Getting started

Install Quail, add a model that suits your Mac, start the server and check it answers. About five minutes, most of it the download.

1. Install

With Homebrew, which also puts the quail command on your PATH:

brew install --cask adatoo/tap/quail-ai

Or download the DMG from the latest release, open it and drag Quail to Applications. Quail is signed and notarized, and updates itself.

Quail needs macOS 14 Sonoma or later on an Apple silicon Mac. It lives in the menu bar: a bird that is grey when the server is stopped, yellow while it starts, green while it runs and red if it failed. There is no Dock icon.

2. Open the Quail window

Click the bird and choose Open Quail (⌘,). The window's sidebar has everything:

Server	Whether it's running, Start and Stop, the address and API key to give your tools, who can reach it, and how it starts.
Models	What's installed, Add Model…, and each model's settings.
Connect	Setup for your coding tools, editors and chat apps.
Benchmark	Measure a model's speed on this Mac.
General	Open at login, the menu bar, the `quail` command and updates.
About	Versions, licences and this Mac's hardware.

3. Add a model

On the Models page, click Add Model…. The top of the list is Recommended for this Mac: models that run comfortably in your memory. Pick one, keep the suggested format and size, and click Download. Each model shows whether it fits before you download it — see Models.

A small model to start with is Qwen3 8B, or Qwen3 4B on a Mac with 8 GB. From the terminal:

quail pull qwen3-8b

Downloads resume where they stopped if interrupted.

4. Start the server

Click Start on the Server page, or in the menu. The bird turns green, and the Server page shows the address to use, http://127.0.0.1:8080 unless you change it.

5. Check it answers

Choose Test… in the menu. It checks three things, with timings: the server is up, a model is loaded, and the first token of a reply arrives.

6. Use it

Your tools: the Connect page has a ready-made setup for each, with a Test button.
A quick chat: Open Chat in Browser in the menu opens the server's own chat page, already signed in.
The terminal: quail chat, quail launch claude and more — see the quail command.

Installed from the DMG? Install the quail command from General → Command line → Install. It links ~/.local/bin/quail to the copy inside the app.