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Installing drasyl on macOS

This guide walks you through installing drasyl on macOS. drasyl consists of two main components:

  • drasyl daemon: runs as a background service
  • drasyl UI: menu bar application to manage the daemon

Installation Methods​

We provide two installation methods:

  • macOS Package Installer (.pkg) (Recommended)
  • Homebrew

The simplest way to install drasyl is via the provided .pkg installer, which sets up both the daemon and UI automatically.

Step 1: Download the Installer​

Choose the appropriate installer for your Mac:

Click the following link to download the Apple Silicon installer: 📦 drasyl_0.1.0_macos_arm64.pkg

macOS Security Warning

If macOS warns you that the file can't be verified, open System Preferences > Security & Privacy, scroll down, and click "Open Anyway".

Step 2: Run the Installer​

  • Open the .pkg file from your Downloads folder or browser.
  • macOS will ask you to confirm that you want to install the software. Click "Allow".
  • Follow the steps in the installation wizard.
  • After completion, the daemon starts automatically as a background service.
Screenshot showing the welcome screen of macOS installer

Figure 1: macOS installer welcome screen

Step 3: Start the drasyl UI​

  • Open Spotlight (Cmd + Space), search for "drasyl UI", and launch it.
  • The UI will appear as an icon in your menu bar (top-right corner).
  • If you don’t see it, check the overflow area of the menu bar.
First Startup Delay

On first startup, the UI may take a few seconds to connect to the daemon while it completes the proof-of-work process to generate your device identity.

Once connected, the drasyl UI displays the public key of your device.

macOS menu bar showing the drasyl UI application

Figure 2: macOS menu bar showing the drasyl UI application

Copy Public Key

You can copy your public key by clicking on it in the drasyl UI. Alternatively, run drasyl status in your terminal to display it.

Method 2: Homebrew Installation​

If you prefer managing software via Homebrew, you can install drasyl from the terminal.

Step 1: Install the drasyl Daemon​

brew install drasyl/tap/drasyl

Copy the authentication token:

An API auth token has been created at:
  /opt/homebrew/etc/drasyl/auth.token

To use drasyl you must copy it into your home directory:
  mkdir -p ~/.drasyl
  cp /opt/homebrew/etc/drasyl/auth.token ~/.drasyl/auth.token
  chmod 600 ~/.drasyl/auth.token

Start the daemon:

sudo brew services start drasyl/tap/drasyl

This ensures that the drasyl daemon starts automatically with macOS.

Step 2: Install and start the UI​

brew install drasyl/tap/drasyl-ui
  • Open Spotlight (Cmd + Space), search for "drasyl UI", and launch it.
  • The UI will appear as an icon in your menu bar (top-right corner).
  • If you don’t see it, check the overflow area of the menu bar.
First Startup Delay

On first startup, the UI may take a few seconds to connect to the daemon while it completes the proof-of-work process to generate your device identity.

Once connected, the drasyl UI displays the public key of your device.

macOS menu bar showing the drasyl UI application

Figure 2: macOS menu bar showing the drasyl UI application

Copy Public Key

You can copy your public key by clicking on it in the drasyl UI. Alternatively, run drasyl status in your terminal to display it.

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