Install Cove on macOS

The macOS native release is for Apple silicon (arm64). Cove does not currently publish a native Intel (x64) macOS archive. Use Docker on a supported container host if the native package does not match your Mac.

Download and extract Cove

1. Open the latest Cove release.

2. Download cove-osx-arm64.tar.gz. You can also download its .sha256 file if you want to verify the archive against the published checksum.

3. In Terminal, change to the directory containing the download and extract it:

   tar --extract --gzip --file cove-osx-arm64.tar.gz
   chmod u+x Cove Cove.InstanceManager

4. Keep Cove and Cove.InstanceManager together in a directory that will remain in place.

5. Start the manager from that directory:

   ./Cove.InstanceManager

On the first start, Cove may download managed PostgreSQL and FFmpeg components. Keep the Mac online and allow additional startup time.

If macOS prevents the downloaded executable from opening, first confirm that the archive came from Cove’s official GitHub release. Then use macOS Privacy & Security settings to review and allow that specific app. Do not broadly disable macOS security controls.

Start an instance

1. Use the provided Default instance unless you need multiple isolated Cove libraries.
2. Select Start.
3. Wait for its status to change from Starting to Running.
4. Select Open. The Cove setup wizard opens in your browser.

The manager gives every instance its own home directory, database, configuration, generated assets, backups, and logs. It displays the home path for each instance. Use the manager to start and stop the instance instead of launching Cove separately.

Use a custom data directory

For a directly launched Cove server, set COVE_HOME before starting it:

COVE_HOME="/absolute/path/cove-data" ./Cove

Choose a writable directory and use the same setting on every launch. Cove stores its configuration, managed PostgreSQL installation and database, logs, and default generated assets there. Existing data is not moved automatically; changing the home directory starts a separate instance unless you first move the existing data while Cove is stopped. Explicitly configured storage and backup paths continue to use their configured locations.

This example launches Cove directly. For an instance managed by Cove Instance Manager, use that instance’s home path instead of starting a second copy of Cove against the same data.

If PostgreSQL initialization fails, inspect pg-initdb.log in the managed PostgreSQL root (normally your Cove home directory). pg.log records the later PostgreSQL server startup and may not exist when initialization fails.

Verify the native installation

Keep Cove Instance Manager open and confirm that Default remains Running. If the instance stops during first startup, open its logs from the manager and follow startup troubleshooting.

Once the setup wizard appears, continue with Complete first-run setup.