Nebula Desktop
Install the Nebula desktop app on macOS, Windows, or Linux to keep agents visible while you work, send from anywhere, and give Nebula access to your computer.
The Nebula desktop app gives you everything the web app does, plus a set of things a browser tab can't: a corner view of what your agents are doing, a global shortcut to send from any app, and the ability to let agents work on your own computer. If you'd rather stay in a terminal, the CLI covers the same ground without a window.
Download Nebula Desktop — free, for macOS, Windows, and Linux.
Ask Nebula anything
The window itself is the Nebula you already know. The two things you can't get in a browser are visible here: the Computer Control row at the bottom of the sidebar, and the Capsule floating above everything in the corner.
What desktop adds
Desktop runs the same Nebula you already know — same channels, agents, jobs, and settings. What's different is the native shell around it.
Computer Control
Let agents run real work on your own machine, in a folder you choose.
The Capsule
An always-on-top view of live agent activity across every workspace you're in.
Quick Send
A global hotkey that opens a composer over whatever you're doing.
Shortcuts & tray
Hotkeys, the macOS menu bar icon, and pop-out windows.
Desktop settings
Settings that belong to this computer rather than your account.
Install it
Head to nebula.gg/download — it hands you the right build for the machine you're on, and it's also where the Nebula CLI and the mobile app live.
A signed, notarized app for both Apple silicon and Intel Macs. Requires macOS 13 or later. Drag it to Applications and open it.
An installer for Windows 10 and later, installed for your user account rather than machine-wide. Windows may show an "unrecognized app" warning on first run — choose More info → Run anyway.
An AppImage, plus a pacman package. On Arch you can install nebula-desktop-bin from the AUR and let your package manager handle updates.
Sign in
Desktop signs in by pairing rather than by password. The app shows you a short code, opens your browser, and waits.
Open the app. It displays a pairing code in the form XXXX-XXXX.
Your browser opens Nebula's activation page. Sign in there if you aren't already.
Confirm the code matches, and approve. The app picks it up on its own and continues.
Codes don't last forever, but running out isn't something you have to handle. If a code expires while you're looking at it, the app quietly fetches a fresh one and shows it in place — and if the window was hidden, it renews the moment you come back to it. Get a fresh code is there if you'd rather force it.
Signing in on desktop also signs in the Nebula command-line tool on the same machine — they share one stored credential.
If Nebula ever drops you back to the sign-in screen on its own, it says why — "Your session expired. Please sign in again." when the stored credential aged out, or a note that it couldn't read the sign-in saved on this device. Either way the fix is the same: pair again.
Staying up to date
Everything arrives together, in the app update, and you don't have to do anything to get it. Desktop checks shortly after launch and every few hours after that; when it finds a new version it downloads it quietly in the background and installs it the next time you quit. Quitting and reopening — something you already do — is all it takes.
You can still push it along by hand. The update item sits in the tray menu and, on macOS, in the Nebula menu, and it tells you where things stand:
| Item | What it means |
|---|---|
| Check for updates… | Nothing waiting. Click to check now |
| Checking for updates… | A check is running |
| Download update to v1.2.3 | Found one — click to fetch it immediately |
| Downloading update… | In progress, with a percentage once it's known |
| Restart to update to v1.2.3 | Downloaded and staged. Click to restart now instead of waiting for your next quit |
| Update check failed - Retry | The check didn't complete; click to try again |
There's no pop-up and no confirmation when a check finds nothing — the item simply goes back to Check for updates….
Two exceptions never self-update: development builds, and Linux installs from the AUR, where your package manager owns updates instead.
The Nebula experience inside the window used to refresh on its own, separately from the app version. It doesn't any more — the version you install is the version you run. If a feature you've read about hasn't appeared, make sure you've quit and reopened since the last update.
Release notes for the desktop app appear in What's New alongside everything else, so the list always matches the version you actually have installed.
Related
Local device
Connect your own computer as a Nebula device. Install the desktop app and your agents can work with your files, your software, and your network.
Turn on Computer Control
Let Nebula agents work on your own machine — your files, your tools, your network. Choose how long access lasts and how far across the disk it reaches.