Keyboard shortcuts

Press ← or → to navigate between chapters

Press S or / to search in the book

Press ? to show this help

Press Esc to hide this help

Install and update

Burrow runs on macOS 11 (Big Sur) or later, on Apple silicon or Intel, and on 64-bit Windows 10 or 11 (see Windows).

curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/aneeshsathe/blygger-desktop/main/scripts/install.sh | bash

This downloads the latest release, checks it against the release’s SHA256SUMS, and puts Burrow.app in /Applications, or in ~/Applications if you can’t write to /Applications. To launch it, run open /Applications/Burrow.app or find it in Spotlight. If a Blygger.app from before the rename is in the same folder, the installer replaces it with Burrow.app (your posts, settings and sign-ins aren’t in the app, so they carry over).

Why Terminal? Releases aren’t notarized by Apple yet. Files downloaded with curl don’t get macOS’s quarantine flag, so Gatekeeper doesn’t block the app. The script also clears the flag explicitly, in case a future macOS adds it.

To read the script before running it:

curl -fsSL -o install.sh https://raw.githubusercontent.com/aneeshsathe/blygger-desktop/main/scripts/install.sh
less install.sh
bash install.sh

Or install by hand, verifying the checksum yourself:

cd "$(mktemp -d)"
base=https://github.com/aneeshsathe/blygger-desktop/releases/latest/download
curl -fLO "$base/Burrow-macos-universal.zip" -fLO "$base/SHA256SUMS"
grep ' Burrow-macos-universal.zip$' SHA256SUMS | shasum -a 256 -c -   # must print "OK"
ditto -x -k Burrow-macos-universal.zip /Applications
open /Applications/Burrow.app

BLYGGER_VERSION=0.1.0 installs a specific version, and BLYGGER_DEST=<dir> installs somewhere else.

Downloading from the Releases page in a browser

The Releases page has a .dmg and a .zip. Files downloaded in a browser are quarantined, and because the app is only ad-hoc signed (not notarized), macOS blocks the first launch. On macOS 15 (Sequoia) and later, you see a dialog saying “Burrow” Not Opened, with the message that Apple could not verify it is free of malware, and only Done and Move to Trash buttons. Control-click → Open no longer gets around this on macOS 15 and later. To allow it:

  1. Drag Burrow to Applications and try to open it once. Click Done.
  2. Open System Settings › Privacy & Security and scroll down to Security. It says “Burrow” was blocked to protect your Mac. Click Open Anyway. The button only appears for about an hour after the blocked attempt.
  3. Confirm with Open Anyway in the next dialog and enter your password. After that, Burrow opens normally.

Or skip all that with Terminal: xattr -dr com.apple.quarantine /Applications/Burrow.app

On macOS 14 and earlier, Control-click → Open → Open still works.

Updates

From 0.3.0 on, Burrow updates itself. About once a day it checks the Releases page, downloads a new version in the background, and shows Burrow X is ready · Restart to update in the status bar (quitting installs it too). Burrow › Check for Updates… checks right away.

Updates are signed: the app installs a release only if its SHA256SUMS carries a valid Ed25519 signature from the project’s release key (built into the app), the download matches that file, and the new app is Burrow (the same bundle ID, org.blygger.desktop, as before the rename), newer, and passes codesign --verify. Downloads come only from GitHub, over HTTPS. The one-line installer checks the same signature when OpenSSL 3 is installed.

auto-update = notify in the config only tells you a new version is out, and auto-update = off stops the automatic checks (see auto-update). If Burrow can’t replace itself (say, the folder it’s in isn’t writable), it says so and links to the release page.

On 0.2.0 or earlier? Those versions can’t update themselves. Run the one-line installer above once more; after that, updates are automatic.

Burrow › About Burrow shows the version, commit, update status and what your blyg’s server supports. Its Copy build info button copies all of that (no paths, no token) for a bug report.

The rename

The app was called Blygger (Blygger Desktop) up to 0.6.0. Only the name you see changed: the menus (Burrow › Settings…, Burrow › Check for Updates…, Help › Burrow Tutorial), the About window, the window title and the app’s messages say Burrow, and new installs are Burrow.app. The bundle ID (org.blygger.desktop), the config file (~/.config/blygger/config), the BLYGGER_* environment variables, the blygger command, the data folder and database, the Keychain items and the key-binding contexts are all the same, so nothing needs migrating.

Blygger.app → Burrow.app

Updating from 0.6.0 or earlier: the in-app update works as usual. The app replaces itself where it is, so it stays Blygger.app on disk (Finder and Spotlight show that name) while being Burrow inside. That’s expected. To get Burrow.app:

  • run the one-line installer, which replaces a Blygger.app in the same folder (posts, settings and sign-ins carry over), or
  • rename the app yourself while it isn’t running.

A Dock shortcut to the old name may need re-adding.

For a transition period, each release also publishes Blygger-<version>-macos-universal.zip and Blygger-macos-universal.zip (the same signed app in a folder called Blygger.app), so 0.6.0 and earlier can still update. The signed SHA256SUMS covers them too.

Windows

The Windows build is the same app, from the same code, with a few Windows-specific touches. The port was contributed by Patrick Atwater (@patwater).

Install

Download Burrow-windows-x64.zip (or Burrow-<version>-windows-x64.zip) from the Releases page, check it against SHA256SUMS if you like, unzip it anywhere, and run Burrow\blygger.exe. In PowerShell:

$base = "https://github.com/aneeshsathe/blygger-desktop/releases/latest/download"
Invoke-WebRequest "$base/Burrow-windows-x64.zip" -OutFile Burrow-windows-x64.zip
Invoke-WebRequest "$base/SHA256SUMS" -OutFile SHA256SUMS
(Get-FileHash Burrow-windows-x64.zip -Algorithm SHA256).Hash.ToLower()  # compare with its line in SHA256SUMS
Expand-Archive Burrow-windows-x64.zip -DestinationPath "$env:LOCALAPPDATA\Programs"
& "$env:LOCALAPPDATA\Programs\Burrow\blygger.exe"

The build isn’t code-signed yet, so the first launch shows Microsoft Defender SmartScreen’s Windows protected your PC. Choose More info, then Run anyway; once per version.

Posts and the full editor need the Microsoft Edge WebView2 Runtime. Windows 11 includes it, and most Windows 10 machines have it through Edge. If posts say “The preview couldn’t start”, install the runtime from Microsoft’s WebView2 download page.

What’s different from the Mac

  • Keys. Every ⌘ shortcut is Ctrl on Windows: Publish is Ctrl+Enter, search is Ctrl+L. The one exception is Versions, Ctrl+Shift+Y rather than Ctrl+Y, which is Redo on Windows. Tooltips, the menu, the tour and the app’s own messages show the Windows keys. The shortcut tables are written the Mac way.
  • Menu. Windows has no menu bar, so a Menu button at the top left of the window lists every menu item, including the ones without a key (Subscribe…, Site Settings…, Open Config File).
  • Title bar. The window keeps the normal Windows title bar.
  • Sheets. Their keys (⏎, esc, 1, 2) are buttons too, and Settings › AI has Save and Done buttons.
  • Where things live. The config file is %USERPROFILE%\.config\blygger\config, as on the Mac (Menu › Open Config File creates it and opens it in Notepad); %APPDATA%\Blygger\config is read after it, in place of the Mac’s ~/Library/Application Support one, and user themes go in %USERPROFILE%\.config\blygger\themes\. The local database, caches and media are in %LOCALAPPDATA%\Blygger\. Sign-ins and AI keys are in Windows Credential Manager under org.blygger.desktop, wherever the Mac app says Keychain.
  • A refused token. When your blyg starts refusing your sign-in (401), the app says so once, rather than only “sync error”.
  • Fonts. The macOS system fonts become their nearest Windows ones: New York → Georgia, Charter → Cambria, SF Pro → Segoe UI, Menlo → Consolas. A theme or config file that names a macOS font gets its Windows equivalent too, so Fortress uses Consolas. The bundled fonts, including the defaults, are the same everywhere.
  • About. Menu › About Burrow names Windows as the system, and opens Explorer where the Mac app opens Finder.
  • The browser pane is macOS only for now: links open in your default browser.
  • Updates. The Windows build doesn’t update itself yet. Download new versions from the Releases page; your posts, settings and sign-ins aren’t in the folder, so they carry over.
  • AI helpers. Local Claude Code and Codex are found on your PATH, in %USERPROFILE%\.local\bin, and in npm’s global folder (%APPDATA%\npm).

If it crashes

A crash shows a message and writes what happened to %LOCALAPPDATA%\Blygger\crash.log (the latest crash only). Please attach it when you report the bug.

Known gaps

No installer, auto-update or code signing yet. Keyboard focus between the preview and the editor is simpler than on the Mac: when the preview hides or the window regains focus, the keyboard goes back to the editor.

Uninstall on Windows

Delete the Burrow folder. To remove everything else: %LOCALAPPDATA%\Blygger\ (the local copy), %USERPROFILE%\.config\blygger\ (and %APPDATA%\Blygger\ if you made one), and the org.blygger.desktop entries in Credential Manager (Control Panel › Credential Manager › Windows Credentials).

Uninstall

Quit Burrow and move Burrow.app (or Blygger.app) to the Trash. Your posts live on your blyg; the local copy, settings and sign-ins stay on your Mac until you remove them:

  • the data folder, ~/Library/Application Support/org.blygger.desktop/ (Burrow › Disconnect… can also delete the local copy);
  • the config file, ~/.config/blygger/config;
  • the Keychain items, under the service org.blygger.desktop (search Keychain Access for blygger).