Pulse · Desktop
Pulse for Desktop
A native desktop app for macOS and Windows. It carries the full Pulse chat experience to your desktop, and adds one thing the browser can't do on its own: giving Pulse supervised access to the machine it's running on.
- Platforms macOS, Windows
- Built with Electron
- Auto-update Yes, on signed packaged builds
What it does
- Chat — the same Pulse timeline as web and mobile: tasks, approvals, memory, and everything else on it.
- Files — browse and download workspace files without leaving the app.
- Desktop Access (tunnel) — the desktop-only capability. Starting it spins up a local MCP-compatible server on your machine and opens a tunnel to it, so Pulse (or any other MCP client) can list, read, and write files, search by pattern, read the clipboard, and pull system information — from wherever the request comes from.
- Settings — account, workspace, and app configuration, including the updater.
Desktop Access: how it's scoped
Handing an assistant a channel into your filesystem is worth being precise about. The tunnel:
- Requires an auth token on every request — nothing is reachable unopened.
- Always blocks system directories (
/System,/Library,/usr, and their Windows equivalents), regardless of configuration. - Supports a configurable path allowlist on top of that baseline.
- Ships with shell command execution off by default — it's an opt-in, not a default capability.
Installing and updating
Pulse for Desktop is distributed as a signed, notarized build with electron-updater wired in. A packaged build checks for updates automatically on the interval set by the workspace's release channel. Auto-update can be turned off for on-premise or closed-network installs — ask your Pulse administrator if your build should have it disabled.
Where to go next
- Pulse overview — the product this app is a client for.
- Devices & Desktop — how desktop and other devices fit into the wider Pulse device model.
- Release notes — what's shipped in each version.