Truss Desktop App

The desktop app is a standalone local-first workspace for Ollama, LM Studio, llama.cpp server, compatible local endpoints, and optional BYOK cloud providers. It runs the same runtime, tools, sessions, approvals, and provider configuration as the other Truss clients.

Install

Download Truss Desktop, then choose the artifact matching your platform and CPU. The page resolves direct downloads from the latest stable project release:

Release tags match the packaged desktop version. For example, release v0.2.0 contains desktop version 0.2.0.

For an AppImage:

chmod +x Truss-*.AppImage
./Truss-*.AppImage

Install a native Linux package with your distribution’s package manager, such as sudo apt install ./file.deb, sudo dnf install ./file.rpm, or sudo pacman -U ./file.pacman.

Open the app, choose a workspace, then select a detected local server and model in Settings. A custom compatible endpoint can be entered manually.

Bring your own key

Settings are separated into Local provider, BYOK, and Other tabs. In BYOK, select OpenAI, Anthropic, OpenRouter, Groq, Together AI, Gemini, xAI, Mistral AI, DeepSeek, Perplexity, Fireworks AI, NVIDIA NIM, Xiaomi MiMo, Sakana Fugu, or Ollama Cloud, then supply a model ID and API key. Truss encrypts the key through Electron’s platform secure-storage service before storing it locally; the normal desktop state file contains no raw credential. Leave the API-key field blank when changing other settings to keep the saved key, or select Remove stored provider key to delete it.

Ollama in the Local provider tab stays key-free and connects to your local server. Choose Ollama Cloud in BYOK only when connecting directly to Ollama’s hosted API with an OLLAMA_API_KEY.

Themes

The Other tab has the default Truss palette plus Blue, Orange, and Multicolor presets. A preset saves immediately and is restored when Desktop starts. Select Custom to provide a JSON object containing any subset of background, surface, panel, border, text, muted, accent, accentText, warning, and error; each value must be a #RRGGBB color. Custom input previews while you edit it. Select Save custom theme when the palette is ready to persist.

Updates

On Windows installers and Linux x64 AppImage builds, Settings includes desktop update controls. By default Truss checks the latest stable release when it starts but does not download it. Enable Automatically download available updates to download in the background, or select Check now and Download yourself. When the download is ready, select Restart to update.

Debian, RPM, pacman, and Linux ARM64 packages are updated through the installer or package manager that installed them. Development builds do not check for updates.

Workspace

The desktop workspace has three panes:

• Files: a directory-first, collapsible tree for browsing workspace files.
• Editor: read a selected file or switch to its Git working-tree diff. The terminal at the bottom runs commands in the selected workspace.
• Agent: chat, model selection, mode selection, context estimate, tool approvals, and persisted conversations.

Managed agents

Select Agents in the main work area to create workspace-local profiles and run them independently. Each profile can use a different local or BYOK provider, model, mode, and approval policy. Chat and Plan work can run in parallel; Edit runs queue behind the active workspace writer. The control center shows recent run state, progress, approvals, errors, and verified changed files. See Managed Agents for run policy and retention.

Git workflow

The collapsible Git panel sits above the file tree. It shows the current branch, ahead/behind state, and changed files. Use + and - to stage or unstage an individual file, Stage all to stage every displayed change, then enter a message and select Commit. Pull and Push use the repository’s configured remote. Git output is written to the terminal pane for inspection.

Agent messages render safe Markdown with headings, lists, links, inline code, and fenced code blocks. Type / in the chat input to fuzzy-search workspace files. Select a result with arrow keys and Enter or Tab; the selected /path/to/file is attached as bounded context for the next request. At most eight files and 80,000 total characters are attached.

The terminal accepts ordinary workspace shell commands. It also recognizes /help, /status, /init, /update [note], and /clear-memory, routing those commands through Truss instead of the operating-system shell.

Permissions

Choose Ask every time, Auto-allow read-only, or Auto-allow all tools in Settings. File reads, searches, and directory listing are read-only; writes and terminal commands require approval unless the selected policy allows them.

Enable Allow public internet research to expose bounded web_search and web_fetch tools. Internet access is off by default, and network requests require approval unless Auto-allow all is selected.

MCP servers

Paste an mcpServers JSON object into MCP servers (JSON) in Settings. Apply the settings to restart the agent runtime and display connection status. MCP tools use the same permission policy as other tools; only Auto-allow all bypasses their approval prompt. See MCP Servers for fields and mode behavior.