exe   # run and accept defaults

# Winget
winget install Codebolt.Codebolt

macOS

# DMG — drag Codebolt.app to /Applications
# or Homebrew
brew install --cask codebolt

Linux

# AppImage
chmod +x Codebolt-x86_64.AppImage && ./Codebolt-x86_64.AppImage

# Debian / Ubuntu
sudo dpkg -i codebolt.deb

# Fedora / RHEL
sudo rpm -i codebolt.rpm

# Flatpak
flatpak install flathub com.codebolt.Codebolt

Launch the app. The first start takes ~30 seconds while the local server initialises.

2. Sign in and complete setup​

Click Sign In in the top-right corner. A browser window opens to the CodeBolt portal. Log in or create an account — the app picks up the token automatically.

If this is your first time, a setup wizard runs:

  1. Select AI models — choose CodeBolt AI (no key needed) or paste an API key for OpenAI / Anthropic / other provider. Select an LLM and an embedding model.
  2. Workspace & theme — pick a default project folder and a colour theme.
  3. Default agent — choose which agent handles new projects by default.

The wizard takes about 2 minutes. You can change every setting later in Settings.

3. Open a project​

You land on the project dashboard. Click Open Project and pick a folder. Codebolt indexes it — file tree, symbols, and codemap appear in the left panel within a few seconds.

4. Chat with an agent​

The chat panel is on the right. Type a task:

Explain what this codebase does in 3 bullet points.

The agent reads files in real time (you see the tool calls stream in). It responds in chat.

Try a task that writes something:

Create a .editorconfig file with 2-space indentation for JS/TS and 4-space for Python.

The file appears in the editor with a diff highlight.

5. Keep or roll back​

Click the checkpoint badge at the top of the chat to see the snapshot created before the agent ran. Options:

  • Keep — files stay as written. Use the git panel (bottom bar → Tools → Git) to commit.
  • Rollback — instantly restores all files to before the agent ran. Safe — your real git is untouched.

Keyboard shortcuts to know​

ActionShortcut
New chat tabCtrl+T / Cmd+T
Inline code editCtrl+K / Cmd+K
Command paletteCtrl+Shift+P / Cmd+Shift+P
Toggle terminalCtrl+``
Open agent picker@ in chat

Next: Desktop App Overview · Chat · Agents