Neurodesk App

A cross-platform desktop application for Neurodesk: The easiest way to use Neurodesktop

Step 1: Download and install

Download the Neurodesk App for your operating system, then follow the install instructions below.

Download:

Install: Double-click the downloaded .dmg file and drag NeurodeskApp into your Applications folder. To open: right-click NeurodeskApp.app and select “Open”.

Alternatively, install with Homebrew:

brew install neurodesk/homebrew-neurodesk/neurodeskapp

Download:

Install: Double-click the downloaded .exe file. Windows will show an “Unknown publisher” warning because the installer is not code-signed. This is expected — the installer is an official release from the neurodesk-app GitHub repository. Click “Yes” to proceed, then accept the license agreement and click “Finish”.

Download:

Distributionx64arm64
Debian / Ubuntu.deb (x64).deb (arm64)
Fedora / RHEL / SUSE.rpm (x64).rpm (arm64)
Arch-basedAUR package

Install: Replace <arch> in the following command with the downloaded executable file suited for your system architecture (x64 or arm64)

# Debian / Ubuntu
sudo apt install -f ./NeurodeskApp-Setup-Debian-<arch>.deb

# Fedora / RHEL / SUSE
sudo rpm -i NeurodeskApp-Setup-Fedora-<arch>.rpm

# Arch-based
yay neurodesk

Minimum system requirements

  • At least 8 GB free disk space for the Neurodesktop base image
  • A container engine (see Step 2 below)

Step 2: Set up a container engine

The Neurodesk App needs a container engine to run neuroimaging tools. Which engine you use depends on whether you have admin (root) privileges on your system.

Engine selection screen showing Docker, Podman, and TinyRange options

Requires: Admin/root access on your machine.

If you already have Docker installed, skip to Step 3. Otherwise, install Docker:

Verify your installation:

docker --version
docker run hello-world

Apple Silicon users: Enable Rosetta support in Docker Desktop settings for best performance.

Requires: Admin/root access on your machine.

Podman is a drop-in replacement for Docker. Install it using your system’s package manager or from podman.io.

Use this if you do NOT have admin/root access.

TinyRange is included with the Neurodesk App – no separate install is needed on Windows and Linux.

macOS only: You also need to install QEMU:

brew install qemu

Verify with:

qemu-system-aarch64 --version

Step 3: Launch the app

Open the Neurodesk App from your operating system’s application menu, or run neurodeskapp from the command line.

On the Welcome Page you have two options:

  • Open Local Neurodesk – starts a Neurodesk session on your machine.
  • Connect to remote Neurodesk server – connects to an existing Neurodesk server running elsewhere.
Start session

Local sessions

Click “Open Local Neurodesk” to launch a local session. This opens a JupyterLab interface with two ways to use Neurodesk:

  • Click the NeurodeskApp icon to launch the full desktop interface in a new window.
  • Use the command line in JupyterLab and load tools via the module system in the left sidebar.
Connect to local

Remote sessions

Click “Connect to remote Neurodesk server” to connect to a server running elsewhere.

Select the provided servers in the list or Enter the URL of the server and press Enter to connect.

Connect to server

Data storage

For a full overview of how data storage works in Neurodesk (default paths, cloud storage, transferring files), see Data Storage.

Adding a custom data directory

In Settings, select “Additional Directory” in the sidebar, click “Change” to choose a local directory, then click “Apply & restart”. The directory will appear at /home/jovyan/data inside the app.

Additional Directory settings interface