Kinetic

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Tauri Desktop App ​

The Kinetic Desktop app (built with Tauri) is the easiest way to get started. It gives you a graphical control panel for everything the daemon does — registering names, managing DNS records, checking network status — without ever opening a terminal.

Download ​

Download from kinetic.saifmukhtar.dev/download:

OSFile
Linux.AppImage
macOS.dmg
Windows.exe (installer)

Installation ​

Linux ​

bash
chmod +x kinetic-desktop.AppImage
./kinetic-desktop.AppImage

Or move it to /usr/local/bin/ to launch from anywhere.

macOS ​

Open the .dmg, drag Kinetic Desktop to your Applications folder. On first launch, macOS may show a security prompt — go to System Settings → Privacy & Security → Allow Anyway.

Windows ​

Run the .exe installer and follow the prompts. It installs Kinetic Desktop and optionally adds it to your Start Menu.

First launch ​

When you open the app for the first time, it checks whether the Kinetic daemon is running on your machine.

If the daemon is not installed yet, go to the Engine section (sidebar → Engine) and choose an installation profile:

ProfileInstallsWhat it does
Complete Setup (Recommended)Daemon + CLI + DNS ServerInstalls everything and configures your OS to resolve .kin names natively
Minimal SetupDaemon + CLIInstalls the daemon only — no OS DNS changes. Best for corporate VPNs or restricted networks

Click Install and accept the administrator/root permission prompt. The app uses:

  • Linux: pkexec (PolicyKit)
  • macOS: osascript with administrator privileges
  • Windows: PowerShell UAC elevation

Installation downloads binaries from GitHub Releases and verifies their checksums.

The interface ​

The app has a sidebar with 7 sections:

Overview ​

Your live network dashboard:

  • Peers — how many DHT neighbors your daemon sees
  • DHT Size — number of records in the distributed table
  • Uptime — how long the daemon has been running
  • NAT Status — whether your daemon is reachable from the internet
  • Drand Pulse — the current randomness round (used by the VDF)
  • Names — number of .kin names you own locally

The overview auto-refreshes every 7 seconds. You can also hit the Refresh button manually.

Identity ​

Manage your cryptographic identity — the 24-word seed phrase that controls all your names.

Generate a new identity:

  1. Click Generate Master Seed
  2. Your 24-word seed phrase appears — write every word down, in order
  3. Tick the confirmation checkbox
  4. Click Save & Initialize Identity

One chance to write it down

The seed is generated fresh each time you click Generate. Once you save it, the phrase is never shown again. There is no "show my seed" button. Write it down before clicking Save.

Restore from an existing seed: If you already have a 24-word phrase (e.g. from a previous install), paste it into the Restore Identity panel and click Restore & Restart. The daemon restarts and picks up the restored identity.

Names ​

Manage the DNS records for your registered .kin names.

  1. Select a name from the dropdown (your owned names are listed automatically)
  2. Add, edit, or remove DNS records in the table
  3. Click Save Draft to write changes to local storage only
  4. Click Save & Publish to sign and push the updated zone to the DHT network

Publishing makes your records visible to anyone resolving your name. Until you publish, changes are local only.

To register a new name, enter it in the Register field and click Register. A progress bar shows VDF computation status in real time via server-sent events.

To renew an existing name, select it and click Renew.

Mempool ​

Shows active VDF computation tasks — their current phase, progress percentage, and iteration count. If a task fails, the error message appears here.

Resolver ​

Test any .kin name. Type it in the search box and click Resolve. The raw result from the DHT is shown as JSON — useful for debugging whether a name is live and what it contains.

Engine ​

Install or reinstall the system components (daemon, DNS server). Also shows the current installation state. Use Clean Install to wipe and reinstall from scratch.

Clean install removes data

The Clean Install option deletes the existing data directory including your identity key. Back up your 24-word seed before using it.

Preferences ​

  • Theme — Adaptive (follows OS), Dark, or Light
  • Launch on startup — toggle auto-start with your OS session

System tray ​

The app lives in the system tray after you close the window. Right-click the tray icon to:

  • Show Kinetic — bring the window back
  • Hide Window — minimize to tray
  • Quit Kinetic — exit the app completely

Left-click or double-click the tray icon to show the window.

Where is my data? ​

The desktop app uses the same data directory as the CLI:

OSPath
Linux~/.local/share/kinetic/
macOS~/Library/Application Support/kinetic/
Windows%LOCALAPPDATA%\kinetic\

The API token is read directly from api.token in that directory — you don't need to handle authentication manually.

The daemon must be running ​

The app is a control panel for the daemon — it does not run the daemon itself. If the daemon is not installed or stopped, the sidebar shows "Daemon offline" and most functions are unavailable.

To start the daemon after installing it through the Engine section, it runs as a system service automatically. If you need to start it manually:

bash
# Linux / macOS
sudo kinetic-daemon start-service

# Windows (PowerShell as Admin)
kinetic-daemon.exe start-service