Install

Download

Get the build for your platform from the download page. Every file ships from the same tagged release, and a SHA256SUMS file is published next to the installers.

Platform	File
Windows 10/11	magpie-desktop-amd64-installer.exe
macOS 12+	Magpie.dmg
Linux (.deb)	magpie-desktop_<version>_amd64.deb
Linux (.rpm)	magpie-desktop-<version>.x86_64.rpm

There is no account to make, no card to enter, and no key to start scraping. Plain scraping, crawling and watching need no API key at all — keys are only for LLM extraction, summarization and research.

Verify

Every release publishes checksums. Compare the file you downloaded before running it:

# macOS
shasum -a 256 Magpie.dmg

# Windows (PowerShell)
Get-FileHash .\magpie-desktop-amd64-installer.exe

# Linux — the glob covers whichever package you took
sha256sum magpie-desktop*

Match the output against the SHA256SUMS line for that file. If it matches, the file is bit-for-bit what was built.

Run the installer

• macOS — the app is signed and notarized: open the .dmg, drag Magpie to Applications, launch it. Gatekeeper lets it through.
• Windows — the installer is not code-signed yet, so SmartScreen shows one warning on first launch. Click More info, then Run anyway. That is the entire ceremony; the note disappears when signing lands.
• Linux — install the .deb with your package manager (sudo apt install ./magpie-desktop_*.deb) or the .rpm (sudo dnf install ./magpie-desktop-*.rpm). Both pull WebKitGTK 6.0 as a dependency, the one system package the app needs.

First launch

The first launch shows the end-user licence agreement and one checkbox: Check for updates, a small version file fetched once a day — nothing about you is sent. Press I agree and the app opens on its Overview.

A few things happen on that first screen:

• If no Chrome, Chromium or Edge is installed, a banner offers a one-time Chromium download (about 150 MB). It is optional: Auto render still returns the static page, and everything except Browser render, Viewport captures and session capture works without it.
• The window opens at 1200×720 and remembers its size and position from then on.
• Only one instance runs at a time — launching a second one focuses the first instead of racing it for the database.

Next: the 60-second quickstart scrapes your first page.

System notes

Item	Requirement
Windows	10 or 11
macOS	12+
Linux	Ubuntu 24.04+ or Debian 13+ (GTK 4, WebKitGTK 6.0)
Disk	About 200 MB for the app; the SQLite store grows with your history
Browser	Optional — an installed Chrome, Chromium or Edge covers JavaScript pages

The licence check tolerates 14 days offline. Past that the app turns read-only until it can reach the licence server again — every read, export and setting keeps working either way. Terms are on the pricing page: five free runs, then a licence.

Where your data ends up — the store, the records folder, backups — is covered in Data and cache.