Installing DNAgent

Current builds are macOS on Apple Silicon (M1 and later) and Windows x64. Intel Macs and Linux are not built yet; on those, build from source.

DNAgent comes in two parts, and they are useful separately:

• the desktop app, for looking at and editing constructs;
• the dnagent command-line tool, which does the biology and is what an AI agent drives.

Install both if you want the agent workflows; the app alone is enough to open plasmids.

Install on macOS

Paste these into Terminal. Use the commands rather than downloading in a browser — the reason is below.

# Desktop app
curl -fsSL https://github.com/HocheggerLab/DNAgent/releases/latest/download/DNAgent-macos-arm64.tar.gz | tar xz -C /Applications

# Command-line tool
curl -fsSL https://github.com/HocheggerLab/DNAgent/releases/latest/download/dnagent-cli-macos-arm64.tar.gz | tar xz -C /usr/local/bin

Check it worked:

open -a DNAgent
dnagent --version

If dnagent: command not found, /usr/local/bin is not on your PATH. Add it:

echo 'export PATH="/usr/local/bin:$PATH"' >> ~/.zshrc && exec zsh

Why the curl command

DNAgent is not signed with an Apple Developer certificate, because that costs £79 a year and this is free research software. macOS treats unsigned apps harshly: since macOS 15 it refuses to open one downloaded from the web, calling it "damaged", and the old Control-click→Open workaround no longer works.

The quarantine flag that triggers this is set by the downloading application — Safari, Chrome, Mail. curl does not set it. So an app fetched with the command above is not quarantined and simply opens.

"Unsigned" means Apple has not checked who published it. It does not mean the app is modified or unsafe; the build is produced by a public GitHub Actions workflow from the commit its tag names, and each release lists SHA-256 checksums.

If you did download the .dmg in a browser, clear the flag once:

xattr -dr com.apple.quarantine /Applications/DNAgent.app

Install on Windows

Download from the latest release:

• DNAgent-windows-x64-setup.exe — the app. Run it; it installs to your user account, no administrator rights needed.

• dnagent-cli-windows-x64.zip — the command-line tool. Unzip dnagent.exe into a folder on your PATH, or make one:

  mkdir "$env:LOCALAPPDATA\Programs\DNAgent"
  # move dnagent.exe there, then add it to PATH for future terminals:
  [Environment]::SetEnvironmentVariable(
      "Path", "$env:Path;$env:LOCALAPPDATA\Programs\DNAgent", "User")
  

  Open a new terminal and check with dnagent --version.

The SmartScreen warning

DNAgent is not code-signed — a Windows certificate is a yearly cost this project does not carry. The first time you run the installer, SmartScreen says the publisher is unknown: click More info, then Run anyway. You should only do that because you can see where the file came from: each release is built by a public workflow from the commit its tag names, and lists SHA-256 checksums. Verify one if you like:

Get-FileHash .\DNAgent-windows-x64-setup.exe -Algorithm SHA256

Unlike macOS, the curl trick does not help here: Windows marks a file by the zone it came from, not by what downloaded it.

What is missing on Windows

The live agent connection is macOS and Linux only. It runs over a unix socket, which Windows does not have, and the portable alternatives are network ports that any process on the machine could reach — that needs an access token before it is safe to serve your constructs over one.

Everything else is the same: the app, every CLI command, reading and writing SnapGene .dna and GenBank. For agent work on Windows, use the file handoff — the agent reads and writes constructs in your workspace folder, and the app picks them up. See agent handoff.

Connect an agent (macOS and Linux)

This is what makes DNAgent different from a viewer: an agent in your terminal can see what you have open and put results on your screen. With Claude Code installed:

claude mcp add dnagent -- dnagent mcp

That registers dnagent mcp, a small relay between the agent and the running app. Start DNAgent, open a construct, then ask the agent something like "what am I looking at?" — it should answer with the construct name and your selection.

The agent sees only DNAgent: the constructs you have open, your selection, and the files it writes into your workspace folder (~/DNAgent by default). The connection is a user-only socket on your own machine; nothing is sent anywhere.

dnagent mcp --help explains the relay and its socket. What the agent can do through it, and the file-based alternative when no app is running, are in agent handoff.

For Claude Desktop (Cowork), other MCP clients, and why ChatGPT cannot connect, see Connect an agent in the README.

Updating

Re-run the install command — tar overwrites in place. Quit DNAgent first if it is running.

Uninstalling

# macOS
rm -rf /Applications/DNAgent.app /usr/local/bin/dnagent
rm -rf ~/Library/Application\ Support/DNAgent   # feature library and enzyme catalogue

On Windows, uninstall the app from Settings → Apps, delete dnagent.exe, and remove %APPDATA%\DNAgent for the feature library and enzyme catalogue.

Your constructs are your own files and are never stored inside the app. DNAgent never modifies a source file in place; it always writes to a new path.

Build from source

Needed for Intel Macs, Windows, Linux, or to develop DNAgent. Requires Rust 1.92+, and for the app also Node 22+ and the Tauri prerequisites for your platform.

git clone https://github.com/HocheggerLab/DNAgent.git
cd DNAgent

# Command-line tool (headless, no GUI dependencies)
cargo build -p dnagent-cli --release --locked
./target/release/dnagent inspect fixtures/formats/snapgene/pUC19_M77789.dna

# Desktop app, run from source
cd desktop && npm ci && npm run tauri dev

# Desktop app, packaged for your platform
npm run tauri build

A locally built app has no Gatekeeper problem at all: nothing was downloaded, so nothing is quarantined.

npm run tauri build can exit 0 even when bundling failed — check that desktop/src-tauri/target/release/bundle/ actually contains what you expect.

Something went wrong

Still stuck, or something behaved unscientifically? Open an issue — include the construct if you can share it, and the exact command.