Installation and license

Cloud Discovery ships as a signed and notarized DMG for macOS. Installation is drag and drop, and license activation happens inside the app with the key from your purchase email.

System requirements

macOS 10.15 or later.
Intel or Apple Silicon. The app is a universal binary and runs natively on both.
No account and no sign-in. An internet connection is only needed for AI features and live Azure discovery.

Install the app

Download the DMG from the download section of the website.
Open the downloaded DMG file.
Drag Cloud Discovery into your Applications folder.
Eject the DMG and launch Cloud Discovery from Applications or Spotlight.

The app is signed with an Apple Developer ID and notarized by Apple, so it opens normally on first launch. You do not need to right-click to open it or change any Gatekeeper settings. If macOS does warn you anyway, the download is probably incomplete or damaged: delete the DMG and download it again.

First launch

The app opens on a Getting Started page that walks through the same five-step workflow described in these docs. Two things worth doing right away:

Try the demo data. In Settings, the Demo Data section loads a sample Contoso Azure environment with 27 resources, so you can explore every module before importing your own data.
Pick a theme. The Light, Dark, and System toggle is at the bottom of the sidebar.

Activate your license

Your purchase email contains a license key in the format CD-XXXX-XXXX-XXXX.

Open Settings from the sidebar.
In the License section, paste your key into the input field.
Click Activate.

The key check runs entirely on your machine: no account, no activation server, and it works offline. Once activated, the License section shows your plan, your key, and the activation date. The license is stored in the macOS Keychain so it survives reinstalls.

Pasting is forgiving. Lowercase letters, extra spaces, line breaks from email clients, and missing or unusual dashes are all corrected automatically. The key alphabet deliberately never uses the characters 0, O, 1, or I, so there are no ambiguous characters to confuse.

A license unlocks the AI generation features (summary, documentation, Scout, migration analysis, topology AI Architect). Deterministic features such as data import, classification, relationship mapping, and migration assessment work before activation, so you can evaluate the pipeline first.

Using two machines

One license covers one person on up to two machines they own or control. To move to a new machine, or to free up a slot:

Open Settings on the machine you want to release.
In the License section, click Remove from this device.
Activate with the same key on the new machine.

Removing the license only deletes the activation from that device. Your projects and data stay untouched.

Updating the app

Updates are free. Your one-time license covers all future versions, including support for additional cloud providers when released.

Cloud Discovery checks for a new version once when it starts. If there is one, a small dismissible notice appears with the version number and an Install button. Nothing is downloaded until you press it, and dismissing the notice is the end of it until the next launch.

Press Install on the notice. The download progress is shown in the same notice.
When it finishes, press Restart now. The app relaunches on the new version.

You can also check whenever you like: Settings shows the installed version and has a Check for updates button, which tells you either what is available or that you are already current.

Every update is signed with the same Apple Developer ID as the installer, plus a separate signature the app verifies before it unpacks anything. An update that does not verify is refused. If a check fails, because you are offline or behind a restrictive proxy, the app says nothing and keeps working.

Installing manually instead

The in-app route is a convenience, not the only way. Every release stays on the website:

Download the latest DMG from the website.
Quit Cloud Discovery.
Open the DMG and drag Cloud Discovery into Applications. Choose Replace when macOS asks.

Either way, your projects, settings, license activation, and API keys are all preserved. The database lives in your user library and credentials live in the macOS Keychain, so replacing the app bundle does not affect them.

Uninstalling

Drag the app from Applications to the Trash. If you also want to remove your project data and stored credentials, see privacy and security for where everything is kept.

Next step

Set up your AI provider key: AI setup.