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Quick Start

The fastest way to try xOpat is to download a prebuilt standalone build and run it on your own machine. No servers to configure, no command line — it bundles the viewer, an image server, and sample handling into a single desktop app.

tip

This standalone build is meant for trying xOpat and for local/desktop use. It hardwires a fixed server setup, so it is not how you deploy xOpat for real. When you are ready for that, see the Deployment section.

1. Download​

Go to the xOpat releases page and download the build for your operating system from the latest release's Assets.

note

Available platforms are listed under each release's assets. If a build for your OS is not there yet, use the Docker bundle below or follow a full deployment.

2. Install & launch​

  • Windows — run the downloaded installer. It installs xOpat to your home folder and adds xOpat shortcuts to the Start Menu and Desktop. Launch from either; xOpat lives in the system tray while running.
  • Linux — unpack the downloaded archive and start it with the included start_all.sh script.

On first launch, xOpat asks you to pick a folder containing your slides. You can change it later (tray menu → Change slides folder on Windows, or the change_slides_dir.sh script on Linux).

3. View your slides​

xOpat starts a local image server and the viewer, then opens your browser at http://localhost:9001 automatically. Drop whole-slide images into the folder you selected and they become available to open.

To open a specific slide directly via the URL, see Opening the Viewer.

That's the whole loop: download → run → point it at a slides folder.

Unlock the full viewer​

The standalone build trades flexibility for convenience. The real strength of xOpat — connecting to your own image servers and turning on the broader feature set — comes from a custom deployment with proper module and plugin configuration. A few examples of what that unlocks:

  • AI chat assistants (e.g. the chat-anthropic / chat-openai-compatible plugins) need a deployment that can hold their API keys and proxy config.
  • Authentication (OIDC), custom annotation backends, and alternative image servers all require static configuration the standalone build does not expose.

When you are ready to go beyond the quick demo: