Desktop apps (Mac & Windows)

ESTAGE builds real desktop applications. Describe what you want and Genesis builds a program people download and install on macOS or Windows — with its own window, its own files, camera and microphone, notifications, and a link they get it from.

It is the same chat and the same project underneath as a website — real pages, real routes, a real codebase. What changes is the end product: not an address someone visits, but an app someone keeps.

Starting a desktop app

Two ways in, depending on whether you already have a project:

• A new project — in the ESTAGE Genesis desktop app, choose New project → Desktop app. In a browser the card is shown but locked, with a note saying to open Genesis in the desktop app: a desktop app runs on your own machine while you build it, and the Genesis desktop app is what runs it.
• Next to an existing site or app — open the project and use the app switcher in the builder header → Add → Desktop app. It appears beside whatever the project already holds, with its own chat, files, and settings — see Apps inside a project.

The first time you publish, ESTAGE asks which operating systems the app is for — macOS, Windows, or both. That answer is part of the app, not a build option: it decides which installers get built, and the AI designs to those conventions (⌘-shortcuts and Mac window chrome, or Ctrl-shortcuts and Windows chrome). Change it later in Settings → Desktop app.

The AI knows it is building an app, not a page

A desktop project is described to the AI as an application: a sidebar, a toolbar, panels, real tables, keyboard shortcuts, a layout that fills the window — not a hero section, a footer, or a “Get started” landing page. You can still ask for anything you like; this is just the default it starts from.

It runs on your computer, not in a preview pane

A desktop app needs a real window — with your camera, your files, your notifications. So instead of a browser preview, the builder’s canvas has one button: Open on my computer.

For that you need the ESTAGE Genesis desktop app installed and signed in on the machine you are working at. Then:

1. Press Open on my computer. Your project is copied to that machine, its dependencies are installed, and it opens in a real window.
2. Keep working in the chat. Every change reaches the window in a couple of seconds, without restarting it.
3. Stop closes it; pressing the button again brings the window back to the front.

You do not need Node, a package manager, or any developer tooling — the desktop app carries everything it needs. The first start takes a little longer while dependencies install; after that it is seconds.

If something goes wrong, the panel says what phase it stopped at and can show the log. When the problem is in your project’s own code — a missing dependency, a crash on start — an Ask AI to fix this button hands it straight to the chat.

What a desktop app can do that a web page cannot

The AI wires these for you; you ask for the outcome, not for an API.

Ask for	What the app gets
“let them open a file from their computer”	A real file dialog, and the file’s contents
“save the report to their machine”	A real save dialog, saved where they chose
“remember their settings”	Storage that lives with the app and survives updates and reinstalls
“tell them when the import finishes”	An operating-system notification, even when the window is behind others
“open our help site”	The link opens in their real browser, not inside the app
“a proper title bar with a fullscreen button”	Window controls — minimise, maximise, close, fullscreen
“let them record / join a call / share their screen”	Camera, microphone and screen sharing, with the picker handled for you
“a video room people join from a link”	A live room with a lobby, guests joining with no account — the same live rooms the platform runs

One rule about files

An app can only read and write files the person picked in a dialog during that session, or files inside the app’s own data folder. There is no way to hand it a path and have it read somewhere else. That boundary is deliberate — it is what keeps “customise my app” from turning into “read my keys”.

Handing it to someone else

When it is ready, build an installer. In the desktop panel, Give it to someone else → Build installer (or the Publish button in the header) opens a short wizard:

1. Platforms — macOS (.dmg for Apple Silicon, optionally also Intel) and/or Windows (.exe installer). The build runs in ESTAGE’s cloud — you don’t need a Mac or a PC, whichever you are on.
2. Signing — asked once, only for a Mac build, only if you haven’t connected a certificate yet (see below). You can also build unsigned and add it later.
3. Build — a few minutes per platform, with live status. Mac and Windows build in parallel.

You end up with a download page of your own: genesis.estage.com/d/<your project id>. Send that link to anyone — no ESTAGE account, no copy of your project, nothing to explain. The link stays the same across rebuilds and always serves the latest build of each platform.

Signing, so other people’s computers open it

macOS refuses to open an app that isn’t signed. An unsigned build works on your own Mac and nowhere else, which is exactly the surprise you don’t want after sending someone a file.

The app is signed with your Apple identity, not ESTAGE’s — it is your app:

1. Get a Developer ID Application certificate in your Apple Developer account. This part has to happen in your own browser, on your own account — Apple only lets the account holder create one.
2. Export it from Keychain Access as a .p12 file with a password.
3. Upload it once — in the publish wizard, or Settings → Desktop app. It is encrypted at rest, used only inside a build, and never shown again. Replace or remove it any time.

Notarisation is the second half: add your App Store Connect key in the same tab and Apple checks each signed build, so it opens on any Mac with no warning at all. Without it, builds are signed but still show a first-run prompt.

Windows

Windows installers are not code-signed yet, so Windows shows an “unknown publisher” notice the first time someone runs one. That is fine for your own team or testers; for a public download you will want to wait for signed Windows builds.

Updating people who already installed it

Every build knows where it came from. An installed copy checks whether a newer build of that app exists and offers the person an update, which sends them to your download page. Rebuild whenever you like — there is no store, no review queue, and no waiting.

What is different from a website

• No domain, no SEO, no publishing to the web. The app is distributed as an installer and a link. Custom domains, sitemaps, and page-level SEO belong to websites.
• No click-to-select visual editing. The visual editor works on top of the in-browser preview, and a desktop app doesn’t have one — it runs in its own window instead. You drive changes from the chat, and open the code editor when you want to change a file by hand.
• The electron/ folder is protected. That is the part of the app that talks to the operating system, and the AI does not edit it. If you need something the bridge doesn’t cover — a tray icon, a global hotkey, launch-at-login — say so in the chat and you’ll get a straight answer rather than a silent change.
• The rest of the workspace is unchanged: pages and routes, version history and per-turn revert, settings, and team access all work the way they do on a site.

Related

• ESTAGE Genesis desktop app — the app that runs your project on your machine
• Apps inside a project — how a Website, Web app, Mobile app and Desktop app share one project
• Mobile apps — the same idea for iOS and Android