Nook

A desktop drive on top of Swarm decentralised storage.

Nook bundles a Bee node and a clean UI into a single desktop app. Store files, encrypt and share them, publish websites — all on decentralized storage. No accounts, no servers.

What you can do

• Store files — upload any file or folder to Swarm, organized into drives with folders. Rename drives, see honest usage, extend before expiry
• Encrypt files — create encrypted drives using Swarm's ACT (chunk-level encryption). Only people you grant access to can decrypt and download
• Share encrypted drives — grant access to specific contacts, deliver via a message or share link, and recipients get a live-syncing view of your files. Revoke anytime; re-publish re-secures existing files
• Message other Nook users — end-to-end encrypted messaging over Swarm, no servers. On-chain notification pings reach people even before they've added you back
• Contacts & identity — publish a wallet-derived Nook address so others can find you
• Publish websites — upload a website (HTML/CSS/JS) to Swarm with a permanent address that stays the same when you publish new versions
• Access anything on Swarm — retrieve any Swarm hash and open it in your browser
• Connect to ENS — link your Swarm-hosted website to an ENS domain (e.g. yourname.eth) so anyone can access it via a gateway or ENS-aware browser
• Manage your wallet — view xDAI/xBZZ balances, swap between tokens, redeem gift codes, top up from any chain via the multichain widget
• Extend storage — drives have a TTL (time to live). Extend them to keep your data alive longer

How it works

Nook manages a Bee node automatically. When you start Nook:

1. The app downloads and starts a Bee binary on localhost:1633
2. New installs start in ultra-light mode — no funds needed, the UI works immediately
3. When you fund your wallet with xDAI, Nook auto-switches to light mode and you can start uploading
4. Files are stored on Swarm — retrievable via any public gateway or your local node

Note: Nook always starts its own Bee node. If you already run a Bee node on port 1633, stop it before launching Nook.

Install

Download the latest build from the releases page:

Platform	File
macOS (Apple Silicon)	Nook-*-arm64.dmg
macOS (Intel)	Nook-*-x64.dmg
Linux	nook_*_amd64.deb / nook-*.x86_64.rpm
Windows	Nook-*-Setup.exe

macOS note: the app is not yet notarized. After downloading, run xattr -cr ~/Downloads/Nook-*-arm64.dmg, install, then xattr -cr /Applications/Nook.app, and right-click → Open on first launch.

Development

npm install
cd ui && npm install && cd ..
npm start          # starts Electron backend + Vite dev server

The Electron backend is in src/. The React UI lives in ui/ (Vite + React 19 + Tailwind + TanStack Query + Zustand).

npm run build      # production build (tsc + vite + copies ui into dist/)
npm run make       # create platform installer (DMG on macOS)
npm run lint       # eslint fix
npm run test:unit  # jest unit tests
npm run purge:data # wipe app data (useful during dev)
npm run purge:logs # wipe log folder

Data and log paths

Platform	Data	Logs
macOS	~/Library/Application Support/Nook	~/Library/Logs/Nook/
Linux	~/.local/share/Nook	~/.local/state/Nook/
Windows	%LOCALAPPDATA%\Nook\Data	%LOCALAPPDATA%\Nook\Log

License

BSD-3-Clause

Based on swarm-desktop by Swarm Association.