Kitten

Kitten on macOS

Kitten runs natively on macOS and renders with Metal.

Installing Kitten

Download Kitten from the download page. The download is a .dmg file: open it and drag Kitten to your Applications folder.

For the preview build, pick Preview on the download page, or see the preview releases. The preview build installs as Kitten Preview and can sit next to the stable app.

System Requirements

  • macOS 10.15.7 (Catalina) or later
  • Apple Silicon (M1 and newer) or Intel processor

First Launch

macOS builds are not signed yet, so Gatekeeper blocks the first launch. To open Kitten:

  1. Right-click (or Control-click) Kitten in Applications
  2. Select Open from the context menu
  3. Click Open in the dialog that appears

macOS remembers this choice, so later launches open normally.

If macOS reports that Kitten is damaged, remove the quarantine attribute. Paste this in Terminal:

xattr -cr /Applications/Kitten.app

For the preview build:

xattr -cr /Applications/Kitten\ Preview.app

Uninstall

  1. Quit Kitten if it's running
  2. Drag Kitten from Applications to the Trash
  3. Optionally, remove your local collections and settings:
rm -rf ~/.local/share/kitten-gpui

Collections you synced to a git remote stay on that remote.

Troubleshooting

GPU or rendering issues

Kitten uses Metal for rendering. If you see graphical glitches:

  • Make sure macOS is up to date
  • Restart your Mac to reset the GPU state