Ettore Di Giacinto
7aeb47cbf3
Fixes #11673: on macOS the DMG launcher appeared to launch nothing. After installing, the app sat in the menu bar with no window, nothing listening on localhost:8080, and empty log files, because nothing ever started the server unless the unrelated 'start on system boot' option was enabled. - Start the LocalAI server automatically when the launcher opens and right after a fresh install. The new auto_start_server config key defaults to enabled and gets a settings checkbox; the legacy auto_start key was never honored nor exposed, so every existing launcher.json carries an unintentional false and is deliberately left behind. - Fix the welcome window suppressing itself: its 'don't show this again' checkbox was initialized with the inverted value, and SetChecked fired the change callback which persisted ShowWelcome=false on the very first showing. - Surface auto-start failures through the systray startup-error dialog, since there is no visible window during auto-start. - Pass --app-version to fyne package so the app stops reporting itself as version 0.0.0 in the About box. - Document the first-launch flow (menu bar app, auto-start, WebUI URL) in the macOS getting-started page. - Repair two launcher specs that never ran in CI: a *bool matched against BeTrue and a /tmp assertion that trips on Linux where the test tempdir itself lives under /tmp. Assisted-by: Claude Code:claude-fable-5 Signed-off-by: Ettore Di Giacinto <mudler@localai.io>
2.0 KiB
title, description, weight
| title | description | weight |
|---|---|---|
| macOS Installation | Install LocalAI on macOS using the DMG application | 10 |
The easiest way to install LocalAI on macOS is using the DMG application.
Download
Download the latest DMG from GitHub releases:
Installation Steps
- Download the
LocalAI.dmgfile from the link above - Open the downloaded DMG file
- Drag the LocalAI application to your Applications folder
- Launch LocalAI from your Applications folder
First Launch
The app you installed is a small launcher that manages the LocalAI server for you. On the first launch it offers to download and install the latest server release; once that finishes, the server starts automatically and on every following launch of the app.
The launcher lives in the menu bar (look for the LocalAI icon in the top right of your screen) and does not open a window of its own. From the menu bar icon you can start and stop the server, open the WebUI, check for updates, and change settings, including turning off the automatic server start ("Start LocalAI when the launcher opens" under Settings).
Once the server is running, the WebUI is available at
http://localhost:8080.
Verification
The LocalAI.dmg (and the app inside it) and the local-ai server binary are
signed with an Apple Developer ID and notarized by Apple, so they launch with no
quarantine prompt or workaround. To inspect the signature yourself:
spctl --assess --type open --context context:primary-signature -v /Applications/LocalAI.app
codesign --verify --deep --strict --verbose=2 /Applications/LocalAI.app
Next Steps
After installing LocalAI, you can:
- Access the WebUI at
http://localhost:8080 - Try it out with examples
- Learn about available models
- Customize your configuration