The fastest way to run Porto is the Mac app. If you’ve installed any app from a dmg before, you already know most of this. The one twist: Apple has not notarized this build yet, so the first open takes one extra click.

Download Porto for macOS (Apple Silicon)

One dmg — everything inside, nothing else to install.
Everything the other install pages set up by hand — the database, the API, the web UI — is inside the app and starts itself. You don’t need Docker, Node, Python, or this repo.
1

Drag Porto to Applications

Open the Porto dmg and drag Porto onto the Applications shortcut sitting next to it — the standard Mac install gesture.
2

Get past the unidentified-developer warning (first time only)

Apple has not notarized this build yet, so macOS blocks the first open with a warning. Two ways through:
  • Right-click Porto → Open → Open, or
  • if macOS only offers “Move to Trash”: open System Settings → Privacy & Security, scroll to the message about Porto, and click Open Anyway (newer macOS routes it here).
Still told the app “is damaged”? That’s quarantine on an older download. In Terminal: xattr -cr /Applications/Porto.app and open again — or re-download the current dmg, which is signed.
You do this once. After that, it launches like any other app.
3

Let it boot

First launch builds Porto’s own database under ~/Library/Application Support/Porto. The window shows each step as it happens: “Setting up your local database…”, then “Starting Porto…”, then “Almost ready…”. Expect about a minute. Later launches skip the database setup and start faster.If a step fails, or setup runs far past its usual time, the window says “Porto couldn’t start” and offers Try again and Show logs. See Troubleshooting.
4

Connect a model — your choice of provider

The welcome screen asks you to pick a model provider — Anthropic, OpenAI, Gemini, DeepSeek, xAI, OpenRouter, and more — and paste that provider’s API key, the same key you’d use with their API directly. Porto checks it with a live call and stores it encrypted on your machine. It never leaves your Mac except to talk to the provider you chose.
5

Name your first project

Porto calls a project a Depo — think “repo, but for a whole project”: its chat rooms, agents, and files live there together. Name it, and you land in its main room with Navi, the agent who runs the front desk. Tell Navi what you want to build.

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Day-to-day

  • Quitting the window doesn’t stop Porto. Its services keep running, like closing a browser tab doesn’t stop the site. For a full shutdown use the menu bar: Stack → Stop Porto. Stack → Start Porto (or the Start Porto button in the window) brings them back.
  • Your data is ordinary files and a Postgres database under ~/Library/Application Support/Porto. Deleting that folder is a factory reset.
  • If Porto stops answering, the window goes back to its start screen and reconnects when Porto answers again. If a service has stopped for good, the start screen says so and offers Try again. You don’t need to quit and reopen the app.

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Updates

Porto checks for a new version when it opens and every 30 minutes after that. You see the result in the bottom-left corner of the window.
  • Porto 0.1.7 and later update themselves. The new version downloads in the background while you work, and the corner shows Downloading update… 42%. When it finishes, click Restart to update. Porto stops its services, replaces itself, and opens again. Your Depos and data stay in ~/Library/Application Support/Porto.
  • Porto 0.1.4 to 0.1.6 show Update available instead. Click it to download the new dmg, then drag Porto into Applications again. From then on, updates install themselves.
  • If an update fails, the corner shows Update failed. Download it instead. Click it to get the dmg and install it the usual way.

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What the app build doesn’t include (yet)

  • Live board updates arrive on refresh rather than instantly. Chat is unaffected — replies stream in real time.
  • Computer seats (agents that drive a screen) are a beta with a separate download. Set them up with Computer host.
  • CLI-login seats (using a Claude Code subscription instead of an API key) still need the from-source install.
  • Windows. macOS (Apple Silicon) only for now.