Corvus – A lightweight native Signal client in Qt

Corvus is a desktop interface for signal-cli with an encrypted local chat history. The Qt app runs on Linux, Windows and macOS; macOS also has a native SwiftUI app.

Breeze Light Breeze Dark

macOS (Swift / SwiftUI)

Light theme Dark theme

Features

Link Corvus to your Signal account using signal-cli.

Read and send messages, including group chats, replies and reactions.

Send and receive files, images, video and audio.

Edit or delete messages, manage archived chats and disappearing messages.

Desktop notifications, notification sounds and a tray/menu-bar icon.

Encrypted local chat history, protected by the system keychain or a passphrase.

View a contact's safety number and mark the contact as verified (Qt version; right-click a chat → View safety number …).

Record and send voice messages (Qt version; 🎤 button next to the attach button; needs signal-cli 0.14.2 or newer to arrive as a voice note).

Send and receive Signal View Once photos (Qt version; select exactly one image and press 1×; requires signal-cli 0.13.18 or newer).

Forward text messages, attachments and stickers to up to five chats at once (Qt version; right-click a message → Forward…).

Customisable chat colours and appearance.

Corvus is a graphical client, not a replacement for signal-cli. You must have signal-cli installed and linked to your Signal account. The Windows installer can download it for you.

Download the appropriate package from the latest GitHub release.

Download corvus-linux-x86_64-installer.tar.gz from the release.

tar -xzf corvus-linux-x86_64-installer.tar.gz ./install.sh

The installer is per-user, does not need sudo, and adds Corvus to your application menu. Run it again to update; run ./install.sh --uninstall to remove it.

The prebuilt executable is dynamically linked and does not include Qt libraries. You need a compatible Qt 6 runtime (the release is built with Qt 6.12), QtKeychain 0.14 or newer, and a desktop keyring such as GNOME Keyring or KWallet. Install signal-cli separately and make sure it is available on your PATH.

Arch Linux: download the corvus-*.pkg.tar.zst package from the release and install it with:

sudo pacman -U ./corvus-*.pkg.tar.zst

Install signal-cli separately, for example from the AUR.

Flatpak (x86_64): download corvus-linux-x86_64.flatpak from the release and install it with:

flatpak install --user ./corvus-linux-x86_64.flatpak flatpak run io.github.ada_h00k.Corvus

To get updates automatically, add the signed Flatpak repository instead (it is published to GitHub Pages together with every build) and update with flatpak update:

flatpak remote-add --user --if-not-exists corvus https://ada-h00k.github.io/Corvus/corvus.flatpakrepo flatpak install --user corvus io.github.ada_h00k.Corvus

The Flatpak includes signal-cli (the native build, no Java needed) and qrencode, so nothing else has to be installed. It runs in a sandbox with these permissions only: network, Wayland/X11, audio, GPU (video player), notifications, tray icon and the Secret Service (history key). It has no file system access; attachments are chosen and saved through the file chooser portal. Because of the sandbox, the Flatpak keeps its own data in ~/.var/app/io.github.ada_h00k.Corvus/ and does not see an existing signal-cli installation or chat history: link it to your Signal account as a new device on first start.

Download and run corvus-windows-x64-setup.exe from the release.

Follow the setup wizard. It installs the Qt runtime and qrencode (used to show the QR code when linking a device) with Corvus.

On the signal-cli step, you can optionally let the installer download signal-cli and a private Java runtime.

The installer is for Windows 10 or newer. It does not require administrator rights for a per-user installation. The setup is not code-signed, so Windows SmartScreen may show a warning.

Portable version: download corvus-windows-x64-portable.zip, extract it, and run corvus.exe (qrencode.exe is included). You must install and configure signal-cli yourself for this option.

Corvus has two macOS versions. Install the one you prefer:

First add the Corvus tap and install signal-cli if it is not already installed:

brew tap ada-h00k/corvus brew install signal-cli

Then install one version:

brew install --cask corvus-swift

Or, for the Qt version:

brew install --cask corvus-qt

You can also download corvus-macos-arm64.zip (Swift) or corvus-qt-macos-arm64.zip (Qt) from the latest release. Prebuilt macOS releases are for Apple silicon (arm64).

The release apps are ad-hoc signed rather than notarised. Depending on your macOS security settings, the first launch may require opening the app from Finder using right-click → Open. Only bypass a warning if you trust the source of the app.

The Swift and Qt versions use the same local history. Do not run both versions at the same time.

Corvus starts signal-cli as a separate program. If it cannot find it, open Settings → Path to signal-cli and select the executable. Follow Corvus's account-linking prompt if you have not linked this installation to Signal yet.

On macOS, signal-cli can be installed with Homebrew as shown above. On Linux, use your distribution's package instructions or the official signal-cli releases. The Windows setup wizard can install it for you.

Corvus stores its chat history in an encrypted history.corvus file. By default, the history key is stored in your operating system's keychain; you can switch to passphrase protection in Settings → History protection.

Upgrading from Wren: Corvus was called Wren before (and signal-cli Qt before that). On first start it moves the existing chat history, settings and keychain entries (history key, GIPHY API key) over automatically; nothing is deleted. If the old version is still running, close it first. The Linux installer and the Arch package replace an existing Wren installation; on macOS you can delete the old Wren.app, and macOS may ask once for permission to read the old keychain entries.

Important: Corvus's encryption protects its local chat history. It does not encrypt signal-cli's own account data, sessions, contacts or attachments. Protect your home directory or disk with your operating system's disk-encryption feature. A forgotten history passphrase cannot be recovered.

The Qt app requires a C++17 compiler, CMake 3.16 or newer, Qt 6 (Widgets, Network, Multimedia, MultimediaWidgets and Svg), QtKeychain 0.14 or newer, and Rust with Cargo.

On Debian/Ubuntu, install the build dependencies and compile:

sudo apt update sudo apt install build-essential cmake ninja-build qt6-base-dev qt6-multimedia-dev qt6-svg-dev qtkeychain-qt6-dev cargo rustc

cmake -S . -B build -G Ninja -DCMAKE_BUILD_TYPE=Release cmake --build build --parallel ./build/corvus

For the native Swift app, install Xcode and Rust, then run:

cd macos ./scripts/build-app.sh open build/Corvus.app

The Swift app requires macOS 14 or newer. See macos/README.md for Swift-specific development notes.

Corvus is licensed under the GNU Affero General Public License v3.0. signal-cli is a separate project and is distributed under its own license.