Fold is a macOS desktop app — a signed, notarized .app shipped in a .dmg. There is no web version, no login, and no cloud component.
| Requirement | Value |
|---|---|
| macOS | 13 (Ventura) or newer |
| Architecture | Apple silicon (arm64) |
| Disk | ~250 MB installed |
| Accounts | None |
There is no Intel build. Fold ships mac-arm64 only.
That taps samiabi/fold and installs the current release into /Applications. Because the cask points at signed, notarized assets, macOS opens it without a Gatekeeper prompt.
To upgrade later:
To remove it:
Grab the .dmg from the latest release, open it, and drag Fold into Applications.
Fold's source repository is private, and Homebrew fetches release assets unauthenticated — so releases are published to the public SamiAbi/fold-dist repository, which contains nothing but the signed binaries.
Fold opens the welcome window — a workspace manager with a filter box, your pinned and recent folders, and an Open Folder… button. Pick a project directory and Fold opens a window for it with one terminal session already running.
The app is never a dead screen: opening a project always spawns a session.
The .dmg is signed with a Developer ID certificate and notarized by Apple. To check it yourself:
You should see accepted and source=Notarized Developer ID.
Fold runs your login shell as-is, so it inherits whatever prompt and plugins you already have. If you want the setup Fold was designed against — Maple Mono NF, Oh My Zsh, Powerlevel10k and a single-line prompt — run:
Everything it installs is gated behind FOLD=1, so your existing config is untouched outside Fold sessions. See Terminal setup for what it does and why the prompt must stay single-line.
| Path | Contents |
|---|---|
~/Library/Application Support/dev.samiworld.fold/ | Everything below |
workspaces.json | The workspace registry — pinned, recent, missing |
state.json | Per-project layout, open tabs, session names |
settings.json | Appearance and terminal preferences |
Deleting that directory resets Fold to a first-run state. It never stores anything outside it, and it does not modify any coding agent's configuration.
Fold restores layout, tabs and session names — never the processes. Closing a window kills the agents running in it. This is deliberate (see Decisions #4): a resurrected shell that has lost its scrollback and its child process is worse than an honest empty one.
If you installed by hand, drag Fold.app from /Applications to the Trash and remove the same support directory.