Install on macOS
Pick the right build
Two disk images: Apple Silicon (M1 and later) and Intel. Apple menu, About This Mac, says which chip you have. The download page detects it where the browser lets it.
Install
- Open the
.dmgand drag the app to Applications. - The app is signed but not notarized with an Apple developer identity yet, so macOS blocks the first open. Open System Settings, Privacy & Security, scroll to the notice about the app, and choose Open Anyway; on macOS 14 and earlier you can instead right-click the app and choose Open. macOS remembers the choice. Builds before 0.15.2 had no signature at all and were reported as "damaged"; download the current one.
- Launch. The first start copies the bundled server into the app's data folder.
What the Mac build does not do yet
Sharing a world online is not available on macOS. The tunnel helper the app uses to publish a world ships for Windows, Linux and Android; the Mac build reports "Sharing online is not supported on this platform yet". A Mac can host a world for itself, share it on this Wi-Fi for a table in the same room, join any shared world, and run every other feature. To host for friends elsewhere from a Mac today, run the server on it instead.
Updates
The app updates itself: it downloads the new build, swaps it in and restarts, asking for an administrator password if the app's folder needs one. A copy started from Downloads or from the disk image installs itself into Applications. If the swap cannot be made, the new build is left in Downloads to unpack and drag over the old one.
What gets registered
The odm:// link handler, through the app's Info.plist, so invite links open the app. macOS delivers the link to the running app.
Where things live
| What | Where |
|---|---|
| The app | /Applications/Open Dungeon Master.app |
| Your device world, saved servers, sign-ins | ~/Library/Application Support/open-dungeon-master-client |
| The database and its key; uploads and generated pictures | data and local-server/public in the folder above |
| Sign-in tokens | The macOS keychain |
| Logs | local-server.log in the folder above |
Local AI on a Mac
The guided local model install runs on an Apple Silicon Mac with the llama.cpp engine and uses the Mac's unified memory; the tiers are sized by what the machine reports. The guided ComfyUI install for local pictures is not offered on macOS; a Mac uses an OpenAI key for pictures, or a ComfyUI or FLUX worker you run yourself and point the world's admin panel at.