Install Prevail

Most people want the desktop app. It’s a native, signed and notarized build with the engine bundled in — download, drag to Applications, launch. There’s nothing else to set up.

Download for macOS → Apple Silicon · macOS 13+ · signed & notarized .dmg

Download for Windows → Windows 10/11 · x64 · signed installer (.exe)

You can also grab any version from the releases page or prevail.sh.

Download the .dmg (macOS) or .exe (Windows) above.
Install. On macOS, drag Prevail.app to /Applications. On Windows, run the installer.
Launch. Builds are notarized, so there’s no Gatekeeper “damaged” warning and no right-click dance.
Explore the demo. The app opens in demo mode with a pre-populated household vault. Look around, then point it at your own folder when you’re ready (Settings → Vault).

Auto-update

The app updates itself. When a new release ships, Prevail downloads it in the background and offers to relaunch — no reinstalling. You can check manually in Settings → About.

Requirements

macOS 13+ (Apple Silicon) or Windows 10/11 (x64).
Optional: one or more of claude, codex, agy, ollama on your PATH, and/or an OpenRouter key. The bundled engine handles the rest.
An existing vault, or just use the built-in demo — no setup required.

Install the CLI engine

The same engine that powers the app is also a standalone CLI — a terminal cockpit, scriptable commands, a --json API, and the MCP server. Reach for it when you want automation or a headless box. See The CLI & engine.

curl -fsSL https://prevail.sh/install | bash

The installer detects your platform, downloads the matching binary from the latest GitHub release, and places it on your PATH (typically ~/.local/bin/prevail). Then:

prevail        # launch the terminal cockpit
prevail demo   # explore the synthetic demo vault first

brew tap fru-dev3/prevail-cli
brew install prevail

Upgrades come through brew upgrade prevail like any other formula.

Requires Bun ≥ 1.3.

git clone https://github.com/fru-dev3/prevail-cli
cd prevail-cli
bun install
bun run build        # compiles dist/prevail
./dist/prevail

Or run straight from source without compiling:

bun run start        # equivalent to `prevail`
bun run demo         # boot the synthetic demo vault

Verify a CLI install

prevail doctor          # checks your vault and which AI CLIs it can see
prevail doctor --debug  # also dumps the tail of ~/.prevail/debug.log

Upgrading the CLI

prevail upgrade            # self-update from the latest GitHub release
prevail upgrade --check    # just report whether an update exists
prevail upgrade --pre      # include prereleases

brew upgrade prevail

cd prevail-cli && git pull && bun install && bun run build

Platform support

Platform	Desktop app	CLI engine
macOS arm64 (Apple Silicon)	✅ Signed & notarized	✅ Native binary
macOS x86_64 (Intel)	—	✅ Native binary
Windows x64	✅ Signed installer	⚠️ Via WSL
Linux x86_64 / arm64	—	✅ Native binary

See Platform support for details.

What gets installed where

Path	What it holds
The app (Applications / Program Files)	Prevail Desktop + the bundled engine
`~/.prevail/`	Machine-local state: config, secrets, connector auth, session DB
`<your vault>/`	Your domains, memory, logs, journals — the part you sync