Set up the macOS host

What you need

• An Apple Silicon Mac on macOS 14 or newer.

Install

1. Download nearzero-host-macos-<version>-arm64.zip from the downloads page, unzip it, and drag NearZeroHost to Applications. The app is Developer ID signed.
2. Launch it. NearZeroHost lives in the menu bar — there is no window to keep open.
3. macOS will ask for Screen Recording and Accessibility permissions on first run. Both are required: one to capture the screen, one to inject mouse and keyboard input from your clients. Grant them in System Settings when prompted, then relaunch from the menu bar if asked.
4. macOS also asks whether NearZero Host may find devices on your local network. Allow it: without it, a client on the same network connects through the relay instead of directly. macOS asks again after each update, and the menu’s Permissions section shows all three. If Local Network shows as not allowed while System Settings has NearZero Host switched on, switch it off and on again.

What it does

The Mac host is the same engine as the Windows host — one transport, one crypto stack, one admin UI — with capture through ScreenCaptureKit and H.264/HEVC encode through VideoToolbox. Audio, clipboard and file transfer all work.

One caveat on audio: it runs on built-in defaults and ignores the admin panel’s Audio page, including its master toggle. It captures system audio through ScreenCaptureKit and encodes it with the same Opus settings as everywhere else, so it works — you just can’t configure or disable it from the UI yet.

From the menu bar you can pause the stream, disconnect a session, and enable launch-at-login.

Known beta limits

• Curtain mode is not implemented on the macOS host yet; a client that requests it gets a clear “not supported” answer rather than a silent failure.
• The admin panel’s Audio page has no effect here. Audio works on defaults; it just can’t be configured or switched off from the UI yet.

Next: pair a client.