MacOS Install

Errand Desktop is a lightweight menu bar application that runs Errand AI locally on your Mac. It handles all the infrastructure for you — no terminal commands required. The app stays out of your way in the menu bar (no dock icon) and manages the full lifecycle of Errand’s services.

Prerequisites

• macOS 26+ (Tahoe) with Apple Silicon (M1 or later) for native container support
• For older Intel-based Macs, Docker Desktop or Colima can be used as a fallback container runtime
• An API key from at least one LLM provider (e.g. Anthropic, OpenAI)

Step 1: Download Errand Desktop

1. Go to the Errand Desktop releases page
2. Download the latest .dmg file
3. Open the .dmg and drag Errand Desktop into your Applications folder
4. Launch the app from Applications — you will see a new icon appear in your menu bar

Step 2: Complete the Setup Wizard

The first time you launch Errand Desktop, a Setup Wizard walks you through everything. It has 8 steps:

1. Welcome — a brief introduction to Errand AI
2. Container runtime selection — choose Apple Containerization if you have Apple Silicon, or Docker if you are on an older Intel Mac
3. LLM configuration — enter your API key for at least one LLM provider (e.g. Anthropic, OpenAI)
4. LiteLLM startup — optionally enable LiteLLM, a proxy that translates between different LLM providers so you can mix and match models
5. Agent memory configuration — optionally enable Hindsight, a service that gives your AI agents persistent memory across tasks
6. Version / image tag selection — choose which version of Errand to install (the latest stable version is selected by default)
7. Container image downloading — the app downloads the required container images (this may take a few minutes on the first run)
8. Done — setup is complete and your services are starting up

Step 3: Wait for services to start

After the wizard finishes, Errand Desktop starts the services in the correct order:

1. PostgreSQL (database)
2. Valkey (cache)
3. LiteLLM (LLM proxy, if enabled)
4. Backend (API server)
5. Worker (task runner)

The menu bar icon shows the current health status of your services. When everything is green, Errand is ready to use.

Step 4: Open the Errand UI

1. Open your web browser
2. Navigate to http://localhost:8000
3. Log in with the credentials you configured during setup

You are now ready to create and run tasks with Errand AI.

Settings

Click the menu bar icon and select Settings to adjust your configuration at any time. The settings are organized into four sections:

Section	What you can configure
General	Container runtime, launch at login
LLM	LLM provider, API keys, model selection
Memory	Enable or disable Hindsight (agent memory)
Ports	Customize the ports used by each service

Viewing logs

Errand Desktop includes a built-in log viewer that shows real-time logs from all running services. To open it, click the menu bar icon and select Logs. This is helpful for debugging if a service fails to start, or a task does not complete as expected.

Where data is stored

What	Location
Application data	~/Library/Application Support/ErrandDesktop/
Credentials	macOS Keychain (stored securely by the operating system)

Troubleshooting

Issue	Solution
App does not appear in the menu bar	Check that the app is running — open it from Applications. It has no dock icon, so it only appears in the menu bar
Services fail to start	Open the log viewer to check for errors. Ensure your container runtime (Apple Containerization or Docker) is working
Cannot connect to http://localhost:8000	Wait for all services to show as healthy in the menu bar. If the port is in use, change it in Settings > Ports
LLM errors during task execution	Verify your API key is correct in Settings > LLM. Check that your account has available credits with your LLM provider
Setup Wizard does not appear on first launch	Delete the folder at ~/Library/Application Support/ErrandDesktop/ and relaunch the app to reset