Install Treadle and get to your first press

Treadle has two parts. A Mac app lives in your menu bar and does the work. An iPad app is the control panel you press. You install the Mac app first.

Download and install

1. Open the download page on this site and download the .dmg file.
2. Open the .dmg and drag Treadle into your Applications folder.
3. Open Treadle from Applications.

The first time you open it, macOS shows a Gatekeeper dialog with this wording:

Treadle is an app downloaded from the Internet. Are you sure you want to open it?

Click Open. The app is signed and notarized by Apple, so you only see this once.

Treadle lives in the menu bar

Treadle has no Dock icon. After it opens, look for its icon in the menu bar at the top of the screen. Click it to open the popover with everything you need.

The first-run wizard

On first launch a wizard walks you through the two things you need before your first press:

1. Granting macOS permissions. See Why Treadle asks for Accessibility, Screen Recording and Automation.
2. Pairing your iPad. See Pair your iPad.

Once a device is paired and connected, press a button on the iPad and watch it happen on the Mac. If a press does nothing, see A button does nothing when I press it.

Next, learn the words Treadle uses and build your first deck.