Introduction to rolv desktop app

Rolv is an AI-powered research assistant designed specifically for the life sciences field. It helps researchers streamline and accelerate tasks such as data analysis, literature review, and hypothesis generation by combining advanced AI tools with access to scientific databases and human expertise.

✨ Core features

  • AI-Assisted Data Analysis: Ask data analysis questions, rolv desktop is integrated with your data (e.g., “Give me differentially expressed genes in this file and plot a heatmap”).
  • Local Data Analysis: Your data stays secure on your device—no cloud dependency for analysis.
  • PubMed integration: Get PubMed backed answers to your queries. (e.g., “What are the binding partners of TGFbeta ?”).
  • Dataset Search Integration: Find the relevant datasets you need for your analysis. (e.g., “Give me TGFbeta ChIP-seq datasets ?”).
  • Create AI-Assisted Analysis Workflows: Data analysis is not linear; build complex workflows using the graph interface.
  • Ask A Human Feature: AI gets you far, but sometimes you need human expertise. When you’re stuck, connect with data analysis experts through our platform.

📥 How to get access

Without having access to rolv platform online you won’t be able to use the rolv desktop app. - Request access to the platform here https://www.rolv.io/access - Download the Rolv desktop app and start analyzing. See releases here.

Who is the app for

The Rolv app is designed for life science researchers and professionals who work with complex biological data and need to streamline their research workflows. This includes:

  • Molecular biologists and geneticists analyzing gene expression, ChIP-seq, or other omics data.
  • Bioinformaticians who want to accelerate data processing and workflow design using AI tools.
  • Biomedical researchers conducting literature reviews or exploring disease mechanisms.
  • Academic scientists and PhD students looking to quickly extract insights from data and literature.
  • Biotech and pharma R&D teams that need secure, local data analysis with expert support when needed.

It’s ideal for users who want the power of AI but require data privacy, scientific rigor, and integration with existing research tools.

Supported Platforms

Rolv desktop app is available on the following operating systems:

  • Windows 11
  • macOS X
  • Ubuntu (latest LTS versions)
  • Fedora (latest stable release)

Note: Rolv is not supported on Windows 10 or earlier, other Linux distributions, or mobile platforms (iOS/Android).

Installation Instructions

System Requirements

Any hardware that is able to run a recent chrome browser should be able to run the desktop app. However, for smooth performance we have the following recommendations:

  • CPU: Multi-core processor (2 GHz+).
  • RAM: 8 GB+ for resource-heavy apps (e.g., IDEs, communication tools).
  • Storage: SSD for faster load times (1 GB free storage)
  • Internet connection: Required as the app relies on web APIs for certain services.

Install the dependencies

Currently, the only external dependency that doesn’t come with the app is R. R is a free, open-source programming language and software environment primarily used for statistical computing and data analysis. Currently, we need this dependency to perform data analysis tasks. If you already have R installed, you can skip this step. It is probably a good idea to use a latest version of R, though.

How to install R

Windows 11

To install R on a Windows system, follow these steps:

  1. Download R
  • Go to the official R project website: https://cran.r-project.org.
  • Click on the “Download R for Windows” link.
  • On the next page, click “base” (this is the standard R installation).
  • Click “Download R X.X.X for Windows” (the version number will vary, but it’s the latest version).
  1. Install R
  • After the .exe file is downloaded, double-click it to begin the installation.
  • Follow the installation prompts. You can typically accept the default settings, but here are some key options:
    • Select components: You can usually keep the default components selected.
    • Installation location: You can leave it at the default path unless you want to change it.
    • Start Menu folder: You can leave this as the default, or change it.
  • Once you’ve selected your options, click Next and then Install.
  1. Complete Installation
  • Once the installation is complete, click Finish.
  • You should now have R installed on your Windows machine.
  1. Verify the Installation
  • You can open R by searching for R in the Start Menu or by finding it in the folder where you installed it.

Mac OS

To install R on a Mac system, follow these steps:

  1. Go to the official R website: https://cran.r-project.org.
  • Click on “Download R for macOS”.
  • Choose the latest .pkg file under “Latest release” and download it.
  1. Install R
  • Open the downloaded .pkg file.
  • Follow the on-screen installation instructions.
  1. Verify the Installation R should now be installed on your device. To verify its installation, open the terminal (Cmd + Space, type in terminal and press Enter). In the terminal, run the following command:
R --version

If installed correctly, it will display the installed R version.

Ubuntu

To install R on Ubuntu, we first open the terminal. This can be done by pressing Ctrl + Alt + T or by searching for ‘Terminal’ in your applications menu. After opening the terminal, run the following commands:

  1. Update your package list (to make sure you are getting the latest version of packages):
sudo apt update
  1. Install the dependencies (this step ensures you have the necessary packages for R):
sudo apt install -y software-properties-common
  1. Add the R repository (this will allow you to install the latest version of R):
sudo add-apt-repository ppa:marutter/rrutter4.0
  1. Update the package list again to include the new repository:
sudo apt update
  1. Install R:
sudo apt install -y r-base

If all went well, R should now be installed. Check the installation by typing:

R --version

This will show the installed version of R, confirming it’s been set up correctly. Alternatively, you can follow the steps given on https://cloud.r-project.org It is important to also install some dependencies for RolvDesktop (if they are not yet already preinstalled). For this run:

sudo apt install -y libmagick++-dev imagemagick
sudo apt install -y libpoppler-cpp-dev

Fedora

To install R on Fedora, we first open the terminal. This can be done by pressing Ctrl + Alt + T or by searching for ‘Terminal’ in your applications menu. After opening the terminal, run the following commands:

sudo dnf install -y libcurl-devel libxml2-devel openssl-devel
sudo dnf install -y R

After running these commands, R should be installed on your system. You can check this by typing:

R --version

Alternatively, you can follow the steps given on https://cloud.r-project.org It is important to also install some dependencies for RolvDesktop (if they are not yet already preinstalled). For this run:

sudo dnf install -y ImageMagick ImageMagick-devel ImageMagick-c++-devel
sudo dnf install -y poppler-cpp poppler-devel
sudo dnf install qpdf-devel

Installing the app

Once R is installed, we’re ready to install rolv desktop app

Windows 11

For windows installation, you should download a file named rolvdesktop-1.0.0 Setup.exe.Now, let’s walk through the steps to install rolv desktop app:

  1. Locate the rolvdesktop-1.0.0 Setup.exe file on your computer.

  2. Double-click the .exe file. This should start the installation process.

  3. Once the installation is complete, rolv desktop app should open automatically.

  4. The app can now be found in:

C:\Users\YourUser\AppData\Local\rolvdesktop

Congratulations! You’ve successfully installed rolv desktop app! Now you’re all set to start using the app. You can move on to the next chapter, where we will dive deeper into the features and how to navigate the rolv desktop app interface. Enjoy exploring!

Mac OS

For mac os, you should download the file called rolvdesktop-darwin-x64-1.0.0.zip. Afterwards, follow the steps below:

  1. Move the rolvdesktop-darwin-x64-1.0.0.zip file to the directory where you want it to be installed.

  2. Double-click the .zip file to extract it.

  3. The RolvDesktop should now appear.

Congratulations! You’ve successfully installed rolv desktop app! Now you’re all set to start using the app. You can move on to the next chapter, where we will dive deeper into the features and how to navigate the rolv desktop app interface. Enjoy exploring!

Ubuntu

Once R is installed, we’re ready to install rolv desktop app. You should download a file named rolvdesktop_1.0.0_amd64.deb. Now, let’s walk through the steps to install rolv desktop app:

  1. Open the terminal ( press Ctrl + Alt + T or search for ‘Terminal’ in your applications menu)

  2. Move to the directory in which you downloaded rolvdesktop_1.0.0_amd64.deb. This can be done by:

cd /path/to/directory/
  1. Run the following command and fill in your system password:
sudo apt install ./rolvdesktop_1.0.0_amd64.deb

After this, RolvDesktop should be installed! You can open the app by searching for ‘rolvdesktop’ in your applications menu, or by running the following command in the Terminal:

rolvdesktop

Congratulations! You’ve successfully installed RolvDesktop! Now you’re all set to start using the app. You can move on to the next chapter, where we will dive deeper into the features and how to navigate the RolvDesktop interface. Enjoy exploring!

Fedora

Once R is installed, we’re ready to install RolvDesktop. You should download a file named rolvdesktop-1.0.0-1.x86_64.rpm.Now, let’s walk through the steps to install RolvDesktop:

  1. Open the terminal ( press Ctrl + Alt + T or search for ‘Terminal’ in your applications menu)

  2. Move to the directory in which you downloaded rolvdesktop-1.0.0-1.x86_64.rpm. This can be done by:

cd /path/to/directory/
  1. Run the following command and fill in your system password:
sudo rpm -ivh ./rolvdesktop-1.0.0-1.x86_64.rpm

After this, RolvDesktop should be installed! You can open the app by searching for ‘rolvdesktop’ in your applications menu, or by running the following command in the Terminal:

rolvdesktop

Congratulations! You’ve successfully installed RolvDesktop! Now you’re all set to start using the app. You can move on to the next chapter, where we will dive deeper into the features and how to navigate the RolvDesktop interface. Enjoy exploring!

Starting the app and post-installation verification

Now that we have all the prerequisites installed, we can start playing around with RolvDesktop! If you have trouble opening the app because of security reasons, follow the steps below:

  • For Mac users: Right-click on the app’s icon and then select “Open” from the menu. A security warning will appear, but this time it will give you the option to “Open” the app anyway. Click this option.
  • For Linux users: Right-click on the app’s icon and look for “Run as Administrator” or “Run as Root”. Click this option. The app should now open.
  • For Windows users: Right-click on the app’s icon and look for “Run as Administrator”. Click this option. The app should now open.

Once the app is opened, the first thing to do is to log in with your username and password! Fill in, and press the login button. If you have a valid account, you should now be logged in and see the chat screen. If you don’t have access to the platform please see the section called 📥 How to get access.

login window

Here is how the login window looks like: rolv desktop app login page

Testing if R works

The next step is to let RolvDesktop know where it can find your R installment! A default path has already been set for you, but this might not be the correct one.

To check if the app can find your R installation, click Set R path in the Menu Bar. Then, by clicking Test R path, we can see if RolvDesktop can find your R installation. If R is available, you should see a popup on the right side of the screen telling you that R is working.

setting up and checking R path
setting up and checking R path

If R is not Available or can not be found

If R is not available or can not be found at default locations, you will see an error pop up. R not found pop up

If this is the case, follow these steps to determine where your R resides in your system:

  1. First, we open up the terminal/PowerShell:
  • On Mac: Press Cmd + Space, type in Terminal, and press Enter.
  • On Linux: Press Ctrl + Alt + T to open the terminal.
  • On Windows: open PowerShell by pressing Win + X and selecting Windows PowerShell.

  1. Now, we look for the Rscript file within the system:

    • On Mac/Linux type in the following command:

      whereis Rscript

      This should return the location of Rscript. Copy this path so we can paste this path into RolvDesktop.

    • On Windows type in the following command:

      Get-ChildItem-Path C:\-Recurse-Filter "Rscript.exe"-ErrorAction SilentlyContinue

      This should return the location of Rscript. However, we cannot just paste the path in there as is. Ensure that the C: is deleted, and all the backslashes  are changed to forward slases / before pasting the path in the app.

Once you have located the path of Rscript, we can now let RolvDesktop know. To set the R path, go to Set R path in the Menu bar. Then, press set path of R executable and select paste path manually. A pop-up should now appear where you can paste the path to Rscript. Paste the path to Rscript, click submit, and now R should be available to RolvDesktop! You can check this by pressing Test R path again.

If everything is OK, you should now be able to see the main interface and should be able to start your journey.

chat interface
chat interface

Configuration & Preferences

Currently only important configuration you have to make is setting a working directory The app will look for the data mentioned in your prompts/questions in this directory. This is explained in detail below in the next section.

The other options there are as follows (and also explained below):

  • Activate auto execution : any code that will be generated by rolv will immediately be executed automatically.
  • Activate file header addition : This will add the first two lines of any files you mention in your question and send it to rolv app.
  • Activate self-correct : Currently not functional. It is intended to feed execution errors automatically to LLM and get corrected code. However, same functionality can be achieved on the chat interface by asking to correct the code when you receive an error.

Usage Guide

How to use the basic chat interface

To give you an example of the basic usage, we ask the bot to simulate data and do some basic analysis. Here is how it would look like: simulation question

And here is the result of the simulation and analysis: simulation question result

Analyzing your data stored on your computer

While simulating data can be useful, analyzing real-world data is far more insightful. Fortunately, ROLV can generate code based on files in your system. For example, if you have gene expression data stored in gene_expression.txt, you can inform ROLV about the file, and it will tailor its code accordingly. To specify the file’s location, simply open the Chat options menu from the left sidebar. A dropdown menu opens, where we can press Select directory:

Select directory
Select directory

A file dialog will open, from which you can select the directory in which your files are. Any subdirectories within that directory will also be searched. Once we have done this, we have a few other options that we can use. When we turn on Activate auto execution, any code that will be generated by ROLV will immediately be run. We can also turn on Activate file header addition. This will add the first two lines of any files you mention in your question and send it to ROLV. For now, lets turn on Activate file header addition and ask some questions about our file gene_expression.txt:

I have a file called gene_expression.txt, which holds
gene expression data of different samples. Samples are on the
columns and genes are on the rows. Could you make a boxplot
of the average gene expression over different samples for
the first 5 genes?
Question about a local file
Question about a local file
Results from running the code
Results from running the code

As we can see from the example above, the code that ROLV gives back is now based on the file mentioned in our question! So we can ask questions and run code based on data that we have from our actual experiments! But ROLV can not only summarize our data and give us a nice visual representation of it, we can also ask it to do any other type of analysis for us. The possibilities are endless!

AI-assisted workflow creation

ROLV allows you to build flexible, modular workflows that combine multiple data analysis steps—without having to manually code each component. Using the graph interface, you can create, edit, and execute complex pipelines visually or via chat.

To begin building such a pipeline, we can click the graph interface icon on the sidebar. This will open a graph interface containing a single node. From this node, we can either paste in some pre-existing code into the code interface, or start chatting via the chat with me button.

Now that we are all set, let’s start the conversation, and ask the same question we asked before about our file gene_expression.txt:

Graph interface request
Graph interface request

We get back an answer with code again! However, now instead of the button Execute code, we can see two other buttons on top of the answer: Copy and Replace. To understand what these buttons do, you can open the coding interface of the node by pressing the Show code button. For now, this is empty. However,watch what happens when you now click the Copy or Replace button. The code is copied over to the coding interface, and now you can click the Execute code button to execute it and see the results! Here you can also change any existing code, or even make entire snippets yourself.

Graph interface request
Graph interface request

Note: When the coding interface is empty, the buttons Copy and Replace will do the same thing. However, if there already is some code present in the coding interface, Copy will just copy the code from ROLV to the coding interface and paste it at the bottom. Pressing Replace however, will delete the existing code in the interface, and replace it with the new code from ROLV. So be careful which one you press!

Now you might be thinking… is this not the exact same thing we did with the chat interface? Yes and no! So far what we have done could also be done in the chat interface, but now lets add another node to the graph! To do this, we first close the code and chat interfaces by clicking on the Hide code and Chat with me button. You should see another black button with a white ‘+’ sign on the right side of the node. Once you press this, ROLV will gather suggestions on what types of analysis you could do based on the analysis that is already there. From this, you can choose on of the options that ROLV gives you, or create an empty node and chat about the type of analysis you want done after your first node.

New node options
New node options

As you can see in the above image, we have 2 options to choose from:

  • Perform hierarchical clustering
  • Create a heatmap visualization

Let’s press the second option and see what happens: Added node to the graph

There is a new node added to the graph! If we now press on Show code, we can see that there already is code present, showing us how to create a heatmap. When we now press Execute code, all the code from its parental nodes (in this case our gene expression node) is first run, after which the code within the node itself is run. If we open the chat interface by pressing Chat with me, we can view the full coding analysis as it runs and chat with ROLV to ask questions or request modifications. However, if we know exactly what type of modifications we want to make, we can also edit the code ourselves.

Ask A Human Feature:

AI gets you far, but sometimes you need human expertise. When you’re stuck, we provide an option to connect with data analysis experts through our platform. As of currently, this feature will only work when you are in the main chat interface. If you are chatting with our AI assistant, but you are stuck on a problem, click on the human button on the top right corner of the screen:

Location of ask a human button
Location of ask a human button

Clicking this will open the popup menu below. Here you can write your question about the currently open chat, and this will send you message to our data analysis experts together with your chat history. We will then get back to you as soon as possible!

Ask a human pop-up
Ask a human pop-up

FAQs & Troubleshooting

How do I update the app?

The new versions are released via GitHub releases. The app will check if there are new versions available every time you start it.

Does it work offline?

The app can not work offline as it requires connection to chat API.

How to uninstall?

Here’s how to uninstall Electron-based apps on Windows 11, macOS, Fedora, and Ubuntu:

Windows 11

Method 1: Via Settings

  1. Open Settings (Win + I).
  2. Go to Apps → Installed Apps.
  3. Search for the RolvDesktop
  4. Click the ⋮ (three dots) next to the app → Uninstall.

Method 2: Control Panel

  1. Open Control Panel → Programs → Programs and Features.
  2. Right-click the app → Uninstall.

macOS

Method 1: Drag to Trash

  1. Open Finder → Go to Applications.
  2. Drag the app to the Trash (or right-click → Move to Trash).
  3. Empty the Trash.

Method 2: Terminal

sudo rm -rf /Applications/RolvDesktop.app

Fedora (Linux)

Method 1: If Installed via Package Manager (dnf/rpm)

  1. List installed packages:

    dnf list --installed | grep -i "RolvDesktop"

  2. Uninstall:

    sudo dnf remove RolvDesktop

Ubuntu (Linux)

Method 1: If Installed via APT/.deb

  1. List installed packages:

    apt list --installed | grep -i "RolvDesktop"

  2. Uninstall:

    sudo apt purge RolvDesktop

Method 2: If Installed Manually (e.g., AppImage or .deb)

  • AppImage: Delete the file.

  • .deb:

    sudo dpkg -r <package-name>

Support & Feedback

Bug Reports:

You can open bug reports here: https://github.com/rolv-io/rolvapp/issues

Please include screenshots and a detailed account of what’s happening as well as toy data and prompts that reproduces the problem. Otherwise, we can’t help you.

Feature Requests: Process for suggesting improvements.

You can request features or share your ideas here: https://github.com/rolv-io/rolvapp/discussions/categories/ideas-feature-requests

Updates & Maintenance

Auto-Update: App checks if there are new versions every time you restart it. It is advised to keep an up-to-date version.

Manual Update: You can also check latest releases manually and update your app.

Documentation for older versions

Currently no documentation exists for older versions. We will add those to this section as we release new versions.