Install and run

Just use it

Open the app. There is nothing to install, no account, and no upload.

Your browser needs WebAssembly and WebGL — the geometry kernel is compiled to WebAssembly and the 3D preview is WebGL. Any current Chrome, Edge, Firefox or Safari has both.

Two things work better on Chromium-based browsers:

Saving in place. The File System Access API lets ⌘S overwrite the file you opened. Firefox and Safari fall back to a download each time, which works but leaves you managing versions in your downloads folder.
Persistent storage. The draft-recovery behaviour is more reliable where the browser grants persistent storage.

Neither is required. The app tells you which mode it is in.

Run it locally

You need Node 20.19 or newer (or 22.12+).

git clone <repository-url>
cd OpenChip
npm install
npm run dev

The dev server prints a URL, usually http://localhost:5173.

The repository is not public yet. Until it is, ask Julian for access.

The other scripts

Command	Does
`npm run dev`	Dev server with hot reload.
`npm run build`	Typecheck and produce a production build in `dist/`.
`npm test`	Run the test suite.
`npm run lint`	Lint.
`npm run wiki:audit`	Check this wiki against the source. See How this wiki is maintained.

npm run build runs tsc -b first, so a type error fails the build rather than shipping.

Using it offline

Once the app has loaded it does not need the network. Everything — the drawing canvas, the geometry kernel, the flow solver, the exporters — runs in the tab.

That includes the first-run wizard and the template library. The templates are static data compiled into the app, not fetched.

The one thing that needs the network is loading the page in the first place. If you work somewhere without reliable connectivity, running it locally is worth the five minutes.

Updating

If you are using the hosted app, reload. If you are running locally, git pull and npm install in case dependencies moved.

Your projects are unaffected: .openchip files from an older build open in a newer one, and unknown fields from a newer build survive a round-trip through an older one. See The .openchip file format.