Getting started

This path installs Molt from its stable GitHub release, confirms that Python is available, and demonstrates state shared between cells in one tab.

Before you begin

You need:

• macOS 10.15 or later.
• An Apple Silicon or Intel Mac.
• Python 3 available as python3, or the absolute path to another Python 3 interpreter.
• Permission to install an application in /Applications.

The release’s automated kernel tests run on Python 3.12. Molt does not bundle Python.

1. Choose the installer

Open the Molt Releases page and download the DMG for your Mac:

Mac architecture	Release artifact
Apple Silicon	Molt_0.2.6-dev_aarch64.dmg
Intel	Molt_0.2.6-dev_x86_64.dmg

To check your architecture in Terminal:

uname -m

Expected values:

arm64

or:

x86_64

2. Install Molt

1. Open the downloaded DMG.
2. Drag Molt into Applications.
3. Eject the disk image.
4. Open Molt from /Applications.

Molt is not Apple-notarized in this release. If macOS says the app is damaged and cannot be opened, remove the quarantine metadata from the copy you obtained from the official Molt release:

xattr -cr /Applications/Molt.app

Then open Molt again.

Caution

Only remove quarantine metadata after confirming that the app came from the official Molt release. The command recursively clears extended attributes from that application bundle.

3. Confirm Python

Molt validates its configured interpreter when the app starts. The default is python3.

Check that command in Terminal:

python3 --version

A successful result resembles:

Python 3.12.11

If Molt shows an interpreter warning, follow Use a Python environment and relaunch the app after saving the corrected path.

4. Run a first cell

In Tab 1, enter:

radius = 4
area = 3.14159 * radius**2
area

Press Shift+Enter or select the cell’s run button. Molt displays the value of the final expression:

50.26544

Because the cell was last in the tab, Molt creates another empty cell and advances focus to it.

5. Confirm stateful execution

In the next cell, enter:

round(area, 2)

Run it. The result should be:

50.27

The second cell can use area because cells in the same tab share one Python namespace.

6. Confirm tab isolation

Switch to Tab 2 and run:

area

The cell should show a NameError. Tab 2 owns a different Python process, so Tab 1’s variables are not visible there.

Next steps

• Learn every cell action in Work with cells.
• Learn when to Stop, Restart, or Clear in Manage tabs and kernels.
• Select a virtual environment in Use a Python environment.
• Review release-specific behavior in Current limitations.