Getting started with HarnessTap Desktop

Install

Open /download. The page detects your OS and CPU in the browser (navigator.userAgentData when available) and recommends the matching installer from the latest GitHub Release of harnesstap/harnesstap. Other OS/arch builds and all releases stay listed as fallbacks.

macOS

1. Download the .dmg for Apple Silicon (*_aarch64.dmg) or Intel (*_x64.dmg).
2. Open the disk image and drag HarnessTap to Applications.
3. Launch from Applications. CI builds are unsigned, so Gatekeeper may require Open Anyway.

Windows

1. Prefer the NSIS installer (*_x64-setup.exe or *_arm64-setup.exe).
2. The MSI (*_x64_en-US.msi / *_arm64_en-US.msi) is an alternate.
3. Run the setup exe. SmartScreen may warn because release builds are unsigned.

Linux

1. Prefer the AppImage (*_amd64.AppImage or *_aarch64.AppImage). Mark it executable and run it:

   chmod +x HarnessTap_*.AppImage
   ./HarnessTap_*.AppImage

2. Distro packages are also published: *_amd64.deb / *_arm64.deb and HarnessTap-*-1.x86_64.rpm / HarnessTap-*-1.aarch64.rpm.

Linux installers are built on Ubuntu 22.04 (WebKitGTK 4.1) so glibc stays compatible with Ubuntu 22.04 and Debian 12. There is one builder per architecture — not a matrix of distros. Snap, Flatpak, and AUR are out of scope.

First launch

On startup the app:

1. Spawns the bundled ht-agent sidecar
2. Waits for GET /v1/health
3. Reads ~/.harnesstap/agent-token for mutating API calls

A global ht binary is not required. The sidecar uses the same ~/.harnesstap library as the CLI.

Cloud sign-in is optional. Open the Account drawer (HarnessTap Cloud) when you want to browse or pull shared plugins. Device-code approval happens in the browser; you can switch organizations from the same drawer after sign-in.

A default environment is seeded so Environments always has at least one row to list. The init profile is global default (Global-only). Adding a project can seed a Project-only project default.

The Project header labels Install for the same loop as ht install (apply with no plugin selector). After apply, switch, or Project Install, a yellow pending-approvals strip can list parked executables — apply can succeed without being fully green. See Project workspace and Executable trust.

After install

• Desktop overview — workspaces and CLI pairing
• Project workspace — Project Install, pending approvals, apm.yml editor
• CLI getting started — ht init, first apply, scan/compose/publish
• Cloud getting started — account, org, first published plugin