Getting Started

Pragma is a desktop code editor designed for developers who want AI assistance without the bloat of a browser-based IDE. It is built with Tauri 2, Rust, React 19, TypeScript and CodeMirror 6.

Install a release

Pre-built installers for Windows, macOS and Linux are available on the Releases page.

The first release is distributed without code signing. Windows may show a SmartScreen warning, and macOS may require you to right-click the app and select Open the first time you run it. The macOS build is produced automatically by CI but has not been tested on Apple hardware.

Windows

1. Download pragma_<version>_x64-setup.exe or pragma_<version>_x64_en-US.msi from the latest release.
2. Run the installer and follow the setup steps.
3. Launch Pragma from the Start menu or desktop shortcut.

macOS

1. Download pragma_<version>_x64.dmg (Intel) or pragma_<version>_aarch64.dmg (Apple Silicon).
2. Open the DMG and drag Pragma into your Applications folder.
3. On first launch, right-click the app and choose Open if Gatekeeper blocks it.

Linux

1. Download the package for your distribution:
   • Debian/Ubuntu: pragma_<version>_amd64.deb
   • Fedora/openSUSE: pragma-<version>-1.x86_64.rpm
   • Distribution-agnostic: pragma_<version>_amd64.AppImage
2. Install the package or make the AppImage executable (chmod +x pragma_*.AppImage).
3. Launch Pragma from your applications menu or by running the AppImage.

Build from source

Prerequisites

• Node.js 24 or later
• pnpm 11.5.0 or later
• Rust stable toolchain
• Tauri system dependencies for your operating system

macOS

xcode-select --install

Windows

Install the Microsoft C++ Build Tools and enable the Windows SDK.

Linux (Debian/Ubuntu)

sudo apt update
sudo apt install libwebkit2gtk-4.1-dev libgtk-3-dev libappindicator3-dev librsvg2-dev patchelf

Linux (Arch / CachyOS)

sudo pacman -S webkit2gtk-4.1 gtk3 libappindicator librsvg patchelf

For other distributions, see the Tauri prerequisites guide.

Clone and install

git clone https://github.com/NiklasTech/pragma.git
cd pragma
pnpm install

Start the frontend development server or the full desktop app:

pnpm run dev          # frontend dev server
pnpm run dev:desktop  # full Tauri desktop app

Pragma uses Vite+ as its build toolchain. The vp command is available through pnpm exec vp ... after pnpm install, or by installing Vite+ globally with pnpm add -g vite-plus.

Build a release binary

pnpm run build:desktop

The resulting bundles are written to src-tauri/target/release/bundle/.

To build only specific package formats, for example .deb and .rpm on Linux:

pnpm exec vp run tauri build --bundles deb,rpm

Run checks

pnpm run check
pnpm run test
cd src-tauri && cargo test

Quick start

1. Start Pragma and complete the onboarding dialog.
2. Select a theme and configure your preferred AI provider.
3. Open a project folder using the file explorer in the sidebar.
4. Open any file in the editor.
5. Open the AI chat panel with Cmd/Ctrl + Shift + A.
6. Reference a file by typing @filename in the chat input.
7. Toggle the terminal with Cmd/Ctrl + Shift + T.

Next steps

• Configuration describes the settings panels and where Pragma stores data.
• AI Provider Setup explains API keys, local models and CLI providers.
• MCP Server Setup covers Model Context Protocol servers.
• Theming Guide covers built-in and custom themes.
• Keyboard Shortcuts lists the default bindings.
• Troubleshooting covers common problems.