Desktop & Offline

Desktop App

Routebase runs in the browser and as a native desktop app for macOS and Windows. Same product, same account, same data — the desktop build adds native menus, a tray icon, credentials in your operating system's keychain, and automatic updates.

You do not have to choose one. The web app and the desktop app are the same workspace; sign in to either.

Installing

Download from routebase.dev/download:

Platform Package Requirements
macOS .dmg, universal — Apple Silicon and Intel in one build macOS 10.15 or later
Windows .exe installer, 64-bit Windows 10 or later
Windows, managed installs .msi Windows 10 or later

Both platforms ship signed: the macOS build is notarized by Apple, the Windows build is signed through Microsoft Trusted Signing. You should not see an unidentified-developer warning on either; if you do, you did not get the build from the link above.

The .msi exists for administrators deploying through Group Policy or Intune. For a single machine, take the .exe.

Signing in

The desktop app signs you in through your browser rather than an embedded login form. Choosing Sign In opens your default browser at Routebase; once you authenticate there, the browser hands the session back to the app through a routebase:// link that the installer registers.

Your session is then stored in the operating system's credential store — Keychain on macOS, Credential Manager on Windows — not in a file the app manages itself. Signing out clears it there.

If your browser asks whether to allow the site to open Routebase, allow it; that redirect is the last step of the login.

Native menus and the tray

The menu bar carries what a desktop app is expected to carry — File, Edit, View, Window, Help, plus the Routebase application menu on macOS. Two entries are worth pointing out:

  • Help → Check for Updates… — an update check on demand, with a confirmation either way.
  • Help → Routebase Docs — opens this documentation.

Sign Out sits in the application menu next to Quit on macOS, and in the File menu everywhere else. It is greyed out until you are signed in.

Routebase also puts an icon in the system tray (menu bar extra on macOS) with Show Routebase, Check for Updates…, Sign Out and Quit Routebase. Closing the window leaves the app in the tray rather than quitting it.

Spec actions — new, import, export — are deliberately not in the menu bar. They belong to a spec, and a spec is something you have open in the app, so they live in the app's own UI where the context is unambiguous.

Updates

The app checks for updates on its own: once about half a minute after launch, then every six hours. Checks are silent unless there is something to report.

When a new version is available you get a dialog offering Install and restart or Later. Choosing to install downloads the update, applies it, and restarts the app — on Windows the installer runs without further prompts. Choosing Later leaves you alone until the next check.

Updates are verified against a signing key built into the app, so a build that was not published by Routebase is rejected before it is applied.

When an update is not optional

Occasionally a desktop version falls behind what the backend still supports. When that happens the app shows a full-screen notice that cannot be dismissed:

This version of the Routebase desktop app is no longer supported. Please install the latest version.

The notice offers the update directly. This is deliberately a wall rather than a banner — an outdated build talking to an incompatible API produces confusing failures rather than clean ones, so it is stopped before it starts.

If the update check itself fails at that point, download the current build from routebase.dev/download and install over the top; your data lives on the server and nothing is lost.

Working without a connection

The desktop app keeps working when the network does not — changes are saved locally and sync when you reconnect. That behaviour is not exclusive to the desktop build, so it has its own page: see Offline Mode.