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Installation

Scratch is available for macOS, Windows, and Linux. Choose your platform below.

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macOS

Homebrew (Recommended)

Prefer to download directly? Follow these steps:
1

Download the DMG

Download the latest .dmg file from the GitHub Releases page.
2

Install Scratch

  1. Open the downloaded DMG file
  2. Drag the Scratch app to your Applications folder
3

Launch Scratch

Open Scratch from your Applications folder. You may need to allow the app in System Preferences > Security & Privacy on first launch.
macOS may show a security warning for apps downloaded outside the App Store. Right-click the app and select “Open” to bypass this on first launch.

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Windows

Scratch requires Windows 10 or later. Windows 11 users have WebView2 pre-installed.
1

Download the installer

Download the latest .exe installer from the GitHub Releases page.
2

Run the installer

Double-click the downloaded .exe file. The installer will automatically download WebView2 if needed.
3

Complete installation

Follow the installation wizard prompts. Scratch will launch automatically when complete.
The Windows installer uses NSIS and creates a Start Menu shortcut for easy access.

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Linux

Scratch is available as both AppImage and .deb packages.
AppImage is a universal package format that works on most Linux distributions.
1

Download AppImage

Download the latest .AppImage file from the GitHub Releases page.
2

Make executable

chmod +x Scratch-*.AppImage
3

Run Scratch

./Scratch-*.AppImage
You can move the AppImage to ~/.local/bin or ~/Applications for easier access.

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Build from Source

Developers can build Scratch from source. This requires Node.js 18+ and Rust 1.70+.
1

Install prerequisites

macOS: Install Xcode Command Line Tools
xcode-select --install
Windows: WebView2 Runtime (pre-installed on Windows 11)Linux: Install build dependencies
# Ubuntu/Debian
sudo apt install libwebkit2gtk-4.1-dev build-essential curl wget file libxdo-dev libssl-dev libayatana-appindicator3-dev librsvg2-dev
2

Clone the repository

git clone https://github.com/erictli/scratch.git
cd scratch
3

Install dependencies

npm install
4

Run development build

npm run tauri dev
Or build for production:
npm run tauri build
The production build creates platform-specific installers in src-tauri/target/release/bundle/.

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Verify Installation

After installing Scratch, verify it’s working:
1

Launch the app

Open Scratch from your Applications folder, Start Menu, or applications menu.
2

Check the version

The current version is 0.7.1. You can verify this in Settings > About.
3

Auto-updates

Scratch checks for updates on startup (after 3s delay). You can manually check in Settings > About > “Check for Updates”.
The auto-updater fetches update information from GitHub Releases. A toast notification appears when updates are available.

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Next Steps

Quick Start Guide

Learn how to create your first note and explore Scratch’s features

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