Paneflow on Windows

Paneflow ships a native Windows MSI for Windows 10 1809+ and Windows 11 on x86_64. Use the MSI for normal Windows work. Use WSL2 only when your files, agents, and toolchains already live inside Linux.

The MSI is signed under the StriveX publisher identity. To verify a downloaded MSI before running it:

$version = "0.11.0"
Get-AuthenticodeSignature ".\paneflow-$version-x86_64-pc-windows-msvc.msi" | Select-Object Status, SignerCertificate

Status should be Valid. SmartScreen may still appear while the certificate reputation builds.

Install Paneflow with the MSI

1. Open the download page or the latest GitHub release.

2. Download the Windows MSI:

paneflow-0.11.0-x86_64-pc-windows-msvc.msi

3. Run the installer. The MSI installs Paneflow as a standard Windows app, adds a Start menu shortcut, and exposes paneflow on PATH.

4. Open Paneflow from the Start menu.

5. Open a new PowerShell window and verify the command:

paneflow --version

If the command prints a version, the MSI and PATH entry are working.

New panes use your configured shell. If no shell is configured, Paneflow falls back to PowerShell 7, Windows PowerShell, %ComSpec%, then cmd.exe. Change the default shell in Settings.

Supported Windows matrix

Paneflow's Windows runtime uses Win32, DirectX, ConPTY, and named pipes. The app renders native-style Windows controls, not an Electron shell.

Terminal backend

Since Paneflow 0.10.0, the official Windows x64 MSVC build emulates every pane with Ghostty's pinned, statically linked libghostty-vt engine. It is the only terminal engine: there is no second parser, no runtime fallback, and no setting to select one. Paneflow keeps its own GPUI renderer and ConPTY/session layer; libghostty-vt handles VT parsing, terminal state, and input encoding. A terminal.backend key left in paneflow.json from an older release is ignored. Windows ARM64 has no pinned engine archive and is not a shipping target.

Native Windows or WSL2?

Use the native MSI when you want Windows integration: Start menu launch, Windows file picker, notifications, native window controls, PATH setup, and the in-app updater.

Use WSL2 when your agents, repositories, package managers, and shell customization live inside a Linux distribution. In that case, install the Linux build inside WSL2 and let WSLg display the window.

VER=0.11.0
curl -LO "https://github.com/arthjean/paneflow/releases/download/v${VER}/paneflow-${VER}-x86_64.deb"
sudo apt install "./paneflow-${VER}-x86_64.deb"
paneflow --version
paneflow

WSL inside a Paneflow pane is different from launching Paneflow itself from WSL. Launch the native app from the Start menu or a native Windows shell.

Known Windows caveats

• Windows Defender SmartScreen may appear while the signing certificate builds reputation. Verify the release and publisher before running the MSI.
• cmd.exe does not emit OSC 7 working-directory markers, so cwd-aware pane behavior is weaker there. Prefer PowerShell 7, Windows PowerShell, Git Bash, or WSL.
• RDP, dev container launches, and native app launches from WSL2 can hit upstream GPUI or Windows graphics edge cases.
• CJK IME and some ConPTY Ctrl+C behaviors still have Windows-specific edge cases.

For the lower-level Windows notes, keep the app repo Windows document as the source of truth.

Update and uninstall

Use the in-app updater or run the latest MSI again. The updater selects the matching Windows MSI, verifies it, saves the current session, and hands the upgrade to Windows Installer.

Uninstall Paneflow from Windows Settings. The uninstall removes the app but keeps user configuration at %APPDATA%\paneflow\paneflow.json. Helper binaries can also live under %LOCALAPPDATA%\paneflow\bin.