Installation

Choose the fastest way to get Looksyk running

Looksyk supports multiple installation paths depending on your platform and workflow. If you want the lowest friction, use AUR on Arch or the AppImage on Linux. If you want remote access or mobile usage, choose Docker.

Recommended paths Open usage guides

Arch Linux: AUR or PKGBUILD
Linux: AppImage or manual build
Mobile / browser access: Docker or Docker Compose

Recommended installation paths

Arch Linux

Use the AUR package for the most direct desktop install path.

Linux AppImage

Best option if you want a quick desktop install without packaging knowledge.

Docker / Docker Compose

Use this when you want browser access, self-hosting or mobile usage.

Windows

A sample build is available as a portable version (zip file). Use this if you're willing to contribute to improving Looksyk on Windows.

Manual build

Build from source when you want maximum control or want to work on Looksyk itself.

Platform overview

Arch Linux

AUR package: recommended
PKGBUILD: good if you want manual control

Linux desktop

AppImage: recommended for quick install
Manual build: supported
AppImage build from source: supported

Docker environments

Linux, Windows and macOS via Docker
Works well for browser and mobile access

Windows

The application is packaged in a portable (zip file) format.
Sync (with Git) has not been tested.
Community help is welcome for packaging and testing

macOS

Currently not a polished native install path
Community help is welcome for packaging and testing

Arch Linux / AUR

You can install Looksyk from the AUR. The package is called looksyk-desktop.

After installation, start Looksyk with looksyk.

Arch Linux / PKGBUILD

If you prefer building locally, run makepkg and install the package with pacman -U ./looksyk-desktop-<version>.tar.zst.

After installation, start Looksyk with looksyk.

Docker / Docker Compose

The repository contains two compose files:

docker-compose.yml starts Looksyk with a prebuilt image from Docker Hub
docker-compose.local-build.yml builds the app locally

Start Looksyk with docker compose up -d, then open http://localhost:11000 in Chrome or Chromium.

version: '3'
services:
  looksyk:
    image: sebastianrzk/looksyk
    ports:
      - "11000:11000"
    restart: unless-stopped
    volumes:
      - ./graph:/graph
      # SSH keys for accessing private repositories. Make sure to set correct permissions and ownership (root) on these files.
      #- ./my_id:/root/.ssh/id_rsa:ro
      #- ./known_hosts:/root/.ssh/known_hosts:ro
    # needed for accessing private repositories via SSH
    #network_mode: host

AppImage

Download the latest AppImage from the releases page.

chmod +x Looksyk-x86_64.AppImage
./Looksyk-x86_64.AppImage

AppImage manual build

Build the components with bash build.sh. This builds frontend and backend and requires npm and cargo.
Build the AppImage with bash build-appimage.sh.
The AppImage will be created in the repository root.
Make it executable and start it.

chmod +x Looksyk-x86_64.AppImage
./Looksyk-x86_64.AppImage

Production build / manual installation

Run bash build.sh. This builds frontend and backend and requires npm and cargo.
The application will be available in the target folder.
Optional: create a desktop shortcut with sh create_desktop_shortcut.sh.
Start the application with the created shortcut or by running ./application-wrapper/looksyk.
You can change --port and --graph-location, and open Electron DevTools by passing --devtools true.

./application-wrapper/looksyk --port 11000 --graph-location ./graph

Windows

You can get Looksyk for Windows in two different ways:

Pre-compiled binary from the releases page. Unzip the zip-file and run the start-looksyk.bat.
Build it yourself (requires rust-toolchain, mingw-w64+libtool.dll, and nodejs + npm). Run the "build-windows.ps1" script to build the application, or start it with the development instructions

After installation

Next step

Usage guides

Learn configuration, syntax, queries, boards and templates.

Overview

Features

See the full capability overview once Looksyk is running.

Advanced

Sync

Set up Git-based synchronization between local and remote environments.

Multiple graphs and custom ports

You can run different Looksyk graphs at the same time by using different ports and graph locations. Use create_desktop_shortcut.sh or start the app manually with --port and --graph-location.

Need help?

If you have installation or setup problems, create an issue. If you want to improve the docs or add alternative installation methods, contribute via development and contribution.

FAQ / Troubleshooting

Known issues with building the application wrapper

Electron Forge is used to build the application wrapper. Sometimes it has incompatibilities with very new Node.js versions. If you encounter problems, try an older minor version of Node.js.

The application does not start / I get an error message

If the error says Address is already in use, another application is already using the configured port. This might be another Looksyk instance or any other program bound to the same port. You can change the port with the --port parameter.

Only one Looksyk backend should run on the same graph at a time. Running multiple Looksyk backends on the same graph can cause inconsistencies and data loss. Multiple frontends connected to one backend are fine, for example through browser sessions.