Desktop app#

The waper desktop app connects your Mac to your agent. It also syncs a local Markdown folder with a space, saves pages and clips text with global shortcuts, and shows system notifications. Its main window is waper itself — exactly the same as the web app, and updated along with it.

It's macOS only for now and requires macOS 13 or later. For servers and machines without a screen, use the command-line daemon.

Install#

Download it from waper.ai/download, choosing Apple Silicon or Intel (DMG) to match your Mac. Open the DMG and drag waper into Applications.

Sign in#

1. The first time you open waper, it opens a "Sign in on this computer?" page in your system browser (sign in to waper there first if you aren't already).
2. If you just opened the desktop app yourself, choose Sign in on this computer; the browser hands you back to the app.
3. The computer connects automatically and appears under Settings → Computers, named after your computer.

Your sign-in is stored encrypted in the macOS keychain. To sign out, choose Sign out from the menu bar icon; the sign-in is revoked on the server too.

Menu bar#

Closing the window keeps waper running in the menu bar, so the agent can still use this computer. The menu shows:

• Status: whether it's connected and what the agent is doing on this computer;
• Stop: stop each running action, or Stop everything;
• Access scope: whether the agent can use the whole computer or only certain folders (change it under Settings → Computers; see Access scope);
• the save and clip shortcuts, and folder sync;
• Open at login: on by default after the first run; turn it off here;
• sign in, sign out, and quit waper.

When you quit waper the computer goes offline and the agent can't use it.

Let the agent use this computer#

Conversations started in the desktop app's window use this computer automatically; when you start on the web or your phone, the agent picks a computer when it needs one. What the agent can do, what asks first and how to limit it to certain folders: see Your computers.

The desktop app also registers waper's local channel with the Chromium-based browsers on this Mac, so once the extension is installed the agent can use the browser you're signed in to; see Your browser.

System notifications#

When a brief is ready, a task finishes or something needs your decision, the desktop app shows a macOS notification; click it to open the page in the waper window. Each event keeps a single notification. Notifications aren't resent if the app wasn't running; other channels (browser push, Telegram, email) work as usual — see Briefs & notifications.

Folder sync#

Two-way sync between a local Markdown folder and the documents in one space, for when you'd rather write in your own editor.

• Start: menu bar icon → Sync a folder…, pick a folder, then the space to sync with. One folder syncs at a time.
• Mapping: each document in the space is one .md file in the folder, subfolders included. The top of the file records the document ID and title, so renaming a file or moving it into a subfolder doesn't break the link. The body is the document's Markdown.
• New files: a new .md file in the folder becomes a new document in the space; a new document in the space is written out as a new file.
• Skipped: files and folders starting with . (such as .obsidian) aren't synced.
• Timing: local changes sync about 2 seconds after you save; changes in waper are pulled every minute.
• Conflicts: if only one side changed, it goes to the other side. If both changed, both are kept: the file gets the version from waper, and your local version is saved as " (conflict ).md" and uploaded as a new document. Neither side is ever silently overwritten, and you get a notification.
• Deleting: delete a file locally while the document in waper is unchanged and the document is deleted, with its content first saved to waper's trash on this computer for 7 days; delete it in waper while the local file is unchanged and the file moves to that trash. If the other side changed, nothing is deleted — the file is uploaded or downloaded again instead.
• Safety stop: if the folder disappears (say, an external disk isn't plugged in) or a sync would delete more than half of the documents (and more than 3), that round deletes nothing and a notification asks you to check the folder.
• Stop: menu bar icon → Stop syncing this folder.

Save and clip shortcuts#

They work in any app:

Shortcut	What it does
⌥⌘S	Save: saves the page open in the front browser; when the front app isn't a browser, saves the link on your clipboard
⌥⌘X	Clip: clips the selected text. In a browser it saves that page with the selection as a note; in other apps it saves a Markdown file noting which app it came from

Saved items go to your library and are filed into a space automatically, just like saving on the web, and a notification confirms it. Browsers whose current page can be read: Chrome, Edge, Brave, Arc and Safari.

macOS permissions they need:

• Automation: saving the current page reads the browser's address. The first time, macOS asks whether waper may control that browser — choose OK. If you declined earlier, turn waper on for that browser in System Settings → Privacy & Security → Automation.
• Accessibility: clipping reads the selected text, so allow waper in System Settings → Privacy & Security → Accessibility. waper simulates a copy to get the selection, then puts your clipboard back the way it was.

If a permission is missing, there's nothing to save, or a shortcut is taken by another app, a notification tells you why.