Installation

Atlas is a native desktop app for Windows, macOS, and Linux. Installation takes just a few minutes.

System Requirements

Before downloading, make sure your computer meets these requirements:

Platform	Minimum Version
Windows	Windows 10 (64-bit) or later
macOS	macOS 12 Monterey or later
Linux	Ubuntu 20.04+, Debian 11+, or any distro supporting AppImage

Atlas requires approximately 150–850 MB of disk space depending on your platform (Linux with GPU support is the largest). Your vault folder can be as large as you need — it’s just plain text files on your drive.

Download Atlas

Download the latest version from either of these sources:

Official website: atlasnotes.io/download
GitHub Releases: github.com/boringbots/atlas-releases

Choose the installer for your operating system from the releases page.

Installing on Windows

Download the .exe installer file.
Double-click the downloaded file to run it.
If Windows SmartScreen shows a warning (“Windows protected your PC”), click More info and then Run anyway. This warning appears because Atlas is a new app from a small team — it’s safe to proceed.
Follow the on-screen installer steps. Atlas installs to your user folder by default (no admin rights needed).
Launch Atlas from the Start menu or the desktop shortcut.

Installing on macOS

Download the .dmg disk image file.
Double-click the .dmg to mount it, then drag the Atlas icon into your Applications folder.
The first time you open Atlas, macOS Gatekeeper will block it because it wasn’t downloaded from the App Store.

To open it anyway: find Atlas in your Applications folder, right-click (or Control-click) the app icon, and select Open from the menu. Click Open in the dialog that appears.
After this first-time approval, Atlas will open normally on every subsequent launch.

Installing on Linux

AppImage (recommended, works on most distros)

Download the .AppImage file.
Make it executable. Open a terminal and run:
Terminal window
```
chmod +x Atlas_*.AppImage
```
Run it:
Terminal window
```
./Atlas_*.AppImage
```

You can move the AppImage anywhere on your system — your home folder, /opt, or wherever you prefer. No installation needed.

Debian/Ubuntu (.deb package)

Download the .deb file.
Install it with dpkg:
Terminal window
```
sudo dpkg -i atlas_*.deb
```
Launch Atlas from your application menu or run atlas in a terminal.

GPU Acceleration (optional)

Atlas uses your GPU to speed up local search and wake word detection. On Linux, this requires an NVIDIA GPU with the CUDA toolkit installed.

Requirements for GPU acceleration:

NVIDIA GPU (Maxwell architecture or newer)
NVIDIA driver 525 or later
CUDA Toolkit 12.x (libcublas, libcurand, libcufft, libcudart)
cuDNN 9.x (libcudnn)

If these are not installed, Atlas will automatically fall back to CPU — everything still works, just a bit slower for search indexing.

On Windows, GPU acceleration uses DirectML and works automatically with any DirectX 12 capable GPU (NVIDIA, AMD, or Intel). No extra setup needed.

On macOS, GPU acceleration uses CoreML and works automatically on Apple Silicon and Intel Macs.

First Launch

When Atlas starts for the first time, it will ask you to choose a vault folder. This is where all your notes and data will be stored.

Create a new folder if you’re starting fresh (e.g., ~/My Atlas Vault)
Choose an existing folder if you already have markdown notes you want to use

Atlas will set up its own atlas/ subfolder inside whatever folder you choose. Your existing files won’t be touched.

See Your First Vault for details on what Atlas creates and how your vault is organized.

Keeping Atlas Up to Date

Atlas checks for updates automatically. When a new version is available, you’ll see a notification in the app. Click it to download and install the update — the process takes about a minute and restarts the app.