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Reference > Troubleshooting

Install issues

First-launch snags and how to open Mel on each OS.

Mel's macOS build is signed and notarized by Apple, and its Windows build is code-signed, so first launch is usually clean. This page covers the few first-run snags you can still hit on each OS.

If you haven't downloaded Mel yet, start with Installation & setup.

macOS: it should just open

Mel is signed with an Apple Developer ID and notarized by Apple, with the notarization ticket stapled to the app — so a normal double-click opens it, offline included, with no "Open Anyway" step.

If macOS still refuses to open Mel ("damaged", "can't be opened", or an endless spinner), the download almost certainly finished incomplete or got corrupted in transit:

  1. Delete the copy you have and re-download Mel-macos.zip from the download page.
  2. Unzip again and move Mel.app to Applications.

Permission prompts — Mel's agent reads, edits, and runs commands on your files, so macOS asks the first time it touches each protected folder (Desktop, Documents, Downloads, iCloud Drive). Either grant Full Disk Access once (System Settings → Privacy & Security → Full Disk Access → add Mel — convenient, but it lets Mel read all your files, so it's optional), or just click Allow per folder as prompts appear. Because Mel now carries a stable Developer ID signature, that grant persists across updates.

Windows: SmartScreen may still prompt

Mel for Windows is code-signed (Concepts Dzign LLC). SmartScreen builds its reputation per certificate, so a newly issued certificate can still show "Windows protected your PC" the first time you run the installer or mel.exe:

  1. Click More info.
  2. Click Run anyway.

This fades as the certificate accrues reputation. Requirements: Windows 10/11, x86_64 (a Windows-on-ARM build is coming soon).

Linux: extract and run

Linux ships as a plain tarball (unsigned by design — no warning to click through):

tar -xzf Mel-linux-x86_64.tar.gz
./mel

The extracted binary is already executable; if your download tooling stripped the permission bit, restore it with chmod +x mel. Requirements: x86_64 and working OpenGL.

Still stuck?