How to install Capri Desktop

Capri Desktop installs like a normal app on Windows and runs from a zip, an AppImage or a tarball on Mac and Linux. Setting her up means one download, a brain, and optionally a voice. This guide follows the project’s README and release notes up to v0.8.6.1.

Before you start

• Windows 10 or 11, 64-bit, macOS 15 or newer, or a 64-bit Linux desktop. See requirements.
• The file for your system from the download page, with its SHA-256 checked.
• Optional: a microphone for voice chat and a key for a cloud voice. Typing works without either.

Install on Windows, step by step

1. Download Capri-Setup.exe (21.9 MB) from GitHub and compare its SHA-256 with 6da7713f976b662b3e1a13162ff0b8cdc10307b8e804244590370bf5fe7afb5b.
2. Run it. It needs no admin rights. If SmartScreen appears, choose More info → Run anyway, only after the checksum matched.
3. Set up her brain. The Capri Mainframe opens: press Set up her brain, or Free key to use a free NVIDIA key.
4. Pick a voice (optional) under VOICE: her own free voice on your PC, a voice model you run, or Fish Audio, ElevenLabs or OpenAI with your key.
5. Say hello. Click the pencil to type or the wave to voice chat. After setup she asks what to call you, your pronouns and what you are into, and keeps it in me.md.

Start with Windows is on by default for installed copies. The project plans to make new installs start with it off (#199); you can switch it in the Mainframe today.

SmartScreen and antivirus warnings

Capri is a new, unsigned app, so Windows SmartScreen often shows “Windows protected your PC”. Some antivirus engines have also flagged Capri-Setup.exe: Microsoft Defender as Trojan:Win32/Wacatac (#146, #183) and between 9 and 23 VirusTotal engines in reports on 0.8.4 and 0.8.5 (#148, #194). In those reports the SHA-256 matched the published release.

The project’s explanation, written up in #201: Capri is a .NET app, and the .NET runtime compiles code in memory and sets up its own handlers, which sandboxes read as suspicious; the Start with Windows entry looks like a program making itself start at logon. Its SECURITY.md lists what the app connects to. This guide cannot vouch for any file. Check the hash, read those pages, and decide; do not switch off your antivirus for it.

Choose her brain

She has three brain tiers, NORMAL, MEDIUM INTELLIGENCE (free) and MAX INTELLIGENCE, and with a cloud brain whatever you say goes to that provider. Keys stay on your PC.

Install on macOS

1. Download Capri-mac-apple-silicon.zip for an M-series Mac or Capri-mac-intel.zip for an Intel Mac.
2. Unzip it and drag Capri into Applications.
3. Clear the quarantine flag once in Terminal: xattr -dr com.apple.quarantine /Applications/Capri.app. Apple has not notarized her yet, so without it macOS blocks her or calls her “damaged”.
4. Open Capri Mainframe › BRAIN and add a key, or install Ollama and run ollama pull gemma4:e4b.

On a Mac she keeps her notes in Obsidian and talks through your own speech server or a cloud voice. When you grant Screen Recording, macOS asks you to quit; if the Mainframe then stays open, see #154 on the troubleshooting page.

Install on Linux

• AppImage: chmod +x Capri-linux-x64.AppImage, then run it. One file, nothing to unpack, and Start at login works from it.
• Tarball: unpack Capri-linux-x64.tar.gz and run Capri/Capri.
• X11 lets her sit on windows; on Wayland she sits on the bottom of your screen. KDE Wayland gets window support through a KWin bridge since 0.8.5.

Where her files live

• personality.md: who she is and how she talks. Mainframe › Settings › YOU › File editor, or Settings › YOU › Her personality › Edit personality.md. Reset to her default puts her back.
• me.md: what she knows about you. Editable in the same file editor; on Mac and Linux it opens in your own text editor.
• errors.txt: crashes, lag reports and Windows’ own error text. Right-click Capri › Help › Copy error details copies it for the Discord or a GitHub issue; keys are hidden.
• Her chats are kept for up to a week; memories of past chats and of your screen stay on your PC. The ears folder holds her speech models.

Updating and removing her

• Windows installs updates by itself; right-click › Check for updates forces a check.
• Package managers: when winget, Scoop, Chocolatey or pacman installed her, her update note says to update through that tool (0.8.4).
• Mac and Linux tell you when a new version is out (since 0.7.6); download the new file and replace the old one.
• Uninstall from Windows’ installed apps. It closes her first and removes her wake word pack too.