Install

Ideafy ships as a macOS desktop app (Electron). Two editions — Public and Team — each have their own DMG. This page covers the first install; for the detailed per-edition guide, see Editions overview.

System requirements

  • macOS 12 or later (Monterey, Ventura, Sonoma, Sequoia)
  • Apple Silicon or Intel — universal binary
  • Node.js is not required — the app bundles its own runtime
  • An AI agent CLI on your machine: Claude Code, Gemini CLI, or Codex CLI. Pick whichever you already use; you can switch later.
  • Git available on PATH (for worktrees and dev server orchestration)

Which edition do I need?

  • Just exploring, working solo, or contributing to the OSS repo? → Public (free, open-source DMG on GitHub)
  • Small team sharing work through a pool? → Team (paid)

See Editions overview for the feature matrix.

Download & install

  1. Download the .dmg for your edition (GitHub for Public, the purchase page for Team).
  2. Open the DMG.
  3. Drag Ideafy.app into Applications.
  4. First launch: macOS Gatekeeper asks for confirmation. Right-click → Open the first time if the app isn't notarised yet.

The app opens to a blank projects list. You're in solo mode until you either create a project or sign in to a team.

What Ideafy writes to disk

When you launch for the first time, Ideafy creates:

  • ~/Library/Application Support/ideafy/ — the SQLite database, conversation history, settings
  • ~/Library/Application Support/ideafy/device-info.encrypted — device ID + name, encrypted via the macOS Keychain
  • Project-local files (only when you create a project in a folder):
    • .worktrees/kanban/... — per-card git worktrees (only when you start work on a card)
    • .claude/skills/ and .claude/settings.json — when you install the Ideafy MCP server and skills into that project (opt-in)

Nothing is uploaded anywhere in Public edition. The Team edition syncs pool-linked projects through Supabase once you sign in.

Uninstall

  • Drag Ideafy.app to the Trash
  • Delete ~/Library/Application Support/ideafy/ to remove local data
  • Per-project: delete .claude/skills/ and .claude/settings.json if you installed them

See Migrate between editions if you're switching editions rather than uninstalling.


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Last updated: 2026-04-13