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Didon Installation Guide

This guide explains how to install and run Didon on your Mac.

Didon is a macOS menu bar app that captures screenshots and sends them to a local Ollama model for activity analysis. The app itself does not include Ollama or the AI model, so those must be installed separately.

Requirements

  • macOS 15.7 or newer
  • Ollama installed and running
  • One of the supported Qwen vision models (see below)
  • Screen Recording permission enabled for Didon

What is Ollama?

Ollama is a free tool that runs AI models locally on your Mac. Instead of sending your data to the cloud, Ollama keeps everything on your machine.

Didon uses Ollama to analyze screenshots and understand what you're working on. You install Ollama once, download a vision model, and Didon connects to it over your local network (localhost). Your screen content never leaves your computer.

1. Install Ollama

Download and install Ollama from ollama.com.

After installing, open Terminal and pull one of the supported models:

Choose a model

Model Command Best for
Qwen 2B ollama pull qwen3-vl:2b-instruct Older Macs or limited RAM — fastest, lightest
Qwen 4B (recommended) ollama pull qwen3-vl:4b-instruct Best balance of speed and accuracy for most users
Qwen 8B ollama pull qwen3-vl:8b-instruct Maximum accuracy — needs more RAM and a faster Mac

We recommend Qwen 4B for most users. It offers the best trade-off between analysis quality and performance on Apple Silicon Macs.

Example (recommended model):

ollama pull qwen3-vl:4b-instruct

2. Install Didon

Copy Didon to the Applications folder:

3. First Launch

Open Didon from the Applications folder.

Didon is a menu bar app, so it may not appear in the Dock. Look for the Didon icon in the macOS menu bar.

Most users can launch Didon normally. Only if macOS shows a warning that the app cannot be opened because Apple cannot check it for malicious software, use one of the options below.

Didon is currently in MVP stage and is not yet notarized by Apple. That is why you may see this warning. We plan to notarize the app and get Apple's approval in a future release, so most users will not need these steps later.

Option A: Open From Finder

  1. Open the Applications folder.
  2. Right-click Didon.
  3. Click Open.
  4. Click Open again in the warning dialog.

This is usually enough to launch the app.

Option B: Remove Quarantine Flag (only if you still see a warning)

Use this only if Option A did not work and macOS still blocks the app. Open Terminal and run:

xattr -dr com.apple.quarantine /Applications/Didon.app

Then open Didon again.

4. Grant Permissions

Didon needs Screen Recording permission to analyze your activity.

Go to:

System Settings > Privacy & Security > Screen & System Audio Recording

Enable permission for Didon.

For better active-window detection, you may also enable Accessibility permission:

System Settings > Privacy & Security > Accessibility

5. 🎉 Congratulations — You're Done

You're all set. To start tracking your work:

  1. Open Didon from the menu bar.
  2. Click Start.
  3. Keep Ollama running in the background.

6. Exporting Logs

Didon saves daily CSV exports to:

~/Documents/Didon/

Optional: Start Didon Automatically

To start Didon when macOS starts:

  1. Open System Settings.
  2. Go to General > Login Items & Extensions.
  3. Add /Applications/Didon.app.

Having issues? See the Troubleshooting guide.