Install the client

• Windows 10, Windows 11 or Windows Server, on x64, arm64 or x86.
• An administrator account to install.

• macOS 14 (Sonoma) or later. The installer refuses older versions.
• An Apple silicon or Intel Mac. Download the installer for your Mac's chip; it's shown in Apple menu → About This Mac. The Apple silicon installer doesn't need Rosetta, and it won't install on an Intel Mac.
• An administrator account to install and to approve the background service.

• A distribution that uses systemd. The installer stops without it.
• iproute2, installed automatically by the packages.
• x86_64 or aarch64, with glibc.
• /dev/net/tun, present on most systems; it may be missing in containers.
• Root, or sudo.

Packaged distributions: Debian, Ubuntu and their derivatives (apt); Fedora, RHEL, CentOS, Rocky, AlmaLinux, Amazon Linux and their relatives (dnf or yum); openSUSE and SLES (zypper). Other systemd distributions use a self-contained tarball.

1. Download PeerlifySetup.exe from the downloads page, or with PowerShell:

   powershell

   iwr https://pkgs.peerlify.net/client/stable/windows/PeerlifySetup.exe -OutFile PeerlifySetup.exe

   Copy

2. Run it and click Install. Windows asks for administrator approval. The prompt may show Unknown publisher, because the installer engine that requests it isn't signed; PeerlifySetup.exe and the packages it installs are signed.

3. The installer picks the package for your processor and installs it.

When it finishes, the Peerlify tray app opens and, if this computer isn't signed in, shows its sign-in window.

What gets installed:

• Files in C:\Program Files\Peerlify\: the service, peerlify.exe and the tray app peerlify-tray.exe. The folder is added to the system PATH.
• A Windows service named peerlify-daemon (display name MJ System Peerlify), started automatically, running as LocalSystem.
• Windows Firewall rules Peerlify Inbound and Peerlify Outbound for the service.
• Scheduled tasks Peerlify\PeerlifyAutoUpdate (daily) and Peerlify\PeerlifyUpdateOnBoot. See Keep the client up to date.
• A Peerlify Start-menu shortcut to the tray app. The tray app doesn't start automatically at sign-in; start it from the Start menu.
• A network adapter named Peerlify, created when the device connects.

For unattended installs, the standard installer switches work: PeerlifySetup.exe /quiet /norestart, or msiexec /i Peerlify_<version>_x64.msi /qn /norestart with a package from the downloads page. There are no installer options for signing in; run peerlify login --auth-key=… afterwards. See Install on servers and headless machines.

1. Download the disk image for your Mac from the downloads page: Apple silicon (Peerlify_arm64.dmg) or Intel (Peerlify_x64.dmg).
2. Open it and double-click Peerlify.pkg. Follow the installer and enter an administrator password.
3. When the installer finishes, the Peerlify app opens and runs Set Up Peerlify:
   1. Welcome.
   2. Allow Peerlify to run in the background. Click Allow in Background. If macOS asks, open System Settings → General → Login Items & Extensions and turn on Peerlify under Allow in the Background. This step is required: until it's approved, nothing connects.
   3. Notifications. Optional.
   4. Sign in: Sign In with Browser, or paste an auth key and click Sign In with Auth Key. Sign In Later finishes setup without signing in.

Peerlify runs in the menu bar, without a Dock icon, and opens at login (Settings… → General → Open at Login).

What gets installed:

• /Applications/Peerlify.app, which contains the menu-bar app, the background service and the peerlify command-line tool.
• /usr/local/bin/peerlify, a small script that runs the tool inside the app. If it's missing, use Settings… → Advanced → Command-Line Tool → Install….
• A background service registered by the app, labelled com.peerlify.daemon, running as root.

Run the installer:

curl -fsSL https://pkgs.peerlify.net/install.sh | sh

The script asks for your sudo password once, at the start. It doesn't ask when run as root or when sudo needs no password. If a password is needed but there's no terminal to ask on (for example over a non-interactive SSH command), it stops and tells you to run it as root.

The script detects your distribution, adds Peerlify's signed package repository, installs the peerlify package, and enables and starts the peerlify-daemon service.

Options are passed as environment variables:

curl -fsSL https://pkgs.peerlify.net/install.sh | NO_START=1 sh

Arch Linux and derivatives: the script stops and suggests FALLBACK_TARBALL=1. Alpine: not supported, because it doesn't use systemd.

What gets installed (package):

• /usr/bin/peerlify and /usr/bin/peerlify-daemon.
• /etc/peerlify/appsettings.json, kept across upgrades if you edit it.
• The systemd units peerlify-daemon.service and peerlify-update.timer.
• The repository definition (/etc/apt/sources.list.d/peerlify.list, /etc/yum.repos.d/peerlify.repo or /etc/zypp/repos.d/peerlify.repo) and its signing key.

The tarball install puts the same binaries in /usr/bin and the unit in /etc/systemd/system/, but adds no repository and no update timer.