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Rennet

Install Rennet

Rennet ships as a desktop app for macOS and Windows. This page gets it onto your machine and to the first-run welcome; getting started takes over from there.

Before you download

Section titled “Before you download”

Rennet runs on your machine against tools you already have. Have these ready, or install them right after the app:

  • Git, on your PATH. Rennet reads branches, diffs, and remotes through it.
  • A coding harness: Claude Code, Codex, or both. Rennet reviews through your installed harness and your own subscription. See install a coding harness.
  • A GitHub sign-in, only when you review pull requests or open them. See connect to GitHub.

There is no Rennet backend and no account to create. The app talks to GitHub when you ask it to, and to your harness’s model provider when a review runs.

Download

Section titled “Download”

Every release is published on GitHub:

github.com/rbutera/rennet/releases/latest

Pick the asset for your machine. <version> is the release number, for example 0.12.0.

MachineDownloadNotes
Mac with Apple siliconRennet-<version>-arm64.dmgSigned with a Developer ID and notarized by Apple.
Windows 10 or 11, x64Rennet-<version>.Setup.exeUnsigned for now, so SmartScreen warns once. See below.

The other assets on the page serve the app’s own updater (RELEASES, the .nupkg, the two .zip files) and SHA256SUMS lists every file’s checksum. You do not need them for a normal install. The Windows .zip is a portable copy that runs without the installer.

Releases do not include an Intel Mac build or a Linux desktop build.

macOS

Section titled “macOS”
  1. Open the .dmg and drag Rennet into Applications.
  2. Open Rennet from Applications or Spotlight. Gatekeeper accepts it without prompts because the app is signed and notarized.
  3. The first-run welcome opens. It shows which harnesses it found on this machine and walks you to your first project. See first run.

Closing the window leaves Rennet in the menu bar with its daemon running. Choose Quit from the menu bar icon to stop it.

Windows

Section titled “Windows”
  1. Run Rennet-<version>.Setup.exe.
  2. SmartScreen shows Windows protected your PC because the installer is not yet code-signed. Choose More info, then Run anyway. Signed installers are tracked in issue #330.
  3. The installer is per-user, needs no administrator rights, installs under %LOCALAPPDATA%\Rennet, and launches Rennet when it finishes.
  4. The first-run welcome opens. See first run.

Closing the window leaves Rennet in the system tray with its daemon running. On Windows you can keep projects on the host or inside a WSL distro; see Windows and WSL for what each needs.

Verify a download

Section titled “Verify a download”

SHA256SUMS on the release page lists the checksum of every asset. Compare it with the file you downloaded.

macOS:

Terminal window
shasum -a 256 ~/Downloads/Rennet-0.12.0-arm64.dmg

Windows (PowerShell):

Terminal window
Get-FileHash "$env:USERPROFILE\Downloads\Rennet-0.12.0.Setup.exe" -Algorithm SHA256

Updates

Section titled “Updates”

The installed app checks the same GitHub release feed and offers each new release with an Update control at the sidebar’s foot. Nothing installs or restarts until you choose it. See updates and the desktop app.

Other ways to reach Rennet

Section titled “Other ways to reach Rennet”

The desktop app is the only install today. It runs a local daemon, and that daemon also serves the same interface to a browser and to paired devices:

Uninstall

Section titled “Uninstall”

Remove the app the way your platform removes any app: drag Rennet from Applications to the Trash on macOS, or use Apps in Windows Settings.

Rennet keeps its personal state in ~/.rennet and in the app’s per-user data folder (~/Library/Application Support/@rennet/desktop on macOS, %APPDATA%\@rennet\desktop on Windows). Each project you added also holds a .rennet/ folder that Git ignores by default. Delete those folders to remove every trace; leave them to pick up where you left off after a reinstall.

Next steps

Section titled “Next steps”