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ADR 0111 — Intel Macs are not supported

  • Status: Accepted
  • Date: 2026-10-29
  • Supersedes: ADR 0106
  • Amends:
    • ADR 0012 — the Intel macOS ONNX Runtime 1.23.2 pin is gone; every target installs the current runtime
    • ADR 0044 — the native speech worker no longer has a macOS Intel target
    • ADR 0055 — the macOS desktop app is built for arm64 only, not as a universal binary
    • ADR 0076 — the Intel macOS OpenCV 4.11 pin is gone
    • ADR 0083 — no Intel macOS jobs remain, hosted or self-hosted
    • ADR 0090 — only the Apple silicon wheel is built and pinned
  • Related: ADR 0007 (macOS 13 floor, unchanged), ADR 0023, ADR 0104, docs/installation.md

Context

Section titled “Context”

The owner asked for Intel macOS support to be removed completely: no Intel macOS release builds or packages and no self-hosted Intel Mac runner, while Apple silicon, Linux and Windows stay supported.

Intel macOS was the one target that needed its own exceptions throughout the tree:

  • ONNX Runtime 1.24+ publishes no Intel macOS wheel, so requirements/cpu.txt pinned 1.23.2 there through platform markers (ADR 0012), an older runtime line whose support for the privacy filter’s QMoE kernel was never verified (platform validation).
  • Newer OpenCV Intel Mac wheels need macOS 14, so requirements/base.txt pinned OpenCV 4.11 there (ADR 0076).
  • The llama.cpp binding needed its own Intel wheel, built by this repository (ADR 0090), and the voice engine its own macos-x64 build (ADR 0044).
  • CI, voice, release packaging and the wheel build ran on a 2017 Intel laptop on macOS 13.6 whose rsvg-convert had to come from MacPorts (ADR 0106).

Decision

Section titled “Decision”

Intel Macs (darwin/amd64) are not a supported platform.

  • Releases ship no imprint-darwin-amd64.tar.gz or .pkg. make all, make package and scripts/package-platform.sh have no darwin/amd64 target, make installer-macos builds arm64 only, and the macOS desktop app is built for arm64 only.
  • Workflows have no Intel macOS jobs: CI, voice engine and native voice checks, the release .pkg job and the llama.cpp wheel build run on Apple silicon only. The imprint-intel runner label is retired.
  • Requirements and locks carry no darwin x86_64 entries: no ONNX Runtime 1.23.2 or OpenCV 4.11 pins, no Intel llama.cpp wheel. An Intel Mac would fall through to the generic source-build line of the binding like any other unlisted platform. The runtime manifest drops the Intel macOS uv and Qdrant digests, and Qdrant’s auto-download refuses an Intel Mac.
  • install.sh on an Intel Mac stops before downloading anything, with “Intel Macs are no longer supported”. A shell running under Rosetta on Apple silicon reports x86_64; the script checks hw.optional.arm64 and installs the Apple silicon build there.
  • imprint update (and --check, which the dashboard reads) on a darwin/amd64 binary reports the same refusal. Under Rosetta it tells the user to install the Apple silicon build instead, because an in-place update cannot change the installation’s architecture.
  • The website offers no Intel macOS download and tells a visitor whose browser looks like an Intel Mac that it is not supported.

Rejected alternatives

Section titled “Rejected alternatives”

No alternative evaluation was recorded.

Consequences

Section titled “Consequences”
  • Existing Intel Mac installations keep working on the version they have but get no further releases. Their imprint update predates this record: it finds no imprint-darwin-amd64 asset in a new release and stops with “release … has no asset named …”, without changing the installation.
  • Release assets shrink by two files, and the release workflow no longer waits on the Intel laptop.
  • Older releases keep their Intel assets on GitHub; the website lists them only as unclassified files in the release history.
  • The Apple silicon llama.cpp wheel release (llama-cpp-python-v0.3.36) still holds the previously published Intel wheel; nothing pins it any more.
  • Dependency locks are simpler: the CPU lock loses ONNX Runtime 1.23.2 and its Intel-only dependencies (coloredlogs, humanfriendly, mpmath, sympy).
  • The self-hosted Intel runner registration and the laptop’s runner service are outside the repository and must be removed by the owner.

Invalidation conditions

Section titled “Invalidation conditions”
  • If Intel Mac users must be supported again, then a new record restores the target together with its dependency pins, a native builder and native validation.
  • If the Apple silicon desktop app must also run on Intel through a universal binary for another reason (for example a distribution channel that requires one), then revisit the arm64-only Electron build without restoring the Intel runtime.

Validation

Section titled “Validation”

On Linux x64: go vet ./... and go test ./... passed, including a unit test that imprint update refuses darwin/amd64 natively and under Rosetta and accepts every supported target. The touched Python tests (release validation with arm64-only macOS bundles, voice targets, download manifest and the Qdrant Intel refusal) and the ADR record tests passed. The locks were regenerated with uv 0.13.6 using the commands in building.

Not verified: install.sh on a real Intel Mac or under Rosetta, the arm64-only Electron build and .pkg on the Apple silicon runner, a full build-release run without the Intel jobs, and the website build.