Back to Mind Browser Getting started

Ten minutes from
download to agent.

Install it, point it at a model — or none at all — and learn the five things that make it different from the browser you're reading this in.

~2 mininstall and first launch
~3 minconnect a model or Ollama
5moves worth learning first
0accounts to create
Part one

Install it.

Two minutes on either platform, plus one unsigned-app speed bump worth knowing about before you hit it.

1

Drag it into Applications

macOS — the download is a .dmg. Double-click it and a window opens with the Mind Browser icon on one side and an Applications shortcut on the other. Drag the icon onto the shortcut, wait for the copy to finish, then eject the disk image from the sidebar. Mind Browser is now in Launchpad, and you can keep it in the Dock by right-clicking its icon there → Options → Keep in Dock.

Windows — the download is a portable folder. Unzip it wherever you like (Program Files isn't required) and run Mind Browser.exe inside it. Right-click that exe → Pin to taskbar if you want it handy.

Which build?macOS is arm64 — M1 and later, no Intel yet. Windows is x64 — Windows 10 and 11, no ARM yet.
Finder
Mind Browser
Applications
2

Get past the unsigned warning

Neither build is code-signed, so both operating systems will stop you once. This is them being cautious about an unknown developer, not a warning about this app in particular.

macOS 15 and newer — a double-click gives you "Apple could not verify…" offering only Done and Move to Bin. Click Done, then open System Settings → Privacy & Security, scroll to the bottom, and click Open Anyway next to the message about Mind Browser. Confirm with Touch ID or your password.

If macOS says "Mind Browser is damaged and can't be opened" instead, the file is fine — that is the quarantine flag macOS puts on anything downloaded. Clear it once from Terminal:

xattr -dr com.apple.quarantine "/Applications/Mind Browser.app"
Control-click → Open no longer worksThat shortcut was the old way round this, and plenty of guides still recommend it. Apple removed it in macOS 15 — on Sequoia and Tahoe the Privacy & Security route is the only one.

Windows — SmartScreen shows "Windows protected your PC". Click More info, then Run anyway.

Either way you only do it once.

Why unsigned?An Apple Developer account and a Windows code-signing certificate both cost money annually. The trade-off is this one extra click.
Gatekeeper
“Mind Browser” can’t be opened because Apple cannot check it for malicious software.

This software needs to be updated. Contact the developer for more information.

DoneMove to Bin
Open
Open ← use this
Show Package Contents
Move to Bin
Windows protected your PC

Microsoft Defender SmartScreen prevented an unrecognised app from starting.

More info
Don't runRun anyway
Part two

Give it a brain.

Browsing, News, Finance, Notes and Shields all work with no model at all. The AI panel and the agents need one. Two ways to get there.

Stay localFree · private · slower
  1. Install Ollama from ollama.com
  2. In Terminal: ollama pull llama3.1
  3. Leave Ollama running in the background
  4. Mind Browser → ⌘, / Ctrl, → Models → pick Ollama

Nothing leaves the machine — not the prompt, not the page text. Speed depends on your machine, not your connection.

Bring a keyFast · costs pennies
  1. Get an API key from Anthropic, OpenAI, Google, Groq or OpenRouter
  2. ⌘, / Ctrl, → Models → Add provider
  3. Paste the key — it's stored on your disk, never sent anywhere else
  4. Assign a model to each agent role

Groq is the cheap fast option for Navigator; a stronger model pays for itself on Planner.

3

Assign a model per agent

You don't pick one model for everything. Each role gets its own, because they do different jobs: Navigator makes many small calls and wants speed, Planner makes few big ones and wants judgement.

A good starting split is below. Change it any time in Settings — nothing is baked in.

Settings → Models
Plannerstrong model · few calls
Navigatorfast model · many calls
Researcherlong context
Writerwhatever you like writing with
Analystgood at tables
Part three

Learn the window.

Five things are in different places than you're used to. Here they are.

mind://newtab
Open Tabs
New Tab
Nature's Chronology
News
Finance
Notes
mind://newtab 41
Good afternoon
Search the web or ask AI anything… ⌘K
MindAgent
1Sidebar · ⌘B 2Omnibox 3Shields count 4AI panel · ⌘⇧L 5Palette · ⌘K
  1. Sidebar — open tabs, pinned sites, and the three native pages: News, Finance, Notes. ⌘B collapses it.
  2. Omnibox — types-ahead against your own history, bookmarks and open tabs before it ever asks a search engine.
  3. Shields count — trackers blocked on this page. Click it to allow the site if something breaks.
  4. AI panel — Chat, Agent and Research modes. ⌘⇧L toggles it.
  5. Command palette — ⌘K reaches every tab, bookmark, setting and action by typing.
Part four

Run your first agent task.

Chat answers questions about the page. Agent goes and does things. Start with something small and watch how it moves.

4

Write the task like a brief

Agents do better with a goal and a boundary than with a command. Say what "done" looks like, and say what not to touch.

Works well "Find three flights to Delhi next Friday under ₹6,000 and put them in a note — don't book anything"
Struggles "Book my trip"

Then watch the run. Each step names the agent that took it and what actually came back, so when something goes sideways you can see which step to fix.

Stop itThe run can be stopped mid-flight from the panel. It stops after the current step, not halfway through one.
Agent mode — live demo
5

Five moves worth learning

These are the ones that change how the browser feels, in the order they'll pay off.

  • Highlight → ask — select any text and the panel answers about that selection, not the whole page
  • Split view ⌘\ — two live tabs side by side; ask the AI to compare them and it reads both
  • Reading mode ⌘⇧E — strips a page to its text
  • Summary → Notes — anything the panel produces can be saved with its source attached
  • Reopen closed tab ⌘⇧T — walks back through a stack, not just the last one
highlight → ask

Ring analysis dated the Bosnian pine to over 1,075 years old, establishing it as Europe's oldest verified living tree.

AskSummarizeRewrite→ Notes
AI That's the dated age from ring sampling — the tree is likely older, since the core doesn't reach the pith. Two of the four sources note that caveat.
Staying private

Two dials worth knowing.

Both live in Settings → Privacy. Neither is on by accident, and neither pretends to be more than it is.

The privacy level

One slider with three stops. Off leaves sites exactly as built. Standard — the default — blocks the advertising and analytics networks that follow you between sites, and everything keeps working. Strict adds identity masking, so sites can't recognise the browser by its fingerprint; a few sites may misbehave, and you can switch any single protection on or off underneath the slider.

Onion Mode

Opens a separate window whose traffic goes through Tor. Use it to reach .onion addresses, or to keep your network operator from seeing which sites you opened. The first connection takes 5 to 30 seconds while a circuit is built — the progress bar is telling the truth, it hasn't frozen.

What Onion Mode is not

It is not Tor Browser. Tor Browser's real protection is making every user look identical; this is still Mind Browser, with your window size and your extensions, so a determined site could pick you out by fingerprint even without knowing your address. You are anonymous by IP, not by fingerprint. If being identified would put you in danger, use Tor Browser instead.

Site permissions

Camera, microphone, location and notifications ask before a site gets them. Click the padlock in the address bar to see who issued a site's certificate, when it expires, what it has stored, and what you've allowed — and to clear just that site without signing out of everything else.

Reference · ⌘ on macOS, Ctrl on Windows

Every shortcut.

⌘KCommand palette
⌘TNew tab
⌘WClose tab
⌘⇧TReopen closed tab
⌘⇧]Next tab
⌘⇧[Previous tab
⌘BToggle sidebar
⌘⇧LToggle AI panel
⌘\Split view
⌘⇧EReading mode
⌘FFind on page
⌘⇧JDownloads
⌘RReload
⌘⇧RForce reload
⌘,Settings
⌘+Zoom in
⌘−Zoom out
⌘0Actual size
When it misbehaves

Troubleshooting.

“Apple could not verify Mind Browser is free of malware”

Expected on a build Apple hasn't notarised. On macOS 15 and newer, click Done, then System Settings → Privacy & Security → scroll down → Open Anyway. Control-click → Open was removed in macOS 15 and no longer works. If you would rather do it in one step from the Terminal:

xattr -dr com.apple.quarantine "/Applications/Mind Browser.app"

“Windows protected your PC”

SmartScreen on an unsigned exe. Click More info → Run anyway. If your antivirus quarantines the folder instead, allow it — an unsigned Electron binary is a common false positive.

The Windows exe has a generic icon

Known and cosmetic. Embedding an icon into the executable needs a Windows toolchain, and this build was produced on a Mac. The app's own icon shows up correctly in the taskbar and window once it's running.

Ollama models don't appear

Ollama has to be running before Mind Browser looks for it. Check it's up, then reopen Settings → Models:

ollama list

If that prints nothing, pull a model first with ollama pull llama3.1.

A site looks broken

Shields blocks at the network layer, and a small number of sites genuinely depend on a tracker to render. Click the shield count in the address bar to allow that site, then reload. Everywhere else stays protected.

An agent run stalls

Usually a page that needs a login, or a model that's rate-limited. The step list shows which one it stopped on. Stop the run, sign in manually in that tab, and start it again — it'll pick up the page you left.

Chrome extension won't install

Extensions install from the Chrome Web Store inside Mind Browser itself, not by dragging a .crx. Open the store in a tab and use Add to Chrome — the browser handles it from there.

Everything feels slow

Nearly always a local model too big for the machine. A 70B on an 8 GB machine will crawl. Drop to an 8B, or point Navigator at a hosted fast model and leave the rest local.

Straight answers

Common questions.

Can I use it without any AI?

Yes, and plenty do. It's a full Chromium browser with ad blocking, a sidebar, split view, notes, News and Finance — none of which need a model. The AI panel simply sits idle until you give it one.

Will my API key leak?

Keys are stored in the app's data folder on your machine and sent only to the provider they belong to. There's no Mind Browser server for them to pass through.

Can I import from Chrome?

Not yet — bookmarks and history don't import. You can install your Chrome extensions from the Web Store and pin your sites in the sidebar, which covers most of the muscle memory.

Does the agent ever act without asking?

It acts within the task you gave it, and it will click and type on pages to get there. It has no purchase, payment or send tool — but treat a task as permission for everything reasonably inside it, and say what's off-limits when it matters.

How do I update?

Download the current build and replace the app (open the new .dmg and drag over the copy in Applications on macOS, the unzipped folder on Windows). Your settings, keys, notes and history live in the data folder and survive the swap.

Ready when you are.

Free forever, no account, and you can be running a task in ten minutes.

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