Installation

Download

Grab the installer for your platform from the releases page.

Linux

Choose the format that suits your system:

Format	File	Install method
deb (Debian/Ubuntu)	warden-desktop_*_amd64.deb	sudo dpkg -i *.deb
rpm (Fedora/RHEL)	warden-desktop-*.x86_64.rpm	sudo rpm -i *.rpm
Arch	warden-desktop-*-x86_64.pkg.tar.zst	sudo pacman -U *.pkg.tar.zst
AppImage (portable)	warden-desktop-linux-amd64.AppImage	chmod +x *.AppImage && ./*.AppImage

ARM64 builds are also available for all formats. AppImages support delta updates via AppImageUpdate.

Headless server and TUI

The headless server (warden) and TUI (warden-tui) are distributed as standalone binaries:

# Download (replace binary name and architecture as needed)
curl -L -o warden https://github.com/thesimonho/warden/releases/latest/download/warden-linux-amd64
chmod +x warden

macOS

Download the DMG from the releases page:

1. Open warden-desktop-macos-universal.dmg
2. Drag Warden.app to Applications
3. On first launch, right-click → Open to bypass Gatekeeper (the app is not yet code-signed)

The DMG contains a universal binary that runs natively on both Intel and Apple Silicon Macs.

Windows

Download and run warden-desktop-setup-windows-amd64.exe. The installer optionally adds Warden to your PATH and creates a desktop shortcut.

Prerequisites

Warden supports two agent types: Claude Code (Anthropic) and Codex (OpenAI). Each project is locked to one agent at creation time.

• Claude Code requires an Anthropic API key (ANTHROPIC_API_KEY) or a Claude Pro/Max subscription.
• Codex requires an OpenAI API key (OPENAI_API_KEY) or a ChatGPT Pro/Plus subscription.

Both CLIs are bundled in the container image — no additional installation needed.

Container image

The container image is pulled automatically on first use. To pull it manually:

docker pull ghcr.io/thesimonho/warden:latest

Building from source

Requires Git, Go 1.26+, and Node.js 24+.

git clone https://github.com/thesimonho/warden.git
cd warden
go mod download
npm --prefix web install
npm --prefix web run build
rm -rf internal/server/ui && cp -r web/dist internal/server/ui
go build -o bin/warden-desktop ./cmd/warden-desktop

See Contributing for the full development setup.