Quickstart

What you need before launch

• A supported desktop OS: Windows, macOS, or Linux.
• A Cloudflare R2 account with an Account ID, Access Key ID, and Secret Access Key.
• Permission to list buckets if you want the app to validate the profile on save. The product validates by calling ListBuckets, so credentials that cannot list buckets will fail save/test even if they can access specific buckets.
• HTTPS URLs only for any public base URL or CDN domain you add to the profile.

Install a release build

1. Download the latest installer from the release builds page.
2. Install the app for your platform.
3. Launch R2 Desk Pro.

If you are building from source instead of using a release installer, use the Build and release guide.

Unlock the vault on first launch

On first run the app asks you to create a local vault passphrase.

• The passphrase is not sent anywhere.
• Operational commands stay blocked until the vault is unlocked.
• Auto-lock behavior is configurable later in Settings > Security.

Choose a passphrase you can remember. Recovery is destructive because the app does not store your passphrase for you.

Add your first profile

1. Click Add Profile.
2. Enter:
   • Profile name
   • Account ID
   • Access Key ID
   • Secret Access Key
   • Optional public base URL
   • Optional Cloudflare Zone ID and API token if you plan to use cache purge
3. Click Save and Validate.
4. Click Use to make the profile active.

The endpoint is derived automatically from your Account ID:

https://<ACCOUNT_ID>.r2.cloudflarestorage.com

Run a five-minute smoke check

Once the profile is active:

1. Select a bucket.
2. Browse into a prefix or stay at root.
3. Upload one file.
4. Download the same file back to disk.
5. Open object details and confirm metadata loads.
6. Generate a signed URL.

That verifies the basic profile, object, and transfer paths.

What to configure next

After the first successful smoke check:

• Set your preferred theme and table density in Settings.
• Set transfer concurrency and multipart thresholds if you work with larger files.
• Add a public base URL if you want copy-public-URL actions to map to a custom domain.
• Add Cloudflare purge credentials only if you actually need cache purge from inside the app.

If profile save fails

The most common first-run failure is an access policy problem, not a broken app build.

Check these first:

• The Account ID is correct.
• The Access Key ID and Secret Access Key belong to the same R2 credential pair.
• The credential can list buckets.
• Any public base URL or CDN domain uses https://.

If the app reports AccessDenied during save or test, move straight to Profiles and connections and Troubleshooting.