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Using the Link App

End-to-end walkthrough for setting up Locai Link on a new machine: the .pkg / tarball installer, the Setup Assistant wizard, the menu-bar companion, and the Preferences window. This section covers first-run, model deployment, re-registration, and uninstall on macOS and Linux.

Windows is currently CLI-only

A Windows GUI installer is on the roadmap but not shipping yet. Windows users should follow the source-install path in the README.

What you'll install​

Locai Link ships as two apps plus a background runtime:

  • Locai Link runtime. The headless agent that talks to Locai Control, downloads models, and runs inference. Started automatically at login.
  • Setup Assistant. A one-time wizard that signs you in, registers this machine as a device on your Locai account, and (optionally) queues models for download at the end. Also handles re-registration and uninstall.
  • Locai Link (menu-bar companion). A small tray app that shows whether the runtime is online, lists the models it's serving, and opens the Preferences window.

You interact with all three via a single install package. There's nothing else to configure.

This is an Alpha build

You'll see Alpha after the version number in the Setup Assistant sidebar, in the companion's menu-bar dropdown (Locai Link · Alpha · ONLINE), on the hover tooltip, and in the Preferences window's version row. It signals that the setup and GUI flow is still stabilising; the runtime itself is production-tested. Please report anything unexpected.

Before you start​

You need:

  • A Locai account at locai.co.uk. If you sign in with Google, you're set; the wizard handles password-less accounts automatically.
  • A registration key for the device, obtained from your organisation's admin in the Locai Control dashboard. This is a short single-use token that pairs your machine to your Locai fleet.
  • Optionally: a list of models you want to deploy on this device on day one. You can always add or remove them later from Locai Control or the companion's Preferences.

The Setup Assistant will prompt for these interactively. You don't need to memorise them.

Next steps​