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Installing DEXR Outpost

DEXR Outpost ships as a signed native installer on Windows and macOS, and as a pipx-installable wheel on Linux and headless systems.

Important: The native installer launches the GUI application only. It does not add the dexr-outpost CLI to your PATH. If you need the CLI, install it separately with pipx (see the CLI section below each OS track).

Windows

Download and install

  1. Download DEXR-Outpost-<version>-win-x64.msi from the GitLab release page.
  2. Double-click the .msi file.

SmartScreen click-through (expected)

Windows Defender SmartScreen may display a blue warning dialog:

"Windows protected your PC"

This is expected for a freshly-signed application. Microsoft's SmartScreen assigns reputation scores organically based on download volume; a new release starts with zero reputation. The signature itself is valid (Azure Trusted Signing, Contextualize LLC) — SmartScreen is rating download history, not the certificate.

To proceed: click "More info", then click "Run anyway".

Per-user install, no administrator required

The installer runs in per-user mode only. No admin elevation prompt will appear. DEXR Outpost installs to your user profile and adds a Start Menu shortcut.

Launch

Open Start Menu → search for "DEXR Outpost" → click to launch the GUI.

CLI access via pipx

The native installer does not wire the CLI to PATH. For CLI access, install separately after your Python 3.12+ is available:

pipx install dexr-outpost

Then verify:

dexr-outpost --version

macOS

Download and install

  1. Download DEXR-Outpost-<version>-macos.pkg from the GitLab release page.
  2. Double-click the .pkg file.

Important: The .pkg must be the file you downloaded (not copied from another Mac). macOS Gatekeeper verifies the download provenance. Copying a binary locally bypasses the quarantine flow and may cause a different error.

Gatekeeper first-launch (expected)

On first launch, macOS Gatekeeper will show a dialog:

"DEXR Outpost.app" has been scanned and no malicious software was detected.

Click Open to continue. This one-time prompt confirms the notarization ticket (stapled by Apple's notarytool) is intact. You will not see it again after the first successful launch.

Install location

The installer places DEXR Outpost.app in ~/Applications (your user Applications folder, not the system /Applications). No administrator password is required.

CLI access via pipx

The native installer does not wire the CLI to PATH. For CLI access, ensure Python 3.12+ is installed, then:

pipx install dexr-outpost

Then verify:

dexr-outpost --version

Linux / headless

There is no native GUI installer for Linux. Use pipx to install the wheel, which provides both the CLI and an entry point for the GUI (requires a display server):

pipx install dexr-outpost

Then verify:

dexr-outpost --version

To launch the GUI (requires GTK3 and a display):

dexr-outpost-gui

Debian / Ubuntu — system GTK dependencies

The packaged .deb bundles the Python runtime but relies on the system GTK3 stack. To install via the .deb:

sudo apt-get install libgirepository1.0-dev libcairo2-dev pkg-config python3-dev
sudo dpkg -i dexr-outpost_<version>_amd64.deb

First Round-Trip

Once installed (any OS track), run your first transfer to confirm the setup is working end-to-end.

1. Initialise configuration

dexr-outpost init

This runs a guided setup wizard that prompts you for each required key — base URL, writer key, reader key, private key, and stage ID. Secret values are not echoed to the terminal. Each key is validated against DEXR before the wizard proceeds. Once all values are confirmed, the config is written atomically to:

  • Linux/macOS: ~/.config/dexr-outpost/env
  • Windows: %APPDATA%\DEXR Outpost\env

2. Upload a file

dexr-outpost put --sample my-sample --reader recipient-party path/to/file

3. Download the file

dexr-outpost get my-sample

See docs/cli-reference.md for the full command reference, including all options, exit codes, and --json output format.

Troubleshooting

Symptom Likely cause Fix
SmartScreen block on Windows New release, no reputation yet Click "More info" → "Run anyway" — see above
Gatekeeper block on macOS Downloaded binary; first launch only One-time click "Open" — see above
dexr-outpost: command not found CLI not on PATH from native installer Run pipx install dexr-outpost
PayloadTooLargeError File exceeds ~299 KB DEXR service limit Split your payload or use a smaller file
Config file permission error File is world-readable (Unix) Run chmod 600 ~/.config/dexr-outpost/env