The Bolt desktop app wraps the same engine as the CLI in a full Electron shell. Every feature available in the terminal — agents, MCP servers, plugins, remote sessions, sessions you can fork and share — works identically in the desktop app, with the addition of a multi-window and multi-tab experience, a graphical settings UI, native notifications, and auto-updates. If you already use the CLI, the desktop app is a drop-in complement, not a replacement.Documentation Index
Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://mintlify.com/bolt-builder/bolt-cli/llms.txt
Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further.
Installation
macOS
Install with the one-liner (recommended)
Open a terminal and run:The script downloads the latest release, verifies it, and places the app in
/Applications. No Gatekeeper pop-up.All platforms — download from releases
Download the latest installer for your platform from the Bolt releases page.| Platform | Installer type |
|---|---|
| macOS (Apple Silicon) | .dmg |
| macOS (Intel) | .dmg |
| Windows | .exe installer |
| Linux | .AppImage / .deb |
On Windows, Bolt includes WSL (Windows Subsystem for Linux) integration. When WSL is available, Bolt can open sessions directly inside your WSL distribution — giving you a Linux-native agent environment with a native Windows UI around it.
Features
Multi-window and multi-tab session management
Open as many windows as you like, each with its own set of tabs. Tabs map directly to Bolt sessions, so you can run an agent on a refactor in one tab, ask a question in another, and run a background job in a third — all at the same time.Prompt composer
The prompt composer supports rich input: paste text, drag in files as attachments, or paste an image directly from your clipboard. Bolt encodes the image and sends it to any vision-capable model automatically.Integrated terminal and file tree
A split-pane layout gives you the agent conversation on one side and a live terminal and project file tree on the other. You can run commands, inspect output, and feed the results back to the agent without switching apps.Command palette
PressCmd/Ctrl+K to open the command palette. From here you can switch sessions, change agents, open settings, or trigger any action without reaching for a mouse.
Full settings UI
The settings panel covers every option that lives in.bolt/bolt.jsonc — keybindings, model selection, LLM providers, MCP servers, and auth — with dropdowns, toggles, and inline validation. You rarely need to edit the config file by hand.
Native notifications
Bolt fires a native OS notification when a long-running task finishes. Click the notification to jump directly to the session.Deep links
Open a specific session by navigating to abolt:// URL. Useful for sharing session links with teammates or bookmarking work-in-progress.
Auto-updates
The desktop app updates itself across three channels:| Channel | Description |
|---|---|
prod | Stable releases, updated on each production tag |
beta | Pre-release builds for early access to new features |
dev | Nightly builds from the dev branch |
17 UI languages
Bolt’s interface is localised into 17 languages. Change the display language in Settings → Appearance → Language.Related docs
Remote Sessions
Run a headless server on a remote machine and attach from the desktop app or the CLI.
MCP Servers
Add external tools and APIs to your agents using the Model Context Protocol.
Plugins
Extend Bolt with custom providers, auth methods, and workspace adapters.
GitHub Integration
Automate PRs, commit messages, and code review from the desktop app or CI.