Moon Desktop is the Moon AI app for computers, on Windows, macOS and Linux. It shows Moon AI as it is, with your account, your conversations and your settings, and adds what a browser can’t do: a quick window on top of everything, screenshots, system notifications, and Code, which works on your computer with Moon CLI.
What you can do with itLink to the What you can do with it section
| Feature | How |
|---|---|
| Chat | All of Moon AI’s features, in a real app window. Open several windows with CtrlN (⌘N on Mac). |
| The quick window | AltSpace (OptionSpace on Mac) opens a small window on top of your other apps, for a question without leaving what you are doing. Esc hides it. See The quick window. |
| Screenshots | CtrlShiftSpace (⌘ShiftSpace on Mac), or the + button of the message box: an area, a window or the whole screen, attached to your message. Since version 2.3, on Windows and Linux, it first goes through an editing window so you can mask what shouldn’t be sent. Nothing is sent until you click Send. |
| Code | Moon CLI works in a folder on your computer, with its commands and your connectors, from the Chat | Code switch in the title bar (at the top of the sidebar before version 2.1). Since version 2.0, Code is also a coding tool: explorer, editor, search, Git, terminal and preview, in the folders you trust. See Code in Moon Desktop. |
| Notifications | Moon AI’s notifications become system notifications; the badge on the icon counts the actions to approve. |
| The notification area | The Moon Desktop icon (in the menu bar on Mac) has its own menu: see The notification area menu. Closing the last window hides it, without quitting the app. |
| Downloads | Files go to your Downloads folder, with a notification to open them. |
Moon Desktop has four shortcuts that work anywhere on your computer: the quick window, screenshots, “Open Moon with what I copied” and “Dictate”. To pick a different one, open “Settings” › “Moon Desktop” › “Keyboard shortcuts”, click “Change” on its row, then press the keys you want (Alt+Shift+M, for example). The “Quick settings” submenu of the File menu (on Mac, of the Moon Desktop menu) only offers, for each shortcut, the default one, the one already chosen in Settings, or “None”. If a shortcut doesn’t work, see The quick window shortcut doesn’t work.
The quick windowLink to the The quick window section
The quick window shortcut opens it, and hides it when it is already in front of you. You ask a question there just as in Chat, with the model of your choice.
- The pin, at the top: “Keep on top of other windows” keeps it in front of your other apps, “Stop keeping on top” turns that off. It is the “Always on top of other windows” setting in “Settings” › “Moon Desktop” › “Quick window”.
- After an answer, at the bottom: “New question” starts again from an empty conversation, and “Continue in Moon AI” hides the quick window and opens the conversation in the main window.
- Esc, or the “Close (Esc)” button, hides it.
Small gesturesLink to the Small gestures section
Since Moon Desktop 2.2, what’s on your computer gets into Moon in one gesture. Each gesture starts with an action of yours, and nothing is sent without going through the message box: you review, then you click Send.
Moon with what I copiedLink to the Moon with what I copied section
Copy a text, a table, an image or files, then press AltShiftSpace (OptionShiftSpace on Mac): what you copied arrives in the quick window, attached to your message.
- The shortcut is off by default: turn it on in “Settings” › “Moon Desktop” › “Keyboard shortcuts”, on the “Open Moon with what I copied” row (“Turn on with…”), or in the “Quick settings” › “Moon with what I copied” submenu of the File menu (on Mac, of the Moon Desktop menu). Without a shortcut, “Moon with what I copied” stays in the File menu and in the menu of the notification area icon.
- A banner says where the attachment comes from and what it holds, for example “From the clipboard · Copied table, 48 rows”, with a close button to remove it. A long copied text is attached as a card, like a long pasted text: it doesn’t go into your message box.
- The clipboard is read only once, when you press the shortcut. An item your password manager marked as secret is never read: “The clipboard holds something your password manager marked as secret. Moon Desktop did not read it.”
Quick actions on copied textLink to the Quick actions on copied text section
When copied text arrives in the quick window, and as long as you haven’t typed anything, four buttons appear: “Correct”, “Translate”, “Summarize” and “Rephrase”.
- One click sends the request with the copied text, to the model chosen in the quick window, like a message you would have written: Moon Blur applies, and the conversation joins your history.
- “Translate” translates into the language of your interface; if the text is already in that language, it translates into English (into French when your interface is in English).
- Once the answer is done, “Copy result”, at the bottom of the window, copies it. Nothing is pasted into another app for you.
A file to MoonLink to the A file to Moon section
- On Windows: right-click a file in File Explorer, then “Ask Moon AI” (on Windows 11, under “Show more options”). Several files selected together arrive together.
- On Mac: drag a file onto the Moon Desktop icon in the Dock, or use “Open With” › Moon Desktop.
On Windows, “Ask Moon AI” goes with “Open in Moon Desktop”, the folder right-click entry: the installer adds them together (option “Add “Open in Moon Desktop” to the folder right-click menu”), and the “‘Open in Moon Desktop’ in File Explorer” setting, in “Settings” › “Moon Desktop” › “Code”, adds or removes them together. So the entry is missing if that installer box was unchecked, after it was removed, and in the portable version. See Open a folder from File Explorer.
Files arrive in the quick window, under “From File Explorer” (“From the Finder” on Mac). Up to ten files at a time, 32 MB each and 64 MB in total. These are never attached: a program or a shortcut, a folder (“Folders are not attached. Choose the files themselves.”) and a file from a network folder.
Dictate with a shortcutLink to the Dictate with a shortcut section
Hold AltShiftD, speak, release: the text is in the quick window, not sent yet. A short press keeps dictation running until the next press or Esc. The shortcut is off by default: turn it on in “Settings” › “Moon Desktop” › “Keyboard shortcuts”, on the “Dictate” row. Dictation stops when the quick window hides, and after 3 minutes; the microphone never stays open.
Both shortcuts need two modifier keys, including Alt or Shift. If another app already uses a shortcut, Settings tells you: “Another app already uses this shortcut (ChatGPT or Copilot, for example). Choose another one.”
The icon menuLink to the The icon menu section
Right-clicking the Moon Desktop icon in the taskbar (Windows) or the Dock (Mac) offers a new conversation, the quick window and your pinned conversations. By default, they are called “Pinned chat 1”, “Pinned chat 2”…: Windows keeps this menu on disk. To see their titles there, check “Show pinned chat titles” in “Settings” › “Moon Desktop”.
When Moon is workingLink to the When Moon is working section
During an answer, a deep research, a creation or a call, the Moon Desktop icon shows it, and the notification area menu says so at the top (“Moon is writing an answer”). If you are elsewhere when it’s done, a “Moon is done” notification tells you; a click opens the conversation. An update that is ready is never offered while Moon is working.
Since Moon Desktop 2.5:
- The computer stays awake while Moon is working: in Code, an answer in progress, or a permission or a question waiting for you; and a meeting being recorded. Only sleep is prevented: the screen can turn off, and you can still put the computer to sleep yourself. The “Keep the computer awake while Moon works” setting, in “Settings” › “Moon Desktop”, is on by default.
- “Moon is working”, in the title bar, says where and how many, and takes you to the folder: see The title bar.
- Each Code notification has its own setting: see Code notifications.
SearchLink to the Search section
In the main window, “Search” (CtrlK, or ⌘K on Mac) also offers Moon Desktop’s gestures, each with its shortcut: “Open quick window”, “Dictate in the quick window”, “Screenshot”, “New window”, “Moon Desktop settings” and, when an update is ready, “Restart to update Moon Desktop”. The shortcuts help (Ctrl/) has a “Search shortcuts” field.
Mask a screenshotLink to the Mask a screenshot section
Moon Blur masks the sensitive data it detects in the text you send, but an image is sent as it is. So since Moon Desktop 2.3 (on Mac, since 2.5), a screenshot opens in an editing window before it is attached.
- Tools: “Mask” (M key), “Arrow”, “Frame” and “Undo”. Enter attaches the screenshot, Esc cancels it.
- The text in the image is read on your computer, without going through Moon AI. The email addresses, phone numbers, IBANs and card numbers it spots are suggested to you, for example “3 personal details found”, with “Mask all”; you choose what is masked.
- Masked areas are erased from the pixels of the attached image: it isn’t a layer placed on top. Moon Desktop checks each mask before attaching the image; if a mask can’t be checked, the screenshot isn’t attached (“The screenshot was not attached: a mask could not be checked. Try again.”). The attached image keeps no extra data, neither date nor device.
- Text recognition doesn’t spot everything, a name on its own for example, and reads a very small or very stylized screenshot less well: look at the image and mask by hand whatever shouldn’t be sent.
Attach the text onlyLink to the Attach the text only section
“Text only” (T key) replaces the image with the text it contains, read on your computer.
- The text is shown and can be edited before “Attach the text”. It arrives in the message box like a long pasted text, and Moon Blur analyzes it with your message.
- Data masked in the image is replaced by [masked] in the text. Masks drawn by hand don’t apply to the text: remove yourself whatever shouldn’t be sent.
- From the screenshot shortcut, the text arrives in the quick window. In Code, a screenshot stays an image.
Share your screenLink to the Share your screen section
When a Moon AI page offers to share your screen, Moon Desktop always opens its own picker, “What do you want to share?”, and only after you click in the page. There you choose a screen or a window, with or without “With the computer sound”. Moon AI only sees what you choose, during the share.
A page that would ask for the screen any other way, without going through this picker, is stopped and then reloaded, and Moon Desktop lets you know: “Screen sharing stopped”. On Mac, since Moon Desktop 2.5.
Meeting notesLink to the Meeting notes section
“Record a meeting” (see Record a meeting) also works in Moon Desktop. Since version 2.3, on Windows, the “Include this computer’s audio (Teams, Zoom, Meet…)” option also records the other participants of an online meeting, along with your microphone.
- Moon Desktop asks first: “Record the sound of this computer and your microphone?”. Without your consent, only the microphone is recorded, and the window says so.
- A red light stays on the whole time: in the title bar (“Recording”, with “Stop”), on the notification area icon with a line at the top of its menu and, on Windows, on the taskbar icon. Meanwhile, the close button minimizes the window instead of hiding it.
- Moon Desktop can’t check that a page has released the computer sound: after the meeting, the light says “Computer sound given to a Moon AI page” until the page reloads, which Moon AI does on its own while keeping your transcript (“Moon Desktop reloaded the page to turn off the red indicator”). “Turn off (reload the affected pages)” does it right away.
- “Stop” and “Turn off” reload the pages that are recording: their recording stops with them, and the transcript made so far is offered when they come back.
- On Mac and Linux, only the microphone is recorded: “In Moon Desktop on Mac and Linux, only the microphone is recorded. Recording computer audio would require a third-party driver.”
The title barLink to the The title bar section
Since Moon Desktop 2.1, the bar at the top of the window holds Moon AI’s navigation, which the sidebar no longer repeats. From left to right:
| Item | What it does |
|---|---|
| ☰ | The Moon Desktop menu (File, Edit, View, Help), on Windows and Linux; F10 opens it too. On Mac, these menus, with the Moon Desktop menu and the Window menu, are in the system menu bar. See The menus. |
| Sidebar | “Hide the sidebar” or “Show the sidebar”. From the keyboard: CtrlShiftS (⌘ShiftS on Mac). |
| “Back” and “Forward” | The pages already viewed in the window, as in a browser: Alt← and Alt→ (⌘[ and ⌘] on Mac). |
| “New chat” | When the sidebar is collapsed; in Code, “New session”. CtrlShiftO opens a new conversation. |
| Chat | Code | Switches from Chat to Code, and back. |
| The title | In Code, the session title, with the folder and the branch. A conversation’s title stays above it, with its menu. |
| The session buttons | In Code: “Preview”, “Changed files”, “Panel layout” and “Session actions”, plus “Session map” and “In progress” when Moon CLI offers them. See Code in Moon Desktop. |
| “Search” | Searches your conversations and offers Moon AI’s commands: CtrlK (⌘K on Mac). See Search. |
| Moon’s status | “Moon is working” or “Moon is waiting for your permission”, for this window. Only Moon Desktop shows it, never the page. Since Moon Desktop 2.5, it says where and how many, for example “Moon is working · project-alpha” or “Moon is working · 3 folders”. A click shows the list of folders at work or waiting for you, and takes you to the one you pick; “Moon is waiting for your permission · project-beta” takes you straight to the folder that is waiting. |
| “Update” | A new version is ready: see Updates. |
The rest of the bar lets you move the window; a double click maximizes it. In full screen, the bar stays visible. In a narrow window, labels move into tooltips; if space is still short, the session buttons are removed first, never Moon Desktop’s own. In a very narrow window, Moon AI goes back to its own navigation, as on a phone.
While a Moon Desktop permission window is open, the bar only shows Moon Desktop’s buttons. A click in the bar hands the keyboard back to the page right away: what you type next goes into the message box.
The menusLink to the The menus section
On Windows and Linux, Moon Desktop’s menus are behind the ☰ button in the title bar, or F10: File, Edit, View and Help. On Mac, they are in the system menu bar, with the Moon Desktop menu (“About Moon Desktop”, “Check for updates”, “Quick settings”, “Quit Moon Desktop”) and the Window menu.
| Menu | What you’ll find there |
|---|---|
| File | “New chat”, “New window”, “Quick window”, “Screenshot”, “Moon with what I copied”, “Dictate”, “Open a folder in Code…”, “Recent folders” and “Close window”. On Windows and Linux, also the “Quick settings” submenu and “Quit Moon Desktop”, which are in the Moon Desktop menu on Mac. |
| Edit | “Undo”, “Redo”, “Cut”, “Copy”, “Paste”, “Paste without formatting” and “Select all”. |
| View | “Reload”, “Back” and “Forward”, “Zoom in”, “Zoom out”, “Actual size” and “Full screen”. |
| Help | “Help center”, “What’s new”, “Keyboard shortcuts”, “Welcome assistant…”, “Write to the Moon AI team”, “Check for updates” (“Restart to update” when an update is ready) and, on Windows and Linux, “About Moon Desktop”. |
“Write to the Moon AI team” opens an email to the team in your email app, with the Moon Desktop version in the subject.
The notification area menuLink to the The notification area menu section
Right-clicking the Moon Desktop icon in the notification area opens this menu; a single click opens the app. On Mac, the icon is in the menu bar, and a click opens the menu. It contains:
- at the top, when relevant, what Moon is doing (“Moon is writing an answer”, for example) and the meeting being recorded, with a way to stop it;
- “Open Moon Desktop”, “New chat”, “Quick window”, “Screenshot”, “Meeting notes”, “Moon with what I copied” and “Dictate”;
- “Open a folder in Code…” and “Recent folders”;
- “Pinned chats”, when you have some;
- “Restart to update”, when an update is ready;
- the “Quick settings” submenu, then “Quit Moon Desktop”.
Right-click in Moon AILink to the Right-click in Moon AI section
In Moon AI’s pages, the right-click menu offers, depending on what is under the pointer:
- on selected text, “Ask Moon AI”: the quick window opens with that text, and nothing is sent until you click Send;
- on a link, “Open in a new window” (a link to Moon AI) or “Open link in browser” (any other link), and “Copy link address”;
- on an image, “Copy image” and “Save image as…”;
- in a text field, spelling suggestions, “Add to dictionary” and the editing commands.
Window shortcutsLink to the Window shortcuts section
They only work in a Moon Desktop window.
| Shortcut | Effect |
|---|---|
| CtrlN | New window. |
| CtrlShiftO | New conversation. |
| CtrlR or F5 | Reload the page. If Moon is working in Code, you are asked to confirm first: see Reload, close or quit while Moon is working. |
| CtrlShiftR or CtrlF5 | Reload the page without cached files, with the same confirmation. |
| Ctrl=, Ctrl-, Ctrl0 | Zoom in, zoom out, actual size. |
| F11 | Full screen. |
| Alt←, Alt→ | Back, forward. |
| F10 | Moon Desktop’s ☰ menu. |
| CtrlW | Close the window. |
| CtrlQ | Quit Moon Desktop. |
| Ctrl, | Open Settings, since Moon Desktop 2.5 (⌘, on Mac). |
On Mac, ⌘ replaces Ctrl, except for full screen (Ctrl⌘F) and for Back and Forward (⌘[ and ⌘]); F10 and reloading without the cache don’t exist there. Code’s shortcuts are in Code in Moon Desktop.
SettingsLink to the Settings section
Since Moon Desktop 2.4 (on Mac, since 2.5), all of the app’s settings are in “Settings” › “Moon Desktop”, in the “Tools” group. The “Quick settings” submenu of the File menu (and of the notification area icon) keeps the everyday settings, then “Trusted folders…” and “All settings…”, which opens that page.
| Section | What you set there |
|---|---|
| “Keyboard shortcuts” | The quick window, screenshots, “Open Moon with what I copied” and “Dictate”. They work anywhere on the computer, even when Moon Desktop is in the background. Click “Change”, then press the keys you want: Esc cancels, Backspace turns the shortcut off. |
| “Quick window” | “Always on top of other windows”. |
| “Startup and closing” | Opening Moon Desktop when the computer starts, starting minimized, what the window’s close button does, and, on Windows and Mac, the “Icon badge”, which counts the actions waiting for you. |
| “Icon menu” | “Show pinned chat titles” (Windows and Mac). |
| “Notifications” | “Show Moon Desktop notifications”. When off, there are none, not even “Moon is waiting for your permission” (only the alert about a stopped screen share remains): the title bar and the badge still show what is waiting. “Notification types and quiet hours” leads to “Settings” › “Notifications”; Moon Desktop also keeps quiet during your quiet hours. Since Moon Desktop 2.5, each Code notification has its own setting, and so does their sound: see Code notifications. |
| “Code” | “Trusted folders” (how many, and “Manage…”), “‘Open in Moon Desktop’ in File Explorer” (Windows, installed app) and the “Editor for ‘Open in editor’”: “Automatic” or an editor found on the computer. Visible when Code is open to your account. |
| “Microphone and camera” | “Ask each time”, “Allow” or “Deny”, for dictation, voice calls and meetings. |
| “Downloads” | “Ask where to save each file”; otherwise, files go straight to Downloads. |
| “Updates” | “Update Moon Desktop automatically” and, with Code, “Update Moon CLI automatically”. The “Installed version” row gives your version, and “Check for updates” looks for a new version right away (“Moon Desktop is up to date.”, or the available version). |
Since Moon Desktop 2.5, the page also has the “Keep the computer awake while Moon works” setting, on by default: see When Moon is working.
Code notificationsLink to the Code notifications section
Since Moon Desktop 2.5, the “Notifications” section of “Settings” › “Moon Desktop” sets each Code notification separately:
| Setting | Choices |
|---|---|
| “When Moon is done” | “When I am not looking at Moon Desktop” (default), “Always” or “Never”. |
| “When Moon is waiting for your permission” | The same three choices. |
| “When Moon has a question” | The same three choices. |
| “Notification sound” | On, Moon Desktop’s notifications play a sound; off, they arrive silently. |
- Each notification names the folder, for example “Moon is done · project-alpha”: never the command or a path.
- Clicking the notification opens Code on that folder and that session.
- “Never” doesn’t hide anything from you: the title bar and the badge always show what is waiting for you.
What Moon Desktop asks you to confirmLink to the What Moon Desktop asks you to confirm section
From the settings page, anything that weakens a protection only changes after Moon Desktop asks you, in its own window, never in the page: turning off an update, opening Moon Desktop at startup, turning on the clipboard or dictation shortcut, showing the titles of pinned chats, letting the microphone or the camera open without asking (“Allow”), adding “Open in Moon Desktop” to File Explorer. “Cancel” is the highlighted button; if you didn’t change anything, choose it.
- Only one of these settings at a time, and only from a click in the settings page.
- After a refusal (“Change cancelled.”), the setting goes back to its previous value, and the question isn’t asked again for ten minutes: “You refused this change a moment ago. Try again in a few minutes.”
- Going back asks nothing: turning an update back on, choosing “Ask each time” or “Deny”, removing the File Explorer entry, turning off the badge or notifications, choosing an editor.
- Through Moon Desktop’s menus (the “Quick settings” submenu of the File menu, of the Moon Desktop menu on Mac, or of the notification area icon), turning off an update, opening Moon Desktop at startup or choosing the clipboard or dictation shortcut happens without a question: this is intended, a click in one of the app’s menus can only come from you, never from the page.
Trusted foldersLink to the Trusted folders section
“Manage…” (or “Trusted folders…” in the menus) opens the list in a Moon Desktop window: each folder’s name and path, “Remove”, and “Remove all…”, which asks for confirmation. The Moon AI page never sees these paths, only how many there are. See Remove trust.
Open a folder from the menusLink to the Open a folder from the menus section
“Open a folder in Code…” and “Recent folders” are in the File menu and in the menu of the notification area icon. The chosen folder goes through the same checks as “Open in Moon Desktop” from File Explorer, then through the trust question if it isn’t trusted yet.
LanguageLink to the Language section
Moon Desktop’s menus and windows take Moon AI’s language (French or English) at the next launch. Before Moon AI first loads, they are in English if your system prefers English over French, and in French otherwise: Moon Desktop has no other language.
Sign inLink to the Sign in section
You enter your email and password in the app. Signing in with Google, Apple, Microsoft, GitHub or an organization’s single sign-on opens in your computer’s browser, then brings you back to Moon Desktop.
UpdatesLink to the Updates section
Moon Desktop looks for a new version 30 seconds after it starts, then every 6 hours, and downloads it in the background. “Restart to update” then appears in the notification area (the menu bar on Mac) and the Help menu, and “Update” in the title bar (since version 2.1; the full sentence in a tooltip); otherwise, it installs when you quit the app. The Windows portable version and the Linux .deb package don’t update themselves.
Since Moon Desktop 2.0.3, if Moon is working in Code or a terminal of the coding tool is running, “Restart to update” (“Update” in the title bar) asks first: “Restart anyway”, or “Cancel”, and the update will install when the app closes. See Reload, close or quit while Moon is working.
LimitsLink to the Limits section
- Ten Moon Desktop windows at most at a time: close one to open another.
- Attached files from File Explorer, the Finder or the clipboard: up to ten at a time, 32 MB each and 64 MB in total.
- Code snapshots: when a folder’s snapshots go over 1 GB, Moon Desktop stops taking them for that folder until the next launch, when they are erased. See Moon’s changes.
In this section
- InstallationDownload and install Moon Desktop on Windows, macOS or Linux (AppImage or .deb), check the file, and learn how updates and uninstalling work.
- CodeLet Moon CLI work on a folder on your computer with Moon Desktop: folder trust, explorer, editor, Git, terminal, preview and troubleshooting.
- TroubleshootingFix Moon Desktop issues on Windows, macOS and Linux: SmartScreen, Gatekeeper, AppImage, French keyboards, updates, Code and the code tool.