Bi ships as an archive or an installer. There is no dependency to install and no separate runtime.
Download
Go to the download page and pick the build for your system. Each platform offers x64 and ARM64:
- Windows: unzip, then run
bi-windows-*.exe. Unzip first — launching from inside the archive prevents ocr/ from loading.
- macOS: the
.dmg installer is recommended; mount it and drag Bi into Applications. A portable .zip is also available.
- Linux: unzip and run the executable for your architecture.
ocr/ is the document recognition component and must sit next to the executable. Removing it only disables text recognition for scans; everything else keeps working.
First run
Bi runs on your machine and opens the workbench in your browser. The platforms differ slightly:
- Windows launches in GUI mode and stays in the system tray.
- macOS provides a menu bar icon that opens the workbench, workspace, config directory and logs.
- Linux runs as a service; the workbench is reached in the browser.
Data lives in the .bi directory next to the application: settings and model keys, sessions, the local database and logs. Bi has no server of its own.
Bi does not ship a model. Before first use, add at least one model provider in Settings — a cloud API, or a local Ollama / LM Studio instance. See Add a model.
Verify the download (optional)
The download page lists a SHA-256 for every file. Run the command for your system:
# macOS / Linux
shasum -a 256 bi-linux-amd64.zip
# Windows PowerShell
Get-FileHash .\bi-windows-amd64.zip -Algorithm SHA256
Compare the output with the value on the download page.