Install and start

Prototype – not available yet

monsterbrain is a prototype in daily use at danwos. It is not freely available yet: there are no installers, and its repository is private. The steps below are for those who already have access.

monsterbrain is built from its repository.

$ npm install
$ npx install-electron   # only if npm skipped Electron's download
$ npm run build
$ npx electron .

Development with hot reload: npm run dev.

Start from the app menu (Linux)

scripts/install-desktop-entry.sh adds monsterbrain to the app menu.

Ubuntu 24.04 and later restrict unprivileged user namespaces, which Electron’s sandbox needs; started from the menu, Electron then aborts with “SUID sandbox helper binary … not configured correctly”. Fix it once with an AppArmor profile /etc/apparmor.d/monsterbrain for node_modules/electron/dist/electron (flags=(unconfined), userns,) – the same kind of profile Ubuntu ships for VS Code and Obsidian – loaded with sudo apparmor_parser -r /etc/apparmor.d/monsterbrain. A later installer will set this up itself.

Which folder opens

monsterbrain opens the last folder, otherwise ~/brain. --root=<folder> opens another folder for one run without remembering it.