Installation

Relay publishes a build for each platform on the releases page. Code signing differs by platform and file, so each section below ends with what to expect on the first launch.

macOS

Requirements: macOS 12 (Monterey) or later, with system updates installed — Relay draws its window with the system WebKit and needs the version that ships with Safari 16.2 or newer. Apple Silicon and Intel are both supported.

1. Download relay-<version>-darwin-universal.dmg.

2. Open the disk image and drag Relay.app to /Applications.

3. Launch Relay from Spotlight or the Applications folder.

Current builds are not Apple-notarized. On the first launch, right-click Relay.app and choose Open, or use System Settings → Privacy & Security → Open Anyway. See the troubleshooting guide.

Windows

Requirements: Windows 10 1903+ or Windows 11, on x64 or Arm64. Pick the files ending in amd64 for an Intel or AMD processor and arm64 for a Snapdragon or other Arm processor; Settings → System → About → System type says which one you have.

Installer (recommended)relay-<version>-windows-amd64-installer.exe installs for you alone into %LOCALAPPDATA%\Programs\Relay. No administrator rights, and the in-app updater can replace the app later.

MSIX packagerelay-<version>-windows-amd64.msix installs through App Installer, which lists one permission — Uses all system resources — that every packaged desktop app needs.

If an older copy installed for all users in Program Files is found, the installer offers to remove it; Windows asks for permission once for that, and your data is kept. SmartScreen may warn because the installer is not Authenticode-signed yet. The MSIX package is signed only when the release job had the publisher certificate; an unsigned package needs extra trust setup before Windows installs it.

Linux

Requirements: glibc 2.31+ (Ubuntu 20.04+, Fedora 33+, Debian 11+), x64, and libgtk-3 plus libwebkit2gtk-4.0 from your distribution’s package manager.

1. Download relay-<version>-linux-amd64.AppImage.

2. Make it executable and run it:

   chmod +x relay-*.AppImage
   ./relay-*.AppImage

Verify the download

SHA-256 checksums are published in SHA256SUMS.txt; auto-updates use the values embedded in latest.json. Verify before running:

shasum -a 256 relay-*.dmg
# Compare against the value on the releases page.

Auto-updates

Relay checks latest.json from relay-client/relay after launch. Open Settings → Updates to check and install by hand. Settings → About → Automatically install updates controls whether a discovered update installs in the background.

Updates are verified against both the SHA-256 value and the minisign signature from the manifest before they install.