Every rig, ready. Patch Pilot keeps all your music machines set up the same way, so a session that opens on your studio PC also opens on your laptop, with every plug-in in place.
For producers, mixers and engineers who work on more than one computer, on Windows and macOS, with Reaper or Ableton Live.
Download · Why it helps · How it works · Syncing · Features · Status · For developers
Get the latest version for Windows or macOS from the releases page:
- Windows: the file ending in
_x64-setup.exe. - Mac with Apple silicon (M1 to M5): the file ending in
_aarch64.dmg. Intel Macs take the_x64.dmg.
Install it on every machine you work on. After that it updates itself: when a new version is out, it shows you what's new and installs only when you click. You can also choose Check for Updates… from the tray or menu bar icon.
On a Mac: the app isn't signed by Apple yet, so macOS may say it's "damaged" and can't be opened. It isn't. Drag it to Applications, then run this once in Terminal:
xattr -cr "/Applications/Patch Pilot.app"macOS may also ask for your Documents folder once. Click Allow: Patch Pilot watches preset folders there to keep them in sync.
You know the moment: you open a project on the laptop and half the chain is red because a plug-in is missing, out of date, or only installed on the studio machine. Patch Pilot catches that before the session, not during it.
- No more missing plug-ins. See at a glance which plug-ins, versions, vendor apps and DAW templates a machine is missing.
- One setup to aim for. Pick your best machine as the Primary Rig. Every other machine is measured against it.
- Know what to fix first. A simple checklist tells you what to install, in the right order, with a link to where each thing comes from.
- Your files follow you. Templates, scripts, presets and settings you add or change on one machine show up on the others by themselves.
- Nothing to babysit. It sits quietly in your menu bar or system tray and notices changes on its own.
- Safe by design. It never opens your plug-ins, copies licensed software, deletes your files or runs installers behind your back, and anything it changes on a machine can be undone.
- Install it on each machine. Patch Pilot looks at the plug-ins installed there (VST2, VST3, AU, AAX and CLAP), your vendor apps (Native Access, Waves Central, iLok and more), your preset folders, and your Reaper and Ableton Live templates, scripts and settings.
- Link your machines. Click Link a machine, show a short code on one machine and type it on the other. From then on each machine sees the others live.
- Choose your Primary Rig. That's your ideal setup. Update it whenever your setup changes; every version is kept.
- Compare. Each machine gets a parity score that shows how close it is to the Primary Rig, with the reasons behind the number ("205 plug-ins are missing, −41 points"). A plug-in counts as installed in any format, and a travel laptop can skip things it doesn't need, like AAX or huge sample libraries.
- Get Up To Speed. Patch Pilot turns the differences into a checklist, starting with what other installs depend on, like licensing tools. You install things yourself, and each step ticks itself off a few seconds after the installer finishes.
| Your rig | Compare with the Primary Rig | Get Up To Speed |
|---|---|---|
 |
 |
 |
Patch Pilot moves two kinds of things between your machines, in two different ways. Plug-ins, apps and sample libraries are never uploaded anywhere.
- What's installed (scan results). Linked machines share the list of what each one has through a small relay. It's end-to-end encrypted, so nobody else can read it, not even us. There are no accounts.
- Your own files. Templates, scripts, presets and settings travel through a cloud folder you already use (Dropbox, OneDrive, Google Drive, iCloud Drive or any folder you pick). If you'd rather not use a cloud at all, linked machines on the same home network can copy them straight to each other, encrypted. Or use a private GitHub repo of your own, where every change is kept in the repo's history. You choose under This machine's Sync & backup line.
Syncing files is careful: a file you delete on one machine stays on the others, an edit made on two machines asks you which copy to keep, and settings only change while Reaper or Live is closed. Under Choose what syncs you can keep any kind of file or setting to one machine. The full list is in docs/what-syncs.md.
- Primary Rig — the setup every machine should match, with version history. When a machine has something the Primary Rig lacks, Compare suggests adding it.
- Parity score — one number per machine, always with the reasons and the points each one costs.
- Get Up To Speed and Set up — a step-by-step checklist to bring a machine back in line, or to set up a new one from scratch, ending with a setup report you can save. Each step says whether something is not installed or needs an update, with both versions.
- Drift and update alerts — a quiet notification when a machine falls behind, or when a newer version of a plug-in is on another machine or available from its maker.
- Template readiness — tells you which Reaper templates, FX chains and Ableton sets or racks won't open fully on a machine, because a plug-in they use is missing.
- Reaper extensions and startup action — checks SWS, ReaPack, js_ReaScriptAPI, ReaImGui and the others on every machine. It says when one is missing (and which of your scripts need it), blocked by macOS, in the wrong folder, the wrong build for that computer or installed twice, and most of these are fixed in one click. If SWS runs an action every time Reaper opens on your Primary Rig, every machine can run the same one.
- Drive space — how much room is left on every drive of every machine, in Compare, the tray and This machine, with a warning when one that holds your plug-ins or presets runs low. Patch Pilot checks there's room before it copies anything.
- Keep files in sync — Reaper templates, FX chains, scripts (with every file they need, including ReaPack packages), themes, shortcuts, menus and mouse modifiers; Ableton Live templates, presets, racks, Max for Live devices, Collections, Places and Options.txt; and plug-in presets from Serum, FabFilter, Valhalla, u-he, Soundtoys and many more. Renames follow too. Reaper shortcuts from a PC are adjusted to work on a Mac.
- Bring over — copy another machine's files onto this one by hand, one file, a whole folder or every template at once.
- Backup — every template, script, setting and preset backed up to your cloud folder after each change, with earlier versions kept. A new machine can start from another machine's backup.
- Ignore — hide anything you don't want on a machine (a plug-in, a file, a folder, a step), on this machine only or everywhere. It leaves the score and every count.
- Duplicate presets — find the same preset saved in several folders and clean up the extra copies.
- Installer Vault — keep your installers in one folder on your own drive. Patch Pilot spots new ones in Downloads and runs the right one when you click.
- History and undo — a restore point before every change Patch Pilot makes to a file, so anything can be undone.
- Rig Report — share a list of your plug-ins and score as a web page or text, for forums or collaborators. It never includes file paths or licence details.
- Always on, barely there — opens when your computer starts, waits in the tray or menu bar, and rescans by itself when you add or update a plug-in. It uses next to no CPU while it waits.
- Settings in one place — what syncs on this machine, light or dark (or follow the system), text size, starting with your computer, which alerts you get, and the items you've hidden.
It's not a cloud drive or a license manager, and it never moves plug-ins or sample libraries between machines: only your own small files, like templates, presets and settings. It never signs in to iLok or vendor accounts. It tells you what each machine needs; you stay in control of what gets installed.
Early preview, with new versions often. Reaper and Ableton Live are supported today. Coming later: a closed alpha and public beta, Apple signing so the Mac warning goes away, and a Pro version. See the roadmap in docs/strategy.md.
Patch Pilot is a Tauri 2 desktop app (React + TypeScript UI in app/) on top of a Rust workspace in crates/, with a small Cloudflare Worker relay for live linking in relay/.
- Scanning reads metadata, never code. Plug-ins are identified from VST3
moduleinfo.json, AUInfo.plist, Windows version resources and bundle plists. Patch Pilot never loads a plug-in binary, so a broken plug-in can't crash it and a scan of 500 plug-ins stays under a minute (CI checks this budget). - Each scan is a manifest. A machine's plug-ins, vendor apps and DAW files become a JSON manifest of metadata (no files), with paths stored as logical roots plus a per-machine path map so a Windows and a Mac scan compare cleanly (format).
- Comparing is a diff plus a score. A catalog resolves the same product across formats and OSes; the parity engine diffs a machine against the Primary Rig minus that machine's exclusions, and scores it with the points each difference costs.
- History is content-addressed. Scans and snapshots live in SQLite on each machine, with files kept in a BLAKE3-hashed blob store. Every change Patch Pilot makes to a file is staged, renamed into place atomically and preceded by a restore point.
- Sync is end-to-end encrypted. Linked machines share manifests through a relay that only ever sees ciphertext; user files go through a cloud folder, the home network or a private GitHub repo the user picks. Plug-ins and installers never leave the machine.
- Idle means idle. Filesystem watchers, not polling, and background work runs at background priority.
Every product and architecture choice is a numbered row in docs/decisions.md, and the reasons behind the design are in docs/strategy.md.
cargo test --workspace # core crates
cd app && npm ci && npm run tauri dev # the desktop app| Folder | What's there |
|---|---|
crates/ |
The Rust core: scanning, comparing, storing, syncing |
app/ |
The desktop app (Tauri + React) and its changelog |
relay/ |
The sync relay (Cloudflare Worker) |
fixtures/ |
Test inputs that stand in for real machines |
docs/ |
Strategy, decisions log, formats, release steps |
Start with CONTRIBUTING.md for how to build and send a change, and docs/README.md for every other doc. CLAUDE.md holds the project rules that every change, by a person or by Claude, follows. Security problems go to SECURITY.md.
Proprietary. All rights reserved. Not for redistribution.