The Quire

A shared desk for documents, drawing and mathematics.

Draw, construct and read documents together. The teacher opens the class; students join from a browser.

DownloadJoin a lesson

You need a key or link from your teacher. Open The Quire in the browser · View on GitHub

Free and open source (MIT) · Windows, macOS, Linux · Preview 0.6.1

The Quire desk with a mathematics plane: points A, B and C, two circles and an equilateral triangle with a measured angle and side length.The Quire desk with a mathematics plane: points A, B and C, two circles and an equilateral triangle with a measured angle and side length.

How a lesson works

  1. Open the class

    Open The Quire in the app or the browser and press Classroom. Choose Cloud for a class, or Direct (P2P) for one student.

  2. Invite

    In Cloud, sign in and create a room, then send its key. In Direct, send the invitation code and paste the reply your student sends back.

  3. Work together

    Everyone edits one desk with their own zoom and view. Named cursors show who is where.

Cloud

The room lives on the server and stays when you close your laptop. Teachers sign in with Telegram, Google, GitHub, an email code or a passkey; students need no account. New accounts on the public server currently need a tester code.

Direct (P2P)

One teacher and one student, no server in between. You both read a short check phrase aloud to confirm the codes were not swapped. Some networks will not connect directly; then use Cloud or your own relay server.

Step-by-step guide for teachers

What works today

  • Constructions

    Axes with a movable origin, points, compass and ruler constructions with linked points, functions and measurements.

  • Drawing and text

    Pen, shapes, formatted text and LaTeX formulas through KaTeX.

  • Documents

    Show PDF pages and images as snapshots, laid out by range or list in a row or grid. The original file stays with whoever uploaded it.

  • Lessons

    New lesson lays out frames for the plan, the board and homework. The teacher can switch a student to view only.

  • Calls

    Voice, camera and screen sharing, each turned on by its owner. The call runs separately from the desk.

  • Lost connection

    Unsent edits are kept on the device and sent when the connection returns. Disputed edits wait for review without stopping the desk.

The Quire is not a full Miro or GeoGebra. See what is still being tested.

See it in motion

Still frame of The Quire desk; the demonstration video is not published yet.Still frame of The Quire desk; the demonstration video is not published yet.

A reader and PDF editor, too

The Quire opens 20 kinds of files on your own computer: PDF, Markdown, code, tables, Office documents, books, images, media and archives. You can annotate and edit PDFs, fill forms, redact text for real and compress files. Reading your own files works offline.

All formats and limits in the README

The Quire with two panels side by side: a Markdown document with its outline and a source code file.The Quire with two panels side by side: a Markdown document with its outline and a source code file.

Your data

  • Cloud rooms are stored on the server, which can see room data. Desk data is not end-to-end encrypted.
  • Direct lessons travel between the two devices in an encrypted WebRTC channel. The check phrase confirms the codes were not swapped on the way.
  • Documents are shown as page snapshots; the original file stays with its owner.
  • Calls are always encrypted by WebRTC, also when relayed.
  • Sync is not a backup. Save important desks (.cdesk) and the original files.

Privacy

Preview

The Quire 0.6.1 is a preview. Real phones, other browsers and different networks are still being tested. Direct lessons were tested on one machine, not yet across real networks. The installers are not signed or notarized, and there are no automatic updates yet.

Release notesKnown limits

Download

Install The Quire to run lessons from your computer or to read your own files offline. Students do not need to install anything.

  • Windows

    Your system

    Cloud-Desk-0.6.1-Windows-x64.exe

    Size: 260 MB

    SHA-2563029c79e95b4348d…
    Show full checksum3029c79e95b4348d6f3647f9ae71790293bebcbbec9bf4656aafcd7d0fb12055
    Download

    The installer is not signed. If SmartScreen stops it, choose More info → Run anyway.

  • macOS · Apple Silicon

    Your system

    Cloud-Desk-0.6.1-macOS-Apple-Silicon.dmg

    Size: 61 MB

    SHA-2561c67dd9e95f6639c…
    Show full checksum1c67dd9e95f6639c9a325c75c33fd67391d4d42f56dfc134e7931f4cce0b8d90
    Download

    The app is not notarized. The first time, right-click the app and choose Open, or go to System Settings → Privacy & Security → Open Anyway.

    Not sure which Mac you have? Apple menu → About This Mac: “Apple M…” is Apple Silicon, “Intel” is Intel.

  • macOS · Intel

    Your system

    Cloud-Desk-0.6.1-macOS-Intel.dmg

    Size: 63 MB

    SHA-256cf1507a0f3014569…
    Show full checksumcf1507a0f30145690a9f7cf45937c6c910ff3498bf4aefcdf0582f80ee25b617
    Download

    The app is not notarized. The first time, right-click the app and choose Open, or go to System Settings → Privacy & Security → Open Anyway.

  • Linux · AppImage

    Your system

    Cloud-Desk-0.6.1-Linux-x64.AppImage

    Size: 153 MB

    SHA-256bada04c79a46903b…
    Show full checksumbada04c79a46903bf230b682003fb83de35767c94d22244f6f6d4278a75dd3b2
    Download

    Make the file executable, then run it:

    chmod +x Cloud-Desk-0.6.1-Linux-x64.AppImage && ./Cloud-Desk-0.6.1-Linux-x64.AppImage

  • Linux · .deb

    Your system

    Cloud-Desk-0.6.1-Linux-x64.deb

    Size: 70 MB

    SHA-256718ec7d8662cf3ad…
    Show full checksum718ec7d8662cf3ad2104dd38c3c85b554958e1065aa6674d8339e129f40903d7
    Download

    Install with your package manager:

    sudo apt install ./Cloud-Desk-0.6.1-Linux-x64.deb

Check the download

Compare the checksum with the one on the card or in SHA256SUMS.txt.

  • macOSshasum -a 256 <file>
  • WindowsGet-FileHash <file> -Algorithm SHA256
  • Linuxsha256sum <file>

The preview files are still named Cloud Desk, the working name of The Quire. They keep their own settings and do not replace an earlier Quire reader.

All files on GitHub