Ensō

Start

Install

Ensō needs two things on your Mac: the local helper and the browser extension. It takes about a minute.

Requirements
System macOS. Linux is planned.
Browser Zen, or Firefox 139 or newer
Node.js 18 or newer (node --version)
Engine Claude Code installed and signed in, or an Anthropic API key

1. Install the helper

Run this in Terminal:

curl -fsSL https://enso.wicker.life/install.sh | bash

The script prints each step as it goes. It:

  1. checks that you are on macOS and that Node.js 18 or newer is installed;
  2. checks for Claude Code (claude --version) and, if it is missing or signed out, tells you how to fix that (you can still continue and use an API key instead);
  3. downloads the latest helper release from this site and checks its SHA-256;
  4. installs it in ~/Library/Application Support/Enso/helper, keeping your config.json if you already had one;
  5. registers the helper with Zen and Firefox by writing a native messaging manifest called zen_chat.json to ~/Library/Application Support/Mozilla/NativeMessagingHosts/ and ~/Library/Application Support/zen/NativeMessagingHosts/.

It is safe to run again: that is also how you update the helper by hand. Nothing is installed outside your home folder and it never asks for your password.

Prefer to read it first? Download it with curl -fsSL https://enso.wicker.life/install.sh -o install.sh, read it, then run bash install.sh.

2. Add the extension

Download the extension in Zen. Zen asks whether to add Ensō and lists the permissions it needs; click Add.

The extension is signed by Mozilla for self-distribution, so it installs with signature checks on. Updates are checked automatically and installed in the background; you can see the version under Add-ons and themes.

Why it asks for these permissions

Permission Used for
Access your data for all websites Reading the current page when you ask about it, and acting on pages when you ask it to
Exchange messages with programs other than Firefox Talking to the local helper
Access browser tabs, tab groups Mentioning tabs, grouping and closing tabs by chat
Access browsing history Searching your history when you ask
Replace the new tab page Home, the daily brief

3. Open it

Press ⌘E for the sidebar, or open a new tab. The first Home brief takes a little while, because it reads your calendar and mail through your connectors.

Updating

  • The extension updates itself from this site.
  • The helper: run the install command again. It replaces the program files and keeps your settings and data.

Uninstalling

  1. Remove the extension in Add-ons and themes.
  2. Delete the helper and its registration:
rm -rf ~/Library/Application\ Support/Enso
rm -f ~/Library/Application\ Support/Mozilla/NativeMessagingHosts/zen_chat.json
rm -f ~/Library/Application\ Support/zen/NativeMessagingHosts/zen_chat.json
  1. Your conversations, memory and settings are in ~/Library/Application Support/zen-chat/. Delete that folder too if you want them gone. If you used the API-key engine, remove the key with security delete-generic-password -s zen-chat-anthropic.