Install Pellet

Not released yet

Pellet isn’t publicly available. The desktop app is built and runs, and the iOS and Android builds run on device, but the installers aren’t signed and notarized — and handing strangers an unsigned build is a bad first impression.

When they’re ready they’ll be on the download page. Nothing here is a substitute for that; these pages describe the app as it is today so you can decide whether it’s for you.

What it will run on

Platform	Notes
macOS	macOS 11 Big Sur or newer, Apple Silicon and Intel
Windows	Windows 11, x64
Linux	Ubuntu 22.04, Debian 12, Fedora 35 or newer — x64 AppImage
iPad and iPhone	iOS 16.4 or newer, via the App Store
Android	Android 10 or newer, as an APK

Running the Linux AppImage

The Linux download is a single AppImage — no installer, no package manager. Make it executable once and run it:

chmod +x Pellet-*-x86_64.AppImage
./Pellet-*-x86_64.AppImage

Pellet needs a system keyring on Linux. Licence keys and sync keys are kept in your keyring, and Pellet will not fall back to writing them into a plain file. GNOME and KDE include one and need no setup. On a minimal desktop — i3, Sway, Openbox — install gnome-keyring (or another Secret Service provider such as KWallet or KeePassXC), make sure it starts with your session and unlocks at login, and restart Pellet. Without one, your notes still open and read normally, but saving is off and Pellet says so.

Built-in handwriting recognition is not available on Linux. The fast engines are Apple’s and Google’s. Ollama or one of the AI providers reads handwriting there instead. Built-in audio transcription works on Linux like everywhere else.

pellet:// links work for a session. An AppImage runs from a temporary mount point, so a link registered by one run may not resolve after the next unless you desktop-integrate the image.

What happens on first launch

Pellet asks you to choose a vault — the folder your notes will live in. That’s the whole of first launch: open a folder you already have, or make an empty one to start in.

There’s no account to create, nothing to sign in to, and no setup wizard.

Desktop-only features

Two things need the app to listen on a network socket, which the mobile builds don’t do — on iOS because the system won’t allow it:

• Google Calendar sign-in needs a loopback server to catch the sign-in redirect. Apple and ICS calendars work everywhere.
• The local API (AI & MCP) needs a listening socket of its own.

Everything else — notes, tasks, canvas, whiteboards, handwriting, sync — works on desktop and mobile alike. Handwritten pages take a stylus with pressure everywhere, including on a desktop with a graphics tablet. What’s iPad-only is the engine underneath: there, Pellet draws through Apple’s own PencilKit rather than its web canvas.