Desktop first run

This tutorial covers the supported 0.6.0 desktop installer: Home, Diagnostics, local visual Settings, and onboarding. You will reach a local Home state with provider=none and no network request. Tasks, Chat, provider configuration, and file-grant adapters remain source-level gates outside this installer claim.

Before you begin

Install and verify a supported, target-matched 0.6.0 build using Installation and updates. The desktop is local-first: its private sidecar is a Local control channel, not a public or LAN API. You do not need an account, provider, API key, genealogy file, or cloud consent for this tutorial.

The screenshots illustrate the steps with deterministic fictional fixtures. Your installed application reports its own sanitized local startup state. The illustrations contain no local paths, secrets, genealogy records, prompts, responses, or provider payloads. Do not load real genealogy data or credentials to reproduce them. For fixture previews, use the separate development procedure at the end of this page.

1. Choose the local desktop

  1. Start AncestryLLM.
  2. On Welcome to AncestryLLM, review the three deployment choices.
  3. Keep Local Desktop (Recommended) selected.
  4. Confirm that Connect Remote and Host Remote say Not available in this release.

Local Desktop uses the private loopback sidecar and offline-first defaults. Selecting it does not discover a remote service, start a container, open a listener, configure a provider, or grant cloud consent.

2. Review startup checks

The welcome screen evaluates four sanitized startup components:

  • Configuration
  • Encrypted database support
  • Credential storage
  • Local workspace

A healthy report enables Continue to Home. Choose it to record only that onboarding is complete, then wait for the Home heading to receive focus.

If a required component is blocked, choose Open read-only diagnostics instead. The degraded application remains navigable, but it will not mutate preferences, settings, credentials, or storage. Follow only the remediation beside the stable code; never create a replacement database, reveal a local path, or fall back to plaintext storage.

3. Confirm the local Home state

On Home, confirm the following cards are present:

  • Application identifies the desktop build.
  • Offline posture reports the local-first boundary.
  • Startup state reports Ready after healthy startup checks. If it does not, follow the diagnostics recovery in step 2.
  • Capabilities contains only sanitized capability metadata.

Home shows the local desktop shell, Ready status, and local action cards.

The shell must still be safe when credentials happen to exist in the environment: provider=none remains network-free and ambient credentials do not select a provider. No provider SDK, genealogy file, or cloud consent is needed to reach this result.

4. Explore without granting authority

Use the primary navigation to visit Diagnostics and Settings, then return to Home. Visiting these destinations does not select a provider, start genealogy work, or disclose data.

Press Ctrl+K on Windows or Linux, or Command+K on macOS, to open Go to a workspace. Type a destination in Filter destinations, press Escape to dismiss the dialog, and confirm focus returns to the trigger. Keyboard users can use Skip to workspace to move directly to the current heading.

5. Revisit the welcome screen

On Home, choose Review welcome. This is temporary presentation state; it does not reset settings or change the saved onboarding preference. Choose Back to Home when finished.

Result and next steps

After healthy startup checks, you have a provider-none, network-free desktop Home state without loading genealogy data. Continue according to your goal:

The CLI and interactive console own the supported genealogy workflows. The desktop shell does not silently gain file, provider, network, or genealogy authority by sharing their application contracts.

Optional: preview fictional development fixtures

For source development, follow the desktop setup and gates, then run this command from the repository root:

pnpm --dir desktop dev:gallery

The gallery uses fictional presentation fixtures. It does not verify an installed application’s startup state or establish support for a release. Keep real family trees, credentials, prompts, responses, databases, backups, and logs out of this preview. The production build excludes gallery fixtures.

The desktop source-level guides describe the gated file, provider, Tasks, and Chat contracts. A development preview does not replace their target-matched packaged and security evidence.