documentation Installing

Installing

ivx/ai Chat runs as a web app in any modern browser and ships native apps for the desktop platforms and Android. Apps, installers and the bridge are all published on the releases page.

There are three ways to use it:

  • Hosted — open ai.ivx.run/chat and start chatting. Nothing to install.
  • Installed — the apps below, for macOS, Windows, Linux and Android, and the extensions for Chrome and Firefox.
  • Self-hosted — your own copy on a VPS or your own computer. See Self-hosting.

Some providers refuse requests made from a browser. The desktop and Android apps carry their own proxy and need nothing configured, and the extensions don't need one; the web version goes through the bridge running on your machine:

brew install ivxai-bridge

Not on macOS? Take the bridge from the releases page.

macOS

brew tap ivxlabs/tap
brew trust ivxlabs/tap
brew install --cask ivxai-chat

Windows

Take the installer from the latest release. Nothing is signed with a paid certificate, so SmartScreen objects on first launch; the release notes say how to get past it.

Linux

Take the Debian package from the latest release and install it with your package manager, for example:

sudo dpkg -i <downloaded-file>.deb

From source

git clone https://github.com/ivxlabs/ivxai-app
cd ivxai-app
npm install

The desktop app builds with npm run build; that needs Rust, Node and the Tauri prerequisites. The bridge alone is cargo build --release -p ivxai-bridge, Rust only, and the web app alone is npm run web:build. The details, including the mobile builds, are in Building it.

Android

Take the APK from the latest release. It needs Android 7.0 or newer.

  • ivxai-chat-<version>-android-arm64-v8a.apk fits nearly every phone from the last several years.
  • ivxai-chat-<version>-android-universal.apk fits all of them, at about three times the size. Take it if you aren't sure.

Open the downloaded file to install it. The first time, Android asks you to allow installs from your browser or file manager.

The APK is signed with our own key rather than a store's. The release notes list the signing certificate's SHA-256 fingerprint; to check a download against it:

apksigner verify --print-certs <downloaded-file>.apk

It isn't on Google Play or F-Droid yet. To build it yourself, see Building it.

iOS

There is no store build yet. From the cloned repository, with Xcode in place:

npx tauri ios init
npm run ios

Chrome

Install the extension from the Chrome Web Store. The web version also runs in Chrome: open ai.ivx.run/chat and choose Install to keep it as an app; after the first load it works offline.

Firefox

Install the extension from addons.mozilla.org. The web version also runs in Firefox: open ai.ivx.run/chat.

Safari

The web version runs in Safari: open ai.ivx.run/chat and choose Add to Home Screen to keep it as an app; after the first load it works offline.

Safari blocks an HTTPS page from calling http://127.0.0.1, so the bridge needs to serve the page as well — see the bridge.

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