System requirements
The computers Discovery Engine runs on, how much disk space and memory it needs, and when it needs the internet.
#Supported computers
| Mac | Windows | |
|---|---|---|
| Operating system | macOS 14 (Sonoma) or later | Windows 10 or Windows 11, 64-bit |
| Processor | Apple Silicon (M1 or later) | x64 (Intel or AMD). Windows on ARM also works, under Windows' own emulation: slower, but it works. |
| Administrator rights | Not needed beyond dragging the app to Applications | Not needed. The app installs for your Windows user only. |
The app refuses to open on macOS 13 or older: some of the reading components it ships with need macOS 14.
#Disk space
Plan for three things:
| What | Roughly |
|---|---|
| The app itself | About 500 MB on a Mac; the Windows installer is under 200 MB |
| The reading models, downloaded once on first use | About 1 GB (speech recognition, speech detection, name detection, search by meaning) |
| Each case's database | Grows with the case: the text of every document, the search index and any attachments taken out of ZIP files and e-mails. A case of thousands of documents can run to a gigabyte or more. |
The All cases screen shows each case's size on disk, so you can see how much room a case takes once it has been read.
Your original files stay where they are. The app reads them in place and never copies them into its own folder (apart from files it unpacks from ZIP archives and e-mail attachments).
#Memory and speed
Reading is the heavy part, especially scanned PDFs, which have to be read with text recognition page by page. The app runs several reading processes side by side. Each one needs about 2.5 GB of memory, so:
- More memory lets the app read more files at once.
- More processor cores make each batch faster.
- 8 GB of memory works, just slowly. A modest 8 GB Windows PC has read a case of about 10,000 documents; it took days rather than hours.
The app keeps your computer from going to sleep while it is reading. The screen can still turn off and lock. On a laptop, keep it plugged in for a long read.
#Internet connection
| When | Why |
|---|---|
| First start | The app downloads its reading models once (about 1 GB). |
| Installing on Windows 10 | The installer may need to fetch Microsoft Edge WebView2. Windows 11 already has it. |
| Using your AI agent | ChatGPT desktop and Claude desktop are cloud services, so they need the internet. |
Reading, searching, the graph, highlights and exports all run on your computer and do not need the internet.
#Disk encryption (strongly recommended)
Your case files, and everything the app learns from them, sit on your computer's disk. Full-disk encryption protects all of it if the computer is lost or stolen:
- Mac: FileVault (System Settings, Privacy & Security, FileVault).
- Windows: Device encryption or BitLocker (Windows Settings).
The app checks this the first time it starts, and again under Settings → This computer. If encryption is off, it warns you but does not stop you: some Windows editions do not offer it.
#Your AI agent
To have an AI agent work across the case you need one that can run commands on your computer, such as:
- ChatGPT desktop, in a Work session, or
- Claude desktop.
Other agents that can run shell commands on the same computer (for example Codex or Claude Code) work the same way. See Using ChatGPT desktop or Claude desktop.
#Languages
Speech recognition and name detection are built for English in this version. An optional model for recordings in other languages appears in the model list as Speech recognition, other languages.