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Penates Penates

Platform notes

macOS

macOS is the primary platform. Apple Silicon (M-series) and Intel Macs are both supported. Behaviour is byte-identical between the two architectures.

All features are available on macOS:

  • iOS Simulator viewer (Mata integration): requires Mata installed as a macOS app.
  • Voice input: requires whisper-cli from brew install whisper-cpp and a model file. See Configuration for the relevant .env variables.
  • moshi-hook: usage data and recent-directories are sourced from moshi-hook, installed via brew tap rjyo/moshi && brew install moshi-hook.

The LaunchAgent label is com.penates. Plist path: ~/Library/LaunchAgents/com.penates.plist.

Linux

Linux runs natively. Tested distributions: Debian/Ubuntu (apt), Fedora/RHEL (dnf), Arch (pacman). The install script (install.sh) detects the package manager and installs prerequisites accordingly.

Differences from macOS:

  • Auto-start uses a systemd user unit instead of a LaunchAgent. setup.sh installs it at ~/.config/systemd/user/penates.service and calls loginctl enable-linger so the unit stays active without an interactive session.
  • moshi-hook is not available on Linux. The hub runs without it; usage data and the recent-directories quick-pick will show empty.
  • Mata iOS Simulator viewer is not available on Linux.
  • Voice input (whisper.cpp) is off by default on Linux. It can be enabled manually if you compile whisper-cpp from source, but this is not tested.
  • Trash: file deletion uses gio trash (GNOME) or trash-put (trash-cli) instead of macOS /usr/bin/trash. If neither is installed, file deletion fails with a hard error rather than silently using rm.

Windows

Windows is not directly supported. The only tested path is WSL2: install a Debian or Ubuntu distribution through the Microsoft Store, then follow the Linux instructions inside that WSL2 environment.

Browser access works from the Windows host via localhost or the WSL2 IP. PWA installation and Web Push require HTTPS and a domain with a real certificate. Tailscale’s tailscale serve covers this without a separate domain.