Desktop app

Kolleague Desktop is available for macOS, Windows, and Linux. It uses the same account and workspace data as the web app, but it manages the daemon on your machine automatically and keeps a separate set of tabs for each workspace.

Desktop and web

Web is more convenient for a quick look or on a shared computer.

You can be signed in to both at the same time. As long as they connect to the same Kolleague service, the data they show is shared.

Installation

Pick the installer that matches your OS and CPU architecture from the Kolleague downloads page:

After installing, sign in with the same email you use on the web. Once signed in, Desktop starts its own bundled Kolleague CLI and detects the AI coding tools already installed on the machine.

Desktop tabs

Desktop saves tabs per workspace. For example, if you open three issues in workspace A and switch to workspace B, you see B's own tabs; switch back to A and the three earlier tabs are still there.

A given resource opens only once in the current workspace. Tabs can be reordered, pinned, and closed, and each keeps its own forward/back history and scroll position. Clicking or pasting an app link for this deployment opens it directly in a tab instead of jumping to the browser.

Logging out clears every tab saved on the machine, so the next person to sign in never sees pages left behind by the previous account.

Built-in daemon

After sign-in, Desktop creates a dedicated CLI profile for the current Kolleague service and uses it to start the daemon. The profile lives at:

~/.kolleague/profiles/desktop-<host>/

It never reads or overwrites the default profile you use in the terminal. If you also start another daemon manually, Kolleague shows them as separate runtimes.

You can check runtime status and logs in Desktop's settings. If a tool isn't detected, first confirm it runs in a regular terminal and is logged in, then restart Desktop's daemon.

Updating Desktop

Auto-update is on by default. The app checks for and downloads new versions in the background; once a download finishes you can restart to install immediately or let it install on the next quit. You can also turn off automatic checks or check for new versions manually under Settings → Updates.

Updates are distributed per OS and CPU architecture:

• Windows arm64 and macOS x64 (Intel) each use their own update feed;
• all other architectures use the default feed;
• the app matches the update feed automatically — no manual selection needed;
• on Linux, auto-update only works for .AppImage; update .deb and .rpm by installing a new package over the old one;
• if auto-update fails, likewise install over the top with the matching installer from the downloads page.

Windows Defender flags Kolleague as a virus

Symptom: Windows Security reports a threat such as Trojan:Script/Wacatac.B!ml and quarantines a file inside the Desktop installation. The affected item is normally the bundled CLI, not the app executable:

C:\Users\<you>\AppData\Local\Programs\@kolleaguedesktop\resources\app.asar.unpacked\resources\bin\kolleague.exe

This is a false positive. The !ml suffix means the verdict came from Defender's machine-learning heuristics rather than a malware signature. Kolleague's Windows builds are not Authenticode code-signed yet, and a freshly published unsigned binary that starts background processes and opens network connections is exactly the profile those heuristics score as suspicious. Every release publishes checksums for its Windows artifacts.

Verify it yourself — each GitHub release publishes a checksums.txt covering every CLI archive:

Get-FileHash .\kolleague-cli-<version>-windows-amd64.zip -Algorithm SHA256

Compare the hash with the matching line in checksums.txt on the latest release.

How to fix:

1. Restore the quarantined file — Windows Security → Virus & threat protection → Protection history → select the Kolleague item → Actions → Restore.

2. Add an exclusion so it isn't quarantined again — Virus & threat protection → Manage settings → Exclusions → Add an exclusion → Folder, and add both:

   • %LOCALAPPDATA%\Programs\@kolleaguedesktop
   • %APPDATA%\Kolleague

   Both paths matter: when the bundled CLI goes missing, Desktop downloads a replacement into %APPDATA%\Kolleague\bin, so excluding only the install folder leaves you in a loop where the replacement gets quarantined too.

3. Report the false positive to Microsoft at Microsoft Security Intelligence — submit a file, choosing Software developer and Incorrectly detected as malware. That is what gets the detection withdrawn for every user, usually within a few days.

Next steps

• Quickstart — the first-connection flow.
• Daemon and runtimes — how the built-in daemon works.
• Troubleshooting — diagnosing connection issues.