How-to

How to install Outlier on a Mac

Last updated 2026-11-04

Quick answer

Step-by-step install for the signed Outlier DMG on macOS 15+ Apple Silicon. The whole sequence below stays on the Mac.

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What you need first for “how to install outlier on a mac”

Apple Silicon Mac, macOS 15 or later, and for how to install outlier on a mac the unified-memory minimum that the chosen tier requires (6 GB for Nano, 12 GB for Lite, 16 GB for Quick (24 GB to run it fully in memory), 24 GB for Core and Vision 3.8, 64 GB for Plus). For install outlier on mac, those are the minimums to load a tier; a long agent session needs more. You need the internet to download each model (and once to activate a Pro key); after that, chat works offline.

Steps

  1. Download the signed DMG. Pull the latest DMG from GitHub Releases. The download is signed by Developer ID and notarized by Apple.
  2. Open the DMG. Double-click. macOS verifies the notarization ticket; the first-open prompt is normal for Developer ID apps.
  3. Drag Outlier.app to Applications. The app is self-contained; no separate Python install is required.
  4. Launch Outlier. The first launch takes longer while the bundled Python framework warms up; later launches skip that step.
  5. Pick a tier. The model picker downloads from Hugging Face on first run; tiers range from 2.4 GB (Nano) to 209 GB (Plus).

What is the specific thing to know about this guide?

The DMG is signed by Developer ID 9N3Z6J63T4 and notarized via Apple’s notarytool service. spctl --assess reports accepted, source=Notarized Developer ID on a clean machine.

The first launch takes longer while the bundled Python framework unpacks and warms; later launches skip that step. If Gatekeeper refuses the app outright rather than showing the ordinary first-open prompt, the download was almost certainly truncated: re-pull the DMG and check the size before opening it again. Apple Silicon only: M1 or newer, macOS 15 or later, and Intel Macs cannot run it at all.

What can go wrong with this guide?

How does this guide differ from the cloud equivalent?

The cloud equivalent of installing a coding assistant is creating an account and pasting an API key. Outlier’s install replaces both with a signed DMG.

What does this guide not claim about “how to install outlier on a mac”?

This guide does not claim feature parity with cloud-side workflows for “how to install outlier on a mac”. Specifically, the product surface covers chat, file attachment, the local agent loop, project scoping, and the model picker. Cross-device sync, team workspaces, and shared session history are out of scope and are not on the v1.9 backlog either.

How does the signed bundle differ from a pip install?

The DMG ships a frozen Python 3.11 framework, mlx_lm 0.31.3, the FastAPI sidecar, and the Tauri front end as a single self-contained app bundle. There is no separate Python installation step, no virtualenv, no pip dependency drift. The downside is the 50-second cold-boot warmup; the upside is reproducibility across Macs.

Where does this guide fit in the rest of the lineup?

After install, the model picker shows six tiers in display order: Nano (2.37 GB), Lite (5.04 GB), Quick (15.61 GB), Core (15.13 GB), Vision 3.8 (15.5 GB), and Plus (209 GB). Tiers above the Mac’s unified-memory headroom appear greyed out.

One unique number

5 steps. Once the model is downloaded your chats and files stay on your Mac. The complete install touches three locations: /Applications/Outlier.app, ~/Library/Application Support/Outlier/, and ~/.outlier/.

Download Outlier for Mac

Free · M1 or newer · macOS 15+ (free update) · 276 MB. Intel Macs are not supported.

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Outlier runs entirely on your Mac. No prompts leave the device. macOS 15+ on Apple Silicon (arm64). Apache 2.0 model weights. Back to home.

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