Platform Support

Edward is built for macOS, but most of the stack runs on any platform.

What Works Everywhere

The core assistant — and the majority of Edward's capabilities — is fully cross-platform. If you can run Python, Node.js, and PostgreSQL, you can run Edward.

Feature	macOS	Linux	Windows (WSL)
Core chat + LangGraph agent	✓	✓	✓
Long-term memory (pgvector)	✓	✓	✓
Document store	✓	✓	✓
Scheduled events / scheduler	✓	✓	✓
Code execution (Python, JS, SQL, Shell)	✓	✓	✓
Twilio SMS & WhatsApp	✓	✓	✓
WhatsApp MCP	✓	✓	✓
Brave Search	✓	✓	✓
HTML Hosting	✓	✓	✓
File storage	✓	✓	✓
Persistent databases	✓	✓	✓
Push notifications	✓	✓	✓
Orchestrator (worker agents)	✓	✓	✓
Evolution (self-coding)	✓	✓	✓
Widget	✓	✓	✓
Custom MCP servers	✓	✓	✓

What You Lose on Windows / Linux

These features depend on macOS-specific APIs (AppleScript, system databases, native apps) and have no cross-platform equivalent.

Feature	Why macOS-only	Impact
iMessage	AppleScript + Messages.app chat.db	No iMessage send/receive
Apple Services	apple-mcp requires macOS apps	No Calendar, Reminders, Notes, Mail, Contacts, or Maps integration
Contacts lookup	AppleScript to Contacts.app	No local contact search
Heartbeat (iMessage)	Reads ~/Library/Messages/chat.db	No iMessage monitoring
Heartbeat (Email)	Reads Mail.app via MCP	No email monitoring
Heartbeat (Calendar)	Uses Apple Services MCP	No calendar monitoring

Setup Differences

PostgreSQL

On macOS, setup.sh installs PostgreSQL via Homebrew. On other platforms:

Linux (Debian/Ubuntu): sudo apt install postgresql postgresql-contrib
Linux (Fedora/RHEL): sudo dnf install postgresql-server postgresql-contrib
Windows: Install via postgresql.org or winget install PostgreSQL.PostgreSQL

You'll also need the pgvector extension. On most Linux distros: sudo apt install postgresql-16-pgvector (adjust version as needed). On Windows, follow the pgvector install guide.

Python & Node.js

Python 3.11+: Install via apt, pyenv, or the Python installer
Node.js 18+: Install via nvm, fnm, or the Node.js installer

Setup Scripts

The setup.sh and restart.sh scripts use Homebrew and assume macOS. On other platforms:

Linux: The bash scripts run natively — you just need to install PostgreSQL, Python, and Node.js manually first, then run ./setup.sh (it will skip Homebrew steps gracefully)
Windows: Use WSL2 (recommended) to get a Linux environment, or run the setup steps manually in PowerShell

Alternative Messaging via MCP

Edward's Custom MCP system lets you add messaging integrations at runtime — no code changes needed. Edward can discover and install MCP servers himself via the search_mcp_servers tool, or you can add them from the Settings page.

Available messaging MCP servers include:

Platform	Description
Discord	MCP servers for Discord bot integration
Telegram	MCP servers for the Telegram Bot API
Signal	MCP servers for Signal messaging
Slack	MCP servers for Slack workspaces

Just ask Edward to "search for a Discord MCP server" in chat, or browse the Edward's Servers panel in Settings to add one manually.

Running in Docker

On Linux, the backend can run in Docker since you don't have Apple features to lose. The frontend runs fine in Docker on any platform. This is useful for server deployments or containerized environments.

Windows: WSL2 Recommended

For Windows users, WSL2 is the recommended approach. It gives you a full Linux environment where everything except Apple features works natively — PostgreSQL, Python, Node.js, and all bash scripts run without modification.

Install WSL2: wsl --install
Install Ubuntu (default) or your preferred distro
Follow the Linux setup steps inside WSL
Access Edward at localhost:3000 from your Windows browser

For full setup instructions, see the Getting Started guide. For integration details, see Skills & Integrations.