TensuGo

Setup guide

Installing the KataGo engine

TensuGo does not read positions itself. The reading is done by KataGo, an open-source Go engine that runs on your own computer, and it installs separately. Until it is there the board, game records, problems and the 3D board all work — only AI analysis does not.

The app has a setup wizard that does all of this for you. This page is for when the wizard cannot finish, or when you would rather do it by hand.

Windows

First: which TensuGo did you install?

There are two Windows installers. The one named …-ui-only… deliberately contains no engine — it exists so people who already run KataGo do not download a second copy. If you took that one, nothing is broken; the engine is simply not on your computer yet.

The simplest fix is to install the full package instead, which brings its own engine: Windows downloads.

Or install KataGo yourself

KataGo ships as several builds. Pick by what your computer has:

  • OpenCL — works on nearly every computer, including built-in Intel/AMD graphics. Take this one if you are not sure.
  • CUDA — NVIDIA graphics cards only, and faster on them. It also needs NVIDIA's CUDA and cuDNN runtimes installed.
  • Eigen — pure CPU. No graphics card needed, several times slower, and it still beats having no analysis at all.

Download from our engine downloads page (we mirror the official builds so you do not have to hunt for them), or from KataGo's own releases.

  1. Unzip it somewhere permanent — C:\KataGo is a good choice. Do not leave it in Downloads; Windows cleans that folder.
  2. You also need a network file (the "weights", a .bin.gz file). The engine is the program; the network is what it knows. One without the other does nothing.
  3. Back in TensuGo: Settings → Engine → Detect and configure.

If detection finds nothing, point at the files by hand in the same panel: the katago.exe, the .bin.gz network, and a .cfg config (KataGo ships one; gtp_example.cfg works).

macOS

The Mac .dmg has never contained KataGo. It does contain the human-play network, which is data for the engine and does nothing on its own — which is why the app can look complete and still analyse nothing.

The one-command install

KataGo is in Homebrew:

brew install katago

TensuGo's wizard runs exactly this for you when it finds Homebrew. If you do not have Homebrew, install it first from brew.sh, then run the line above.

Then give it a network

Homebrew installs the engine but not a network file. Download one from our downloads page or from katagotraining.org, then run Settings → Engine → Detect and configure.

On Apple Silicon, Homebrew's build uses Metal/OpenCL and is the right one. You do not need a CUDA build on a Mac; there is no NVIDIA hardware to use it.

When it still will not work

  • "Engine not configured" — the paths are empty. Run Detect and configure, or set the three files by hand.
  • The engine starts and then exits — usually the network and the build disagree, or a CUDA build is running without the CUDA runtime installed. Try the OpenCL build.
  • Analysis is extremely slow — you are probably on the Eigen (CPU) build. That is expected; lower the visit count in Settings → Engine, or install the OpenCL build.
  • macOS refuses to open the binary — right-click it in Finder and choose Open once; after that Gatekeeper remembers.

Still stuck? Post in the forum with the text from the wizard's log — it says what actually failed, and someone can read it.