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Cortex runs in a browser without installing anything. A browser tab cannot touch the files, the terminal or the windows on your own machine, so Cortex also ships desktop applications and a command-line tool for the work that has to happen locally. One account covers all of them. This page is the map: which application carries which product, where work can run in each one, which ones are available today, and how each one updates. It deliberately carries no installer links, because Cortex does not publish a public download page yet.

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The applications

There is no public download page for the desktop applications yet, and no installer link to give you. This page describes what each application does and how it behaves once it is installed.

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Pick an application

Cortex desktop app

Chat and Code in one window, and the only way to run Code on this machine.

Bot desktop app

A window for your agents: the Inbox, routines, plugins and rooms.

Cortex CLI

The coding agent from a terminal, a script or a continuous-integration job.

Design desktop app

What the Design window will hold, and what to use in the meantime.

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The web app

Nothing to install and nothing to update. Sign in with your Cortex account and use the product menu, headed Switch product, to move between Cortex Chat (Ask, research and create.), Cortex Code (Agents in your repositories.) and Cortex Bot (A teammate with a computer.). The same menu carries a Desktop app row and a Documentation row, both of which open in a new tab. Two limits are worth knowing before you choose the browser:
  • Cortex Code in a browser runs in the cloud. If something asks for This PC or SSH from a tab, the answer is one fixed message: This PC and SSH are available in the Cortex desktop app, not in the browser. Use Cloud here.
  • The double-tap capture chord belongs to the desktop app. In the web app the setting says This chord lives on the desktop app. The web has no global hotkey.
The Desktop app row in the product menu is not a download link. It opens the page that hands a desktop application back to you after you sign in, which says Finish signing in in the Cortex app.

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The desktop applications

Two desktop applications ship today, and they do different jobs. The Cortex desktop app is Chat and Code in one window. It draws its own title bar with the product switcher and the window controls, keeps your conversations and sessions on this machine, can open a folder through the system’s folder picker, and can run a Code session on This PC with a local terminal and local Git. See Cortex desktop app. The Cortex Bot desktop app is built only around agents. Its rail is Inbox, Routines and Plugins, with your Agents and Rooms listed below. It signs you in, runs approvals through the Inbox, and can be granted Background computer, which lets an agent work in windows that are not frontmost on your own machine. See Bot desktop app. A third window, for Cortex Design, is not finished: it has no installer and no sign-in, so there is nothing to install. There is no browser editor to fall back on either: what the web app gives you today is the CANVASES rail, which asks for a design, creates and lists canvases and shows their status, while the editing itself belongs to the window. See Design desktop app for what it will hold.

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The CLI

The Cortex CLI is a single command-line tool. Its install scripts and its released archives are published on software.cortex.foundation, and the installer checks the published checksum before it writes anything. On macOS and Linux it installs into ~/.local/bin, and Python 3.8 or newer must already be present. On Windows it installs under your local application data folder, in Cortex\bin, and it does not edit your PATH, so add that folder yourself. Confirm the install with:
Three environment variables change what the installer does: The installer picks the right build for your processor and, on Linux, the right C library variant. An unrecognised system fails rather than guessing, and the installer refuses to overwrite unrelated commands. Native Windows ARM64 and 32-bit builds are not published. Full steps are in Install the CLI.

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How each one updates

The Cortex desktop app never moves you to an older version, and both desktop applications check that an update really came from Cortex before installing it. Mac builds are notarised and Windows builds are code-signed.