ArchiveMind on macOS (Intel)

Everything about installing and running ArchiveMind on a Mac with an Intel processor, from download to uninstall.

Before you begin

• An Intel Mac. Apple menu () → About This Mac: a line beginning Processor: Intel means this is the right page. If it says Chip: Apple M1/M2/M3/M4, use the macOS (Apple silicon) guide instead — there is a native arm64 build for those Macs. (This Intel build does also run on Apple silicon through Rosetta 2, but the arm64 one is the right download there.)
• Disk space: the download is about 2 GB (it includes the image-understanding model, so visual search works fully offline — nothing is ever downloaded at runtime), plus whatever your catalogue grows to (how much is that?).
• No account, no internet requirement. After the download itself, installation and everything ArchiveMind does are offline.
• The exact minimum macOS version for the beta has not been published yet; it will appear on the Releases page.

How long Intel Macs are supported

Apple has said macOS Tahoe (macOS 26) is the last macOS release for Intel Macs, so the platform has a known end.

ArchiveMind's commitment: Intel Macs are supported through 1.0 and for as long as Apple ships security updates for Tahoe. After that, Intel builds stop and Apple silicon continues. We would rather say this plainly now than let you buy a licence on an assumption we cannot keep. No end date is given here because Apple has not published one.

Nothing about this changes what the app does on your Mac today, and it never affects your catalogue: your data is plain files and a SQLite database you keep, readable by the Apple-silicon build and by any future version.

The Intel and Apple-silicon builds are now level

Both macOS builds are beta.6, built from the same source: the Intel build caught up, so it has the offline licence verification, the application icon, and the Quit that closes the app window. It is also now signed with an Apple Developer ID and notarized by Apple, so it opens with a plain double-click — see Step 3. The only difference between the two downloads is the processor they are compiled for.

Step 1 — Download

Download link

Placeholder — the official macOS (Intel) download link will be published on the Releases page. Beta testers receive the zip through the private beta channel. The current file is named like ArchiveMind-0.1.0-beta.6-macos-x86_64.zip.

Optional — verify the download. Every release zip is published with a matching .sha256 checksum file. Put both files in the same folder (Downloads is fine), open Terminal, and run:

cd ~/Downloads && shasum -a 256 -c ArchiveMind-0.1.0-beta.6-macos-x86_64.zip.sha256

It must answer OK for the zip. If it does not, the download is damaged or not the official file — delete it and download again.

Step 2 — Unpack and place the app

1. Double-click the downloaded zip. You get ArchiveMind.app.
2. Move ArchiveMind.app to your Applications folder (optional, but tidy).

Step 3 — First open

Just double-click ArchiveMind.app. This build is signed with an Apple Developer ID and notarized by Apple, so macOS opens it like any other app — no security warning to click through, and none of the workarounds older unsigned builds needed.

The first launch takes a few seconds longer than later ones while macOS verifies the app.

It is still not from the App Store

Notarized means Apple checked the app for malware and confirmed who signed it. It does not mean Apple reviewed the features, and ArchiveMind is distributed directly rather than through the App Store. Nothing about the app's privacy behaviour changes: it still makes no network connections.

ArchiveMind then opens in its own window — no address bar, no bookmarks, its own Dock icon — via Chrome, Edge, or Brave if one is installed. With only Safari, it opens as a normal browser tab instead; everything works the same. If nothing appears after ~15 seconds, go to http://127.0.0.1:8765/ in any browser yourself.

Step 4 — First-run setup

The first screen asks where to keep your catalogue (the search database), suggests a sensible default, and creates nothing until you choose:

Then you pick a folder to index and click Start first scan — nothing is scanned until you start it deliberately, and you can search while the scan runs. The flow is described step by step in First launch and Adding a repository.

Step 5 — Optional preview tools

Audio waveforms, spectrograms, video frame thumbnails, and SVG previews need free command-line tools. With Homebrew, one line in Terminal:

brew install ffmpeg librsvg

Then quit and reopen ArchiveMind. Without these tools the app honestly lists those previews as unavailable — nothing breaks, and you can add them any time.

Everyday use

• Start: open ArchiveMind.app. Your catalogue loads automatically; nothing needs rescanning just to search.
• Close: click Quit ArchiveMind in the top-right corner of the page and confirm. Closing the window alone does not stop the app. Fallback if the page is unreachable: Activity Monitor (Applications → Utilities) → ArchiveMind → quit.
• Reveal in Finder: result cards open a Finder window with the file selected.

Where ArchiveMind keeps its data

The catalogue lives where you chose during first-run setup, with a thumbs folder of previews beside it. The packaged app follows the standard macOS layout:

~/Library/Application Support/ArchiveMind/   config, durable state
~/Library/Caches/ArchiveMind/                regenerable caches
~/Library/Logs/ArchiveMind/                  logs

Logs useful when reporting a problem: ~/Library/Logs/ArchiveMind/archivemind.log. Your original files are never moved or modified — ArchiveMind only reads them.

Running from source

Developers running ArchiveMind from a source checkout (not the packaged app) get a different layout: everything under ~/.archivemind, including logs at ~/.archivemind/logs/archivemind.log. A server started from Terminal runs in that Terminal's foreground — stop it with Ctrl-C there or with the normal Quit ArchiveMind button.

Updating to a new version

1. Quit ArchiveMind (the Quit button — not just closing the window).
2. Recommended: back up your catalogue first — copy the catalogue's folder (the .db file plus the thumbs folder beside it) while ArchiveMind is not running.
3. Replace the old ArchiveMind.app with the new one. Because the build is notarized, the new version opens with a plain double-click.
4. Open it. Your catalogue and settings are untouched — they live outside the app — and any catalogue format updates are applied automatically on first open.

Uninstalling

Moving ArchiveMind.app to the Trash removes the application — and nothing else: ArchiveMind never deletes your data when the app is removed. Left behind, deliberately, are:

• your catalogue (the database file, wherever you chose to keep it, plus the thumbs folder beside it) — keep these if you might ever reinstall; a reinstalled ArchiveMind picks the catalogue right back up;
• the app-data folders under ~/Library (Application Support/ArchiveMind, Caches/ArchiveMind, Logs/ArchiveMind).

For a complete removal, trash the app, the catalogue and its thumbs folder, and those three ~/Library folders. (If you ran an earlier .command-based beta, it kept its data under ~/.archivemind instead.) Your original files are untouched either way — ArchiveMind only ever read them.