The Desktop App

The desktop app is the same inksprite as the one in your browser, in a window of its own. No browser can clear your work, and it reaches servers a web page can’t.

Install it

Download it from the latest release, under Assets.

macOS

Download the .dmg ending in arm64 for a Mac with Apple silicon, or in x64 for an Intel Mac. Open it and drag inksprite into Applications.

Windows

Download the .exe and run it. It installs for your account, without asking for an administrator.

The app isn’t signed, so Windows warns that it doesn’t recognize it. Click More info, then Run anyway.

Linux

Download the .AppImage, make it executable, and run it:

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

Or, on Debian or Ubuntu, install the .deb:

sudo apt install ./inksprite-*.deb

If the AppImage won’t start on Ubuntu 24.04 or later, install the .deb, or start the AppImage with --no-sandbox.

Bring your work over

The desktop app keeps its work apart from your browser’s. To move it, use a backup:

1. In the browser, open Settings › System and click Export. To bring your API keys too, tick Include API keys. Click Export.
2. In the desktop app, open Settings › System, click Import, choose the file, and click Replace.
3. Sign in to your MCP servers again. A backup doesn’t carry sign-ins.

The backup replaces everything in the desktop app, so restore it before you start work there, or bring projects over one at a time with a project file, and your setup with a settings file. If the backup holds your keys, delete it once it’s restored.

Updates

The app looks for a new version when it opens and every hour after, and downloads it in the background. Then a message says it’s ready: click Restart, and inksprite saves your work, installs the update and opens again.

Nothing installs until you click Restart, even when you quit. If you close the message, it comes back the next time you open inksprite. On Linux, updating the .deb asks for your password.

Settings › About shows the version you have.

Your projects folder

The desktop app keeps your projects as ordinary files: a folder for each project, a Markdown file for each document, and imported files as they came. You can open them in another editor, or back them up with your own tools.

They’re in the Projects folder in inksprite’s own data folder:

• macOS: ~/Library/Application Support/inksprite/Projects
• Windows: %APPDATA%\inksprite\Projects
• Linux: ~/.config/inksprite/Projects

To open it, click Show in Finder (Show in Explorer on Windows, Show folder on Linux) in Settings › System, beside Export and Import.

A project’s chats and narration audio go in its folder too. Your AI connections, profiles, skills, MCP servers and settings stay in the app. A backup holds everything but narration audio.

If you had projects in the desktop app before it kept them in a folder, it moves them in the first time it opens, and opens again.

Editing the files elsewhere

Edit the files while inksprite is closed; it reads your changes when it opens. While it’s open, it doesn’t see changes made elsewhere. If it then saves a document you changed elsewhere, it puts your changed file in the Trash (the Recycle Bin on Windows) and says so.

Each Markdown file starts with a header between two --- lines. Leave it as it is: inksprite reads a file with a broken header as a new document, and chats lose track of it. Leave the files and folders whose names start with a dot, such as .folder.md and .inksprite, alone too.

Set it up for someone else

A script that installs inksprite for other people, a team say, can set it up for them too. Have it copy a settings file to inksprite-settings.json in inksprite’s data folder:

• macOS: ~/Library/Application Support/inksprite/inksprite-settings.json
• Windows: %APPDATA%\inksprite\inksprite-settings.json
• Linux: ~/.config/inksprite/inksprite-settings.json

inksprite imports it as it opens, without asking, and says what it changed. If the file sets up the AI, the welcome window has no AI tab. Leave the file where it is. Each time inksprite opens, it imports only what the file changed since it last looked, so a server added to the file reaches everyone, while each person’s own changes stay until the file changes the same thing. To change the setup, write a new file over it. Unlike a file you import yourself, it can let an MCP server’s tools run without asking.

What only the desktop app does

• No browser can clear your work. See where your work is kept.
• Local model servers need no setup to let inksprite reach them, and a server on another computer on your network works too. See AI Providers.
• MCP servers that don’t accept connections from web pages work.
• Web search can use Brave.
• Code repositories import straight from GitHub.
• Sign-ins, to OpenRouter, MCP servers and Google Drive, open in your usual browser. When you’re done, close the tab and go back to inksprite.
• Links in documents and chats open in your usual browser, and email addresses in your mail app.