Downloads - Cortex Docs

Cortex runs in the browser without installing anything. Download an app when you need a host the browser cannot offer: This PC and SSH for Code, a desktop home for your bots, or the Design working UI.

What to install

You want to…	Install	Guide
Chat, run Code in the Cloud, drive a Bot in the Cloud	Nothing — use cortex.foundation	Quickstart
Run Code sessions on This PC or over SSH	The Cortex desktop app (Chat + Code)	Desktop app
Drive Code from a terminal, scripts, or CI	The Cortex CLI	Install the CLI
Run bots from a desktop app built for agents, routines, and channels	The Cortex Bot desktop app	Bot desktop
Edit Design canvases	The Cortex Design desktop app	Design desktop

Desktop apps

Desktop builds are published at releases.cortex.foundation. Install the build for your platform, open it, and sign in when the app asks — it is the same account as the web app. There are two desktop apps because the two jobs are different:

App	Sidebar	Adds
Cortex desktop	Chat and Code	This PC and SSH hosts for Code sessions; the same Chat as the web
Cortex Bot desktop	Agents, routines, channels — no Chat or Code sidebar	A desktop home for your bots

Design’s working UI is a third, separate desktop app; Chat and Code can still host a canvas that you then open there.

Open releases.cortex.foundation What desktop adds

The CLI

The CLI is one binary, cortex, installed from software.cortex.foundation. The installer verifies a SHA-256 checksum before it writes anything.

curl -fsSL https://software.cortex.foundation/install.sh | sh

irm https://software.cortex.foundation/install.ps1 | iex

Then:

cortex --version
cortex login
cd ~/code/my-project && cortex

Cortex CLI welcome splash rendered in a 40 by 12 terminal — What a fresh install shows, even in a 40-column terminal: Welcome to Cortex, the coding agent CLI, and the empty composer.

Full steps, version pins, channels, and updates: Install the CLI.

Updating

Surface	How it updates
Web app	Always current
Desktop apps	The updater feed on `releases.cortex.foundation`
CLI	`cortex upgrade` (or `cortex upgrade --check` to report only)

Desktop app — what This PC and SSH add for Code.
Bot desktop — the app built around agents, routines, and channels.
Design desktop — the working UI for canvases.
Install the CLI — checksums, version pins, and channels.

⌘I

​What to install

​Desktop apps

​The CLI

​Updating

​Next

What to install

Desktop apps

The CLI

Updating

Next