Platform & Availability
What OpenHuman ships as (native React + Tauri v2 desktop app with a Rust core), supported platforms, and what's in scope today.
OpenHuman is a native desktop application, not a browser extension, not an Electron wrapper. Built on React + Tauri v2 with a Rust core, it ships small, starts fast, and stays out of the way.
Supported platforms
macOS
Intel, Apple Silicon
.dmg installer, Homebrew
Windows
x64, ARM64
.msi installer
Linux
x64
AppImage, .deb, AUR recipe (openhuman-bin)
Linux AppImage notes
The Linux AppImage is built for x64 desktops and is the default asset selected by the curl installer. On newer distributions, especially builds that tighten unprivileged user namespaces or AppArmor defaults, AppImage startup can fail before OpenHuman reaches its own crash reporter. Known symptoms include:
unshare: write failed /proc/self/uid_map: Operation not permittedInterpreter not found!cannot execute binary file
When that happens, prefer the .deb package on Debian/Ubuntu systems. For Fedora, openSUSE, and other non-Debian distributions, include the distro version, kernel version, GPU/driver stack, and the exact AppImage filename when reporting the issue so maintainers can distinguish host restrictions from a badly packaged AppImage runtime.
Why native matters
OpenHuman is built as a native application rather than a web wrapper for three reasons.
Small footprint. A fraction of the size of typical communication tools. Starts in under a second and uses minimal memory.
Fast startup. No browser engine to initialize. Ready to accept requests immediately.
OS-level security. Credentials live in your platform's secure keychain, macOS Keychain, Windows Credential Manager, Linux Secret Service. Sensitive data never sits in browser storage or plain text files. The local Memory Tree's SQLite database lives in your workspace folder, owned by you.
Architecture at a glance
The shell is a delivery vehicle (windowing, process lifecycle, IPC). All product logic lives in the Rust core. The React frontend talks to the core over JSON-RPC. See Architecture for the full picture.
Remote/headless usage
Linux servers can host the Rust core without a desktop session. The production shape is a remote openhuman-core JSON-RPC service plus a local desktop client configured with that core URL and bearer token.
A private browser UI is possible for development/preview by serving the Vite frontend and pointing it at the remote core, but it is not a full replacement for the desktop shell. Native deep links, tray controls, OS keychain access, CEF account scanners, and screen/window integrations still require the Tauri app. See Cloud Deploy for the current remote UI setup.
Real-time communication
The desktop app maintains a persistent connection to the OpenHuman backend. Responses stream as they are generated; outputs appear progressively, not after a hang. If the network drops, the app reconnects automatically with progressive backoff.
Offline behavior
Your local state persists on your device. Preferences, settings, and connected-source configurations remain available offline. The local Memory Tree is fully accessible, you can browse the Obsidian vault and read your existing notes without any network connection.
Auto-fetch and live LLM calls require connectivity. When the network returns, the next 20-minute tick picks up where it left off.
Auto-update
The desktop shell auto-updates itself via Tauri's updater plugin against a manifest published on GitHub Releases. The OpenHuman core sidecar ships inside the same bundle, so a shell update upgrades both.
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