Installation

Tarsk runs as a local server that serves both the REST API and the React frontend from a single process. There are two ways to run it.

Option 1: npx (recommended)

No installation required. Run the following command in any terminal:

npx tarsk

Tarsk starts on port 641 and opens http://localhost:641 in your browser automatically. The server stays running in that terminal session — press Ctrl+C to stop it.

To always use the latest version:

npx tarsk@latest

Option 2: Electron Desktop App

Download the desktop app from github.com/damiant/tarsk/releases. Prebuilt binaries are available for:

• macOS — DMG (Apple Silicon & Intel) or ZIP
• Windows — NSIS installer or portable EXE
• Linux — AppImage or .deb

The Electron app bundles the same CLI server and starts it automatically. No separate terminal is needed.

System Requirements

Requirement	Notes
git	Must be installed and on your PATH. Tarsk uses git to clone repositories and manage branches. Download from git-scm.com.
Node.js 18+ or Bun	Required for npx tarsk. The Electron app bundles its own runtime.
gh CLI (optional)	Required only for creating GitHub repositories and pull requests from within Tarsk. Install from cli.github.com.

Tarsk verifies that git is installed during the onboarding wizard on first launch and will show a warning with a download link if it is missing.

Where Data Is Stored

All Tarsk data lives in your user data directory:

Platform	Path
macOS	~/Library/Application Support/Tarsk/
Windows	%APPDATA%\Tarsk\
Linux	~/.config/Tarsk/

Inside this directory:

• tarsk.db — SQLite database (projects, threads, conversation history, settings)
• data/{threadId}/ — one directory per thread, containing the full git clone for that thread

This means each thread is a real, independent filesystem copy of your repository. You can open any thread directory directly in your IDE or file manager.

Next Steps

Continue to the Quickstart to connect your first repository and start working with the AI agent.