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PicoAide Wiki

Getting Started

Choose your path

Section titled “Choose your path”
You areHow to get the product
Enterprise employeeAsk your administrator for the enterprise access address, open https://<enterprise-domain>/, and download the installer for your platform (or copy the installer directly from a colleague)
Enterprise administratorFirst deploy the server following Private Deployment; client installers ship with the server image, and once deployment is done this server serves them to employees
Want to try it firstClient installers for the official channel are inside the server image: fetch the official image package and a single command exports the installers for all three platforms (see below)

Client installers

Section titled “Client installers”
PlatformInstallerNotes
Windows x64.exe (NSIS installer)Unsigned; SmartScreen may warn about an “unknown publisher”
macOS (Apple silicon / arm64).dmgOfficial releases are signed + notarized
Linux x64.AppImageGrant execute permission, then run

Client installers ship with the server image (rather than being posted on a standalone download site), so there are only two sources:

  1. Your enterprise server (recommended): once deployment is done, open https://<enterprise-domain>/ — the portal page lists download entries for all three platforms;
  2. The official image package (trial / single machine): fetch the official image package from the update server or GitHub Releases, then unpack the installers:
Terminal window
VER=<version>        # use server.version from latest.json as the authority
# the official channel is `official`, the pre-release channel is `beta` — swap as needed
curl -fL -O "https://release.picoaide.com/official/releases/${VER}/picoaide-server-${VER}-amd64.zip"
curl -fL -O "https://release.picoaide.com/official/releases/${VER}/SHA256SUMS"
sha256sum -c SHA256SUMS
unzip -p picoaide-server-${VER}-amd64.zip image.tar | docker load
mkdir -p ./picoaide-stack
docker run --rm -v "$PWD/picoaide-stack:/out" -e PICOAI_UNPACK_STACK=/out \
  picoaide-harness-server:${VER}
ls -1 ./picoaide-stack/client    # installers for all three platforms + CLIENT-RELEASE.json

For full instructions see Container Deployment and Offline Deployment.

First launch

Section titled “First launch”
  • First launch creates a default desktop profile and starts the official DSH web interface locally;
  • The installer already bundles Electron, Node.js, pnpm, and a pinned set of DSH dependencies — you do not need to install Node.js, pnpm, or DSH separately;
  • Closing the window hides to the tray by default; choose Quit from the tray to exit the app and stop the local service.

Local web port

Section titled “Local web port”

Desktop lets the OS pick a random local web port by default (dsh-desktop.port: 0), avoiding collisions; the service listens only on 127.0.0.1. If a UI plugin needs a stable origin (localStorage is isolated per origin), set a fixed port in settings:

dsh-desktop:
  port: 43189

The port must be an integer from 0 to 65535; changing it performs an orderly restart. If the fixed port is already taken, Desktop cannot start — free the port or set it back to 0 or another free port.

Sign in

Section titled “Sign in”
  • Enterprise (server mode): enter the server address (provided by your enterprise administrator, e.g. https://ai.example.com) and sign in with your account and password (local / LDAP / OIDC; the sign-in method is configured server-side); accounts are created by administrators in the Admin Console, and quota and balance are decided by the server;
  • The client’s update source is exactly this server: after signing in, the client periodically checks it for new versions (see Client delivery & updates); when not connected to a server it performs no outbound update checks at all;
  • In internal (intranet self-signed) mode, the first connection requires trusting this deployment’s local Caddy CA;
  • Signing out clears all sessions (connectors, browser, scheduled-job tokens).

Start using it: the four core entry points

Section titled “Start using it: the four core entry points”
  1. New session: choose a workspace (project directory) to start chatting; the tools a model can call are gated by permission approvals;
  2. Capability Hub: install market skills/agents (needs administrator authorization), and review your “Mine” local creations and their upload/approval status;
  3. Scheduled jobs: hand high-frequency work to an Agent to run automatically on schedule (cron + prompt + workspace + permissions); execution details are always available;
  4. Connectors / Browser: authorize via OAuth to connect MCP services such as Xiaoshouyi; let the Agent take over the browser to perform actions.

What’s next

Section titled “What’s next”