Install & first launch

First, the easy part: getting Sparkle onto your Mac.

1. Download the latest Sparkle DMG from the website. A DMG is just how Mac apps arrive: think of it as a sealed box with the app inside. Your browser usually drops it in your Downloads folder.
2. Double-click the downloaded file to open the box. A little window pops up showing the Sparkle icon next to a shortcut to your Applications folder.
3. Drag the Sparkle icon onto the Applications folder in that window. That one drag is the whole "install." Applications is simply where all your apps live.
4. Open your Applications folder and double-click Sparkle.

The very first time you open it, macOS may pause and ask something like "Sparkle is an app downloaded from the internet. Are you sure you want to open it?" Don't flinch: your Mac says this for almost every new app. Click Open (and if you only see a Cancel button at first, right-click the Sparkle icon, choose Open, then click Open in the prompt). This part is called Gatekeeper, and it's just your Mac being polite and careful. Nothing is wrong, and you did nothing wrong.

You've installed a hundred Mac apps; spare yourself the hand-holding. Download the DMG, drag Sparkle into Applications, open it. If Gatekeeper grumbles on first launch, right-click the app and choose Open (or hit Open Anyway under System Settings → Privacy & Security). That's it. The part that actually matters is the next section: connecting your AI.

Download the DMG, drag to /Applications, launch. First-run Gatekeeper: right-click → Open, or Open Anyway in Privacy & Security. Moving on.

To let Sparkle build for you, you need a Claude subscription. (Same Claude Code engine doing the real work under the hood, paid through one simple monthly plan instead of a nerve-wracking pay-per-use bill.) Here's the plan:

• Start with Claude Pro. It's the most affordable tier, and it's plenty for learning the ropes and building your first few projects. Don't overthink it.
• When you find yourself wanting more building time, step up to Max 5x or Max 20x, which give you more usage and let more helper agents work side by side.

When you're ready, sign up for Claude here, then come back to Sparkle and follow the on-screen prompt to connect your account. No secret keys, no copy-pasting long strings of gibberish. You sign in, and you're set. That's the whole ceremony.

Which tier? Be honest about how you actually work:

• Claude Pro: fine if you're mostly running one thing at a time.
• Claude Max 5x / Max 20x: the move if you like to fan out and run lots of parallel agents at once. More included usage, more simultaneous agents, fewer "you've hit your limit" speed bumps mid-sprint.

Knowing you, you'd rather ship than babysit a usage meter. So if you plan to run several agents in parallel, skip the warm-up and jump straight to Max 5x or 20x. Sign up here, connect the account in Sparkle, go.

Max 20x if you're fanning out agents. The why is simple math: each Sparkle agent runs real Claude Code in its own worktree, so N agents in parallel means N concurrent token streams against one subscription. Pro caps out fast under that load; Max 5x is the practical floor for parallel work; Max 20x is what keeps a wide fan-out from throttling mid-build. Pick the ceiling that matches your concurrency, not your optimism. Subscribe, connect, done.