Get Ferrow.
Node 20 is the only requirement, and there is no account to create. The terminal route is the product; the desktop builds wrap the same code in a window. Every file on this page is listed with its sha256 so you can check what you got.
Any machine with Node 20.
This installs the ferrow command globally, from a tarball served off this
site. macOS, Windows and Linux, the same line on each.
npm install -g https://ferrow.ai/dl/ferrow.tgz
The package is not published yet to the npm registry, which is why the
line carries a URL instead of a name. When ferrow lands on the registry
this becomes a plain package install, and this URL keeps working.
Then, in order:
ferrow # tells you what is connected and what is next
ferrow detect # or: ferrow connect openai
ferrow vault init
ferrow note inbox/today.md "the thing I just learned"
Never used a terminal on purpose? The five-minute walkthrough shows every screen Ferrow prints back, so you can tell whether it worked.
Bring your own agent.
The ferrow command is not a companion to the app. It is the
product, headless: the vault, the memory, the skills, the capability contracts, the change
log, the schedules, the kill switch. Everything the desktop app can do starts here, and a
few things only live here.
So if you already work inside Claude Code or another terminal agent, you do not have to switch to anything. Two ways to use that:
1. Let your agent do the setup. Ferrow ships a setup contract: one prompt you paste into your own agent, where every step carries the command, the output that means it worked, and what to do when it does not. It stops and asks you before anything that needs a key, and it never turns on writes by itself.
ferrow help # every verb, with what it costs you
The prompt to paste is in the
repository, at docs/SETUP-VIA-AGENT.md. It is a text block, not a
script: you can read the whole thing before your agent runs a line of it.
2. Make Ferrow your agent's memory. Ferrow speaks MCP in
both directions. It can call other people's servers, and it can be one: point your agent
at ferrow serve-mcp and your vault becomes searchable and readable from
inside the tool you already use.
claude mcp add ferrow -- ferrow serve-mcp # Claude Code
ferrow serve-mcp --check # what would be exposed, without serving
Any MCP client works, not only that one:
{"mcpServers":{"ferrow":{"command":"ferrow","args":["serve-mcp"]}}}
Reading and searching your notes and your memory are on. Writing, and running your
skills, are off until you say otherwise in
~/.ferrow/serve-mcp.json, and a refusal names that file and the one line
that changes it. When you do turn writing on, every write goes through the change log
attributed to the client that made it, so ferrow log shows it and
ferrow log revert undoes it. A skill run this way stays inside its own
capability contract: reaching Ferrow over MCP grants nothing that running it yourself
would not.
A window instead of a prompt.
These are pre-1.0 and not code-signed yet. macOS will say the developer cannot be verified and Windows will show a SmartScreen warning. That is what an unsigned build looks like; the signing certificates are bought and installed by a human, and that has not happened yet. If that warning is not something you want to click through, use the terminal route above, which has nothing to sign.
8d0c71f88ec4cc251e8a8ed815d1dd96026901663d56d68adfe0c679d2a5a56a8671927c5d958a488fa21a7a7be22fe5948ba0e6ffabee65ee2a6bc74c595fb43fb364966ce6ba9754467fc14108ed7534daa3c62b67feee58403511f84aa643An AppImage is built too, but at 79MB it does not fit what this site can host. It ships with the public repository; until then the .deb and the terminal route are the two Linux ways in.
e6d78825aa5a8df4d93b3930e5c0569dbfe24d67c6d1e3d1bd411e3d9afea04bCheck any of them before you open it:
shasum -a 256 Ferrow.dmg # macOS and Linux
certutil -hashfile Ferrow-setup.exe SHA256 # Windows
Use it in the browser.
The web client at app.ferrow.ai is the same interface
with nothing to download. It holds no vault of its own: you pair it with a hub you are
running (ferrow hub start), and it reaches that machine through a relay that
carries sealed blobs it cannot read. Your notes stay where they already are.
If you are trying Ferrow for the first time, the one line at the top of this page is the shortest path to a working vault. The browser client is worth it once you want the same vault from a machine that is not yours.
Not yet, honestly.
In the meantime app.ferrow.ai works in a phone browser against your own hub.