Desktop App
MihaEL Desktop is the licensed application you download from the site. Chat, configuration, skills, memory, and messaging all live here. It runs on macOS, Windows, and Linux.
Install
Follow Installation. Launch MihaEL from your applications menu (or the AppImage / .exe).
Paste the license on first launch, or later in Settings → License.
What's in the app
A chat-first window with a left sidebar: conversations, projects, artifacts, cron, skills, and settings.
Chat
- Streaming responses with live tool activity.
- Drag-and-drop files onto the chat to attach them.
- Preview rail — pages, files, and tool output beside the transcript.
- Composer history — up/down in an empty composer recalls prompts. Stop (or Esc) pauses a queued turn list.
- Timeline rail — on long chats, click a prompt marker to jump there.
- Find — Cmd/Ctrl+F in the transcript.
Status bar
- Per-session YOLO — skip dangerous-command prompts for this chat only. See Security.
- Context meter — click for a token breakdown.
- Right-click the bar to choose what it shows, or Cmd/Ctrl+Shift+S to hide it.
Repository discovery
Settings → Workspace controls which folders appear in Projects (scan on/off, roots, excludes).
Choosing a model
The picker is in the composer, left of the microphone. That choice is for the current chat (and remembered on this device). Settings → Model is the profile default for new chats. Switching models mid-chat resets the prompt cache — prefer a new chat on a long thread. See Models.
File browser
Explore the working directory without leaving the app. Set the project from the Projects sidebar or Settings → Workspace.
Artifacts
Artifacts in the sidebar collects images, files, and links your sessions generated. Open from the command palette too.
Windows, tabs & panes
- Cmd/Ctrl+T new session tab; Ctrl+Tab cycles; Cmd/Ctrl+W closes.
- Cmd/Ctrl+Shift+N new window. Pop a session out from its context menu for a second monitor.
Memory Graph
Command palette → Memory Graph, or /journey in chat — an interactive map of skills and memories. Share exports layout only, not your text. See Memory.
Quick Entry
A small composer from a global hotkey even when the main window is in the background. Settings → Advanced → Quick Entry (default Ctrl/Cmd+Shift+Space).
Voice
Microphone in the composer. Settings → Voice. macOS asks once for mic access. See Voice.
Settings & onboarding
First-run overlay gets you to a first message. Settings covers:
- Providers — accounts, API keys, custom endpoints, Local AirLLM
- License — paste
MIHAEL.1.… - Model, Tools & Keys, MCP, Gateway, Connectors, Safety, Appearance
You can pick Choose provider later and configure models after you are in the app.
Management panes
- Skills — browse and manage skills
- Cron — scheduled jobs
- Profiles — isolated setups (keys, skills, theme). Export/import from the command palette; keys are stripped from exports
- Messaging — Gateway
- Agents and Command Center — multi-agent surfaces when you use them
Keyboard
- Cmd/Ctrl+K or Cmd/Ctrl+P — command palette
- Settings → Keyboard Shortcuts (Cmd/Ctrl+/) — rebind almost everything
- Useful defaults: Cmd/Ctrl+N new session, Cmd/Ctrl+, Settings, Cmd/Ctrl+Shift+F search sessions, Cmd/Ctrl+1–9 profiles
Sessions & profiles
Archive and search from the session list. Multiple profiles can run at once. See Sessions.
Uninstall
Settings → About → Danger zone:
- Chat GUI only
- GUI + agent, keep data
- Everything (including
~/.hermes/)
Remote backend
By default the app runs the agent on this computer. Settings → Gateway → Connection mode can point a profile at another machine (URL or SSH) if you already host MihaEL there. Sign in from that same Gateway panel.
Prefer Host my agent on the phone if you want a cloud VM without maintaining a server yourself.
Troubleshooting
Boot logs: ~/.hermes/logs/desktop.log. If the app reports a boot failure, that file is the first place to look.
macOS microphone stuck: System Settings → Privacy & Security → Microphone, and re-enable MihaEL.