Install and first launch

Minnow ships as a normal desktop application. This page covers getting it onto your machine, what happens the first time it opens, and how updates work afterwards.

Once it is running, go straight to Connect a model — the interface works without one, but nothing can answer you until a provider responds.

Download

Get the installer from Minnow Releases.

If Windows blocks the installer

Builds may be unsigned, and SmartScreen will announce that the publisher is unknown. This is true. It is also the most accurate thing Windows will tell you today. Choose More info, then Run anyway — you should only need to do it once, after which Windows will forget it ever objected.

What happens on first launch

Minnow opens on the workspaces picker: choose a project folder, then land in Code with chat in the left rail beside your editor. The menubar and app rail are always there; chat is not a separate home screen or dock app.

Two things happen behind the scenes:

• Minnow creates its home folder, %USERPROFILE%\.minnow on Windows or ~/.minnow elsewhere, and scaffolds the folders it uses. Empty directories in there are normal; they are waiting for things that have not happened to you yet. See Where your data lives.
• A local tool server starts on port 9473. It is what lets chat read files, run git, open a terminal, and save your sessions. It listens on loopback only unless you deliberately turn on LAN access.

You will usually also get the first-run setup wizard: a short guided flow for picking a theme, choosing a provider, selecting a model, setting tool permissions, and turning memory on. You can skip it and run it again later from Settings → General → Run setup again.

Closing, quitting, and the tray

Closing the window does not quit Minnow. By default it hides to the system tray so chats, agents, scheduled jobs and the tool server keep running. That is deliberate: a long agent run should survive you closing the window.

If several workspace windows are open, closing one asks whether to close that workspace (stop its chats and agents, and drop the folder from the next launch) or keep it in the background. The prompt is the same Minnow dialog used elsewhere in the app. Check Do this every time to skip the question until you change Closing one of several windows under Desktop app.

The tray menu has Open, New chat, current agent/model status, unload local models, Settings, and launch-at-startup. Quit Minnow from the tray does a full shutdown.

Change this under Settings → General → Desktop app:

• Keep Minnow running after closing the window — on by default; turn it off if you want the close button to quit.
• Launch Minnow at startup — off by default; this registers a real OS login item.

Updates

Packaged builds check GitHub Releases in the background. When a build is downloaded and ready, a Restart pill appears in the menubar with the new version.

Settings → General → App updates has the rest: current version, release notes, a manual Check for updates, and the channel.

Two things worth knowing: a completed download stays ready even if a later check fails, so a flaky network does not lose your update; and because closing to tray keeps Minnow alive, an update that wants a restart applies when you actually quit and reopen, not when you close the window.

Quick health check

If something is clearly not working, in order:

1. Is your model provider actually running, with a model loaded?
2. Models → Providers — is the base URL right? Press refresh.
3. Settings → Advanced → Health & diagnostics — subsystem probes, grouped errors, and a local log tail. Copy report produces a redacted markdown summary you can paste into a bug report.

Everything on that page stays on your machine. Minnow sends no telemetry.

More symptoms and fixes: Troubleshooting.

Next

Connect a model