Skip to content
Fredrin
Documentation

Get started

Install Fredrin

Fredrin is a native desktop app for macOS, Windows and Linux. It runs Workers on your machine, so it depends on a handful of tools it does not ship.

Download

Builds for both platforms are on the download page.

PlatformFormatNotes
macOS.dmgApple silicon and Intel.
Windows.exe installerSigned. See the SmartScreen note below.
Linux.AppImageMake it executable and run it. No package manager, no root.

Prerequisites

Fredrin runs Workers on your machine rather than on a server, so it depends on tools that live there. On first launch it probes all of them in one pass and renders a checklist with the detected version per row.

ToolRequiredPlatformWhy
GityesallNo clone, no worktree, no branch.
Git-BashyesWindowsThe shell agents run under. Without it the fallback to cmd.exe corrupts commands silently.
An agent CLIyesallNo agent, no Worker. Claude Code is the default.
jqyesallThe ticket wrapper depends on it.
GitHub CLInoallOptional. Fredrin opens pull requests over the REST API when gh is absent.
GitHub sign-innoallOptional. The server-supplied credential ladder covers it.
nodenoallThe context engine degrades gracefully without it.

On Windows, a missing required row holds the app closed. That is deliberate: every one of those failures used to announce itself as a raw error at the moment of use, halfway through a Worker run. Better to fail at the front door.

On macOS the gate fails open. The checklist still tells you what is missing.

Fredrin can install most of these for you from inside the app. Where it cannot, the row links to the vendor's own instructions.

Git for Windows

Install Git for Windows and make sure Git-Bash is included. It ships in the default install but is easy to untick, and Fredrin's Windows preflight will hold the app closed until it is present.

The Windows "unknown publisher" warning

If SmartScreen says the publisher is unknown, that is not a signing failure. Fredrin's Windows builds are signed.

Microsoft rotated the certificate authority behind its Azure Trusted Signing service, and a freshly rotated CA carries no reputation with SmartScreen until enough installs accumulate. Every application signed under it shows the same warning for a while.

Click More info, then Run anyway. You can confirm the signature yourself: right-click the installer, then Properties → Digital Signatures.

Updates

Fredrin updates itself in place. It checks on launch and in the background, downloads in the background, and applies the update on the next restart. You do not need to re-download the installer.

If an update fails to apply, reinstalling over the top of the existing install is safe and keeps your projects, settings, and worktrees.

Where Fredrin puts things

  • Your repositories stay wherever you cloned them. Fredrin does not move or copy your code.
  • Worktrees are created next to the repository, one per running ticket, and cleaned up when the ticket completes.
  • Settings and credentials live in the OS keychain and the app's own directory, never in your repository.

Nothing about your code leaves your machine unless you turn it on. See privacy for exactly what does and does not cross the network.

Next steps