CLI install

Use the command-line install on macOS or Linux to run Worktable locally in your browser, or on a server you control. For the native macOS app, download Worktable Desktop. If you do not want to operate a machine or server, use Worktable Cloud.

curl -fsSL https://worktable.dev/install | sh

The installer supports macOS and Linux on arm64 and x64. It sets up the worktable command (with a wtb shorthand), then starts interactive setup. When setup finishes, open the address it prints. The default is:

http://localhost:7480

Inspect the installer

The installer needs no sudo and does not edit shell profiles. Preview its downloads and filesystem changes:

curl -fsSL https://worktable.dev/install | sh -s -- --dry-run

Every flag and default path is listed in the installer reference.

Choose the workspace folder

Your workspace is a plain folder at ~/Worktable by default. Documents, drawings, records, annotations, threads, and history remain separate from app settings and credentials.

Pick another folder during setup, or steer it explicitly:

worktable setup --workspace ~/work/notebook

To select a workspace when launching, use worktable launch --workspace ~/work/notebook. The CLI uses its saved settings and flags; setting WORKTABLE_WORKSPACE does not override that selection.

Worktable can adopt an existing valid workspace. It refuses to initialize a non-empty unrelated folder or overwrite an unfamiliar workspace identity.

Choose how it runs

Interactive setup offers a managed background service or a foreground process. The background service is convenient for agents that should reach Worktable after the terminal closes. Foreground mode keeps lifecycle control in the current terminal.

To make a server reachable from another machine, finish the local setup first, then follow Remote access.

Linux servers

Run Worktable as a regular user, not root. Agents see Drawings and HTML Docs through previews, which Worktable renders in a sandboxed browser, and that browser can’t start its sandbox as root.

Ubuntu 23.10 and later block the sandbox until AppArmor allows it. Run this once, as the user that runs Worktable:

worktable preview setup

It asks for sudo to add an AppArmor rule for this install’s preview browser. The rule matches the browser’s path under your account, so anything your account puts at that path can also create user namespaces. worktable doctor and Settings → System show whether previews work.

A minimal server may also lack the system libraries the preview browser needs. worktable doctor names any that are missing and, on Debian or Ubuntu, the command that installs them. Everything else works without previews.

Verify the install

worktable doctor

doctor checks the installation and reports the active workspace, service, and agent setup.

Non-interactive installs

# Accept defaults without prompts
curl -fsSL https://worktable.dev/install | sh -s -- --yes

# Install only; run setup yourself later
curl -fsSL https://worktable.dev/install | sh -s -- --no-setup

You can also supply --workspace, --port, --background or --foreground, and --mcp <client-ids> in the same pass. See the installer reference for every flag and path.

Connect an agent or start your first project.

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