Getting started

Nesso is available as a hosted web app, a macOS desktop app, and as open-source code you can run locally. All data is stored in your browser or on your machine; nothing is sent to external servers unless you configure a remote AI endpoint.

Web app

Open app.nesso.how in your browser. The app works offline after the first load. Use Chrome, Edge, Arc, or any other browser with WebGPU if you want to run the AI mentor locally; for the remote API mode any modern browser is fine.

Desktop app (macOS)

A pre-built alpha installer is published on GitHub Releases. Download the universal .dmg — it runs on both Apple silicon and Intel Macs — and open it.

Caution

The app is not signed with an Apple developer certificate. macOS will block it on first launch. After installing, run this command in the terminal to remove the quarantine flag:

xattr -cr /Applications/Nesso.app

Then open the app normally.

The desktop app updates itself: on launch it checks GitHub Releases and, when a newer build is available, offers to install it and relaunch. Auto-updates begin once you are on a build that ships the updater (v0.1.0-alpha.25 or later), so that first version still needs a one-time manual download.

Run from source

Requires Node.js and pnpm.

git clone https://github.com/nesso-how/nesso.git
cd nesso
pnpm install
pnpm dev

For a desktop build, Rust is required as well:

pnpm build:desktop

Picking an AI backend

The Socratic mentor uses an LLM. Choose under Settings -> AI:

• Local model (default): Qwen2.5 1.5B runs entirely in the browser via WebGPU (powered by WebLLM). The first run downloads ~1.1 GB and caches it; subsequent loads are instant. Nothing leaves your machine.
• Remote API: any OpenAI-compatible chat/completions endpoint: local Ollama at http://localhost:11434/v1, an OpenAI-compatible proxy, or a hosted provider. Set base URL, model, and API key if needed.

Either mode can be switched at any time from Settings (⌘, / Ctrl+,).

Caution

API keys are stored client-side in localStorage. Do not self-host the web app publicly with secrets baked in.

Local mode tips

• WebGPU is required. On macOS, recent Chrome / Edge / Arc work out of the box; Safari support is improving but currently limited.
• The first download streams progress into the Settings panel. Closing the panel does not cancel the download.
• To remove the cached model weights, clear the browser site data for the app.

Remote mode with Ollama

Run Ollama locally, then pull a small instruction-tuned model:

ollama pull gemma3:4b

In Settings -> AI, choose Remote API and set:

• Base URL: http://localhost:11434/v1
• Model: gemma3:4b (or llama3.2:3b, qwen2.5:7b; presets are shown in Settings)
• API key: leave empty

Settings auto-probes the endpoint and offers a Pull button if the model is missing.

Keyboard shortcuts

Shortcut	Action
?	Show shortcuts dialog
⌘, / Ctrl+,	Settings
⌘K / Ctrl+K	Search concepts
N	Add concept at viewport centre
R	Open review mode
⌘Z / Ctrl+Z	Undo
⌘⇧Z / Ctrl+Shift+Z	Redo
Del / Backspace	Delete selection
⌘A / Ctrl+A	Select all
⌘X / Ctrl+X	Cut selection
⌘C / Ctrl+C	Copy selection
⌘V / Ctrl+V	Paste
↑ ↓ ← →	Nudge selected concept
Shift + arrows	Nudge selected concept (large)
Esc	Close dialog

Hold ⌘ / Ctrl to add to a selection; drag on empty canvas to marquee-select.