Two minutes to install. After that Kola keeps itself up to date while it runs. It is signed and notarized by Apple, so it opens with a normal double-click.
Version 0.3.99 for Apple Silicon.
Open the DMG.
Double-click
Kola-0.3.99-arm64.dmg in your
Downloads folder. A small window with the Kola icon
appears.
Drag Kola into Applications.
The DMG window shows a shortcut to your Applications folder. Drag the Kola icon onto it.
Open it and connect an account.
Kola walks you through connecting your first mailbox and calendar. It starts reading in the background and fills itself in from there.
Kola ships a Claude plugin, so you can search your network, brief yourself before a meeting and capture new contacts without leaving Claude. The plugin reads your records from Kola on your Mac. Claude then receives the question and the records needed to answer it, the same as any other question you ask it.
Add the marketplace.
In Claude Code, run
/plugin marketplace add getkola/marketplace. In claude.ai, open Customize, then Plugins, then Add
marketplace, and paste the same URL.
Install Kola.
Run /plugin install kola@kola
in Claude Code, or click Install next to Kola in the
claude.ai marketplace panel.
You get skills like
/network-search,
/meeting-brief and
/save-contact.
Keep Kola running.
The plugin talks to the MCP server inside Kola.app on
127.0.0.1:47900, so launch
Kola once and leave it in the background. Quitting Kola
turns the plugin off until the next launch.
Source and plugin manifests: github.com/getkola/marketplace.
What do I need to run Kola?
An Apple Silicon Mac. Kola is signed and notarized by Apple, so it opens with a normal double-click.
Will macOS warn me on first launch?
No. Every release is signed with a Developer ID, notarized by Apple and stapled, and runs under the hardened runtime.
Do I have to import anything?
No. Connect an account and Kola builds itself from it. There is nothing to export from anywhere else first.
Is the Claude plugin required?
No. Kola works on its own. The plugin is there if you want to search your network from inside Claude.
Does Kola have to stay running?
For the plugin, yes. The MCP server lives inside Kola.app, so launch it once and leave it in the background.
Kola builds its index locally. We run no server that receives it.