mindfork mindfork

Install

Everything below is on the releases page. One binary, no runtime to install first, nothing that phones home.

Windows

The installer — mindfork-rs-v<version>-x86_64-setup.exe. It puts the app in Program Files (or your user folder, your choice), makes the Start-menu entry, and offers an optional box to add mindfork to your PATH so the command works from any terminal. Uninstalling takes all of it back out.

SmartScreen will warn you. The binaries are not code-signed yet — an unsigned installer earns a blue "Windows protected your PC" screen, and the way past it is More info → Run anyway. That is a real warning about a real absence, not a formality: check the download's checksum below if you want more than our word for it. The state of signing is on the code signing policy page.

The archive — mindfork-rs-v<version>-x86_64-windows.zip. The same binary with nothing installed anywhere: unpack it and run mindfork.exe. The app keeps its data next to itself, so the folder — or the USB stick it sits on — is self-contained and moves with you.

Windows 10 or 11, x86-64. Nothing else: the C runtime is linked statically, so there is no Visual C++ redistributable to chase.

Linux

Packages, if you want the app on your PATH and in your package manager's records:

sudo apt install ./mindfork-rs_<version>-1_amd64.deb        # Debian, Ubuntu
sudo dnf install ./mindfork-rs-<version>-1.x86_64.rpm       # Fedora, RHEL
sudo pacman -U   ./mindfork-rs-<version>-1-x86_64.pkg.tar.zst   # Arch

The archive — mindfork-rs-v<version>-x86_64-linux.tar.gz — is the portable route, the same as on Windows: unpack, run ./mindfork, and the data folder lives beside the binary.

One line, which unpacks that archive into ~/mindfork, checks it against the release's checksums and makes it startable — on a bare image it installs the one system library the app needs (ALSA's), or tells you the command:

curl -fsSL https://github.com/vshylov/mindfork-rs/releases/latest/download/install.sh | sh

The script is an asset of the release like the archive itself — listed in sha256sums.txt, covered by the same attestation — and short enough to read first: download it and run sh install.sh. --dir chooses the folder, and everything after -- is handed to mindfork, which is how a rented GPU box goes from nothing to a loaded model in one line (the guide, §3.3–§3.4). Running it again is safe: nothing already in place is downloaded twice, and your data is never touched.

x86-64, glibc 2.35 or newer (Ubuntu 22.04 and anything later). A terminal emulator you already have.

Verify what you downloaded

Every release carries sha256sums.txt with a line for each artifact:

sha256sum -c sha256sums.txt --ignore-missing          # Linux
Get-FileHash .\mindfork-rs-v<version>-x86_64-setup.exe -Algorithm SHA256   # Windows

Build it yourself

A recent stable Rust (edition 2024) and nothing else:

git clone https://github.com/vshylov/mindfork-rs
cd mindfork-rs
cargo build --release          # target/release/mindfork

First run

mindfork demo

opens the app on sample conversations against a scripted engine — no model, no API key, nothing written outside a temporary folder. It is the fastest way to see what the thing is before deciding whether to feed it a model.

For the real thing you need an engine, and there are three routes: a cloud provider (a key and a model, both entered in the settings screen), an OpenAI-compatible server you already run, or a managed llama-server that the app downloads and supervises for you — mindfork llama setup --backend vulkan --set-binary fetches a llama.cpp build for your machine, verified against the checksum the release publishes.

  • The manual — how to use the app: the screens, what it remembers, the tools, the keys.
  • Setup in detail — every engine setting, where the data lives, the Python sandbox, MCP servers, speech, backups.

mindfork is a terminal application: it needs a real terminal. Started with its output redirected or with no console at all, it says so and exits rather than pretending to run.

What it does with your machine

Nothing you did not ask for. No telemetry, no update check, no account: the app makes network requests to the engine you configured and to nothing else until you switch a tool on yourself. The full account is in the privacy policy.