Niluxv1.0.33
/desktop

Nilux for desktop.

Nilux in an app of its own. You talk to it as you would in the terminal, in the same projects and the same conversations, and the window adds what a terminal cannot show: several sessions side by side, and beside a conversation what Nilux changed, the pages it builds and a terminal.

Get the app

  • macOS 13 or newer, on Apple silicon and Intel Macs, one app for both: download it.
  • Windows and Linux: coming soon. Until then, use Nilux in your terminal: install it. The app will open the same projects and conversations, so nothing you do there is lost.

Sign in

  1. Open Nilux and press Sign in with your browser. Your browser opens; finish signing in there, and the page brings you back to Nilux. If the browser does not open, press Copy the link and open it yourself.
  2. If you have used Nilux in the terminal, the app lists the projects and chats it found. Nothing is copied: the app and the terminal use the same files. Choose a theme and press Open Nilux.

Already signed in to Nilux in the terminal on this Mac? Then the app opens without asking: both use the same sign-in.

Chat and Agent

The switch in the title bar has two places to work, each with its own list in the sidebar:

  • Chat: ask, research and write. A chat has no project folder: Nilux searches the web and reads pages, but it does not read or change files on your Mac or run commands.
  • Agent: build, debug and ship a project. A session works in a project folder: Nilux reads and changes its files and runs commands there, asking you first as your permission mode says.

Switching never stops what the other side is doing. Command+Option+← goes to Chat, Command+Option+→ to Agent.

Your first session

  1. In Agent, choose the project with the folder chip at the bottom of the message box (Choose project the first time). It lists your Recent projects and Open folder…; Command+O opens a folder too.
  2. The first time Nilux works in a folder, it asks Trust this folder? Trust only code you created or a project you know.
  3. Type what you need in plain words and press Enter.

For the next task, press New session at the top of the sidebar (Command+N). In Chat the button is New chat.

TIP

Send /init as your first message in a project: Nilux looks through it and writes a nilux.md describing it, which it reads at the start of every session. See Project instructions.

The window

  • The sidebar lists your projects and their sessions in Agent, your chats in Chat, and your account at its foot. Command+B folds it away. See Sessions and projects.
  • The title bar holds the app menu (Menu), the button that folds the sidebar, Back and Forward, and the switch between Chat and Agent.
  • A session is its conversation with the message box under it: see Working in a conversation. In a project, the buttons at the right of its bar open panels beside it: what Nilux changed, the project's files, the page it built, a terminal. See Changes, files and preview.

Updates

Nilux keeps itself up to date. A few seconds after it starts, and then every six hours, it looks for a new version and downloads it in the background. The new version goes in when you quit Nilux, or when you press Relaunch to update in the sidebar; the app never restarts by itself.

Check for updates in the app menu or in the account menu looks at once. To be asked before each download, or to turn updates off, change Updates in Settings.

When something goes wrong

  • If a session stops, it says so at the top of its conversation, with Restart.
  • If Nilux cannot reach its server, the session says so and tries again by itself. If it gives up, check your internet connection and press Restart.
  • Type /doctor in a conversation for a short report on your setup, including the connection to the server and your MCP servers, in one block you can copy.
  • If a part of the window stops working, the rest of the app goes on, and what happened is written to ~/.nilux/crash.log.

Nothing to move

The app works with the same projects, settings and conversation history as Nilux in the terminal. Your project instructions, your own agents and skills, your MCP servers and your project memory are there when you open it. The app and the terminal says what is shared and how to go from one to the other.

Read next

Next · Sessions and projects →