How to Install the Kode CLI on macOS, Linux, and Windows

Install the Kode CLI via shell script, NPM, or build from source on macOS, Linux, and Windows. Includes first-run setup and upgrade instructions.

The Kode CLI is a single compiled Go binary — no runtime dependencies, no virtual environment, no package manager side effects. You install it once, and it works. Choose the method that matches your platform and workflow below.

Install

macOS / Linux

curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/sicario-labs/kode/master/script/install.sh | bash

Shell script (macOS / Linux): Downloads the appropriate pre-built binary for your OS and architecture from GitHub Releases, places it in ~/.kode/bin, and updates your shell configuration file (.zshrc, .bashrc, etc.). Pass --no-modify-path to skip the PATH modification. Pass --version 3.6.9 to pin to a specific release.

PowerShell (Windows): Downloads the Windows AMD64 binary from GitHub Releases and installs it to %LOCALAPPDATA%\kode\kode.exe, adding it to your user PATH. Override the install directory by setting KODE_INSTALL_DIR before running the script.

NPM: Installs the @sicario-labs/kode package globally. The package wraps the platform-appropriate binary and registers it as a global command. Node.js or Bun is required. This is the recommended path if you’re already managing global tools with NPM.

Verify Installation

After any of the above install methods complete, open a new terminal and run:

kode version

Kode prints its version, commit hash, and build date:

kode v3.6.9 (commit: abc1234, date: 2025-07-01)

If kode is not found, ensure the install directory is on your PATH. The shell installer displays the exact path it used during installation.

First-Run TUI Download

Kode’s interactive terminal UI (kode tui) is a separate ~52 MB compiled bundle distributed as tui-bundle.tar.gz on GitHub Releases. It is not included in the initial install to keep the base install fast. On the first kode tui invocation, Kode downloads the bundle automatically:

Downloading TUI bundle (~52 MB) from GitHub Releases...

The bundle is extracted to ~/.kode/tui/ and cached there. Subsequent kode tui invocations use the cached bundle and start immediately.

You can override the download behavior with two environment variables:

Variable	Purpose
KODE_TUI_DIR	Point to a local directory containing an already-extracted TUI bundle (for air-gapped environments)
KODE_TUI_BUNDLE_URL	Override the download URL (for self-hosted distributions or mirrors)

Upgrading

Upgrade Kode to the latest release by re-running the same install command you used originally. The script detects an existing installation and replaces the binary in place. Your .kode/ project configuration files are not affected.

macOS / Linux

curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/sicario-labs/kode/master/script/install.sh | bash

To upgrade to a specific version, pass --version to the shell script:

curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/sicario-labs/kode/master/script/install.sh | bash -s -- --version 3.6.9

Uninstalling

To remove Kode, delete the binary from the directory where it was installed:

• macOS / Linux: rm ~/.kode/bin/kode
• Windows: Delete %LOCALAPPDATA%\kode\kode.exe
• NPM: npm uninstall -g @sicario-labs/kode

You can also remove the TUI bundle cache at ~/.kode/tui/ to free up disk space. Project-level .kode/ directories (created by kode init) are always left in place — they live inside your project and are yours to manage.

System Requirements

Requirement	Details
Operating system	macOS (Intel and Apple Silicon), Linux (x86-64 and ARM64), Windows (AMD64)
Go	1.22 or later — only required if building from source
Node.js or Bun	Required only for TUI features in development mode
Git	Required for Ghost Branch mode (kode loop --branches N)

No other dependencies are needed for the prebuilt binaries. The Go verification engine ships as a fully statically linked binary with no CGo.

Build from Source

If you prefer to compile Kode yourself — for custom build flags, a specific commit, or an unsupported platform — clone the repository and use make install:

git clone https://github.com/sicario-labs/kode
cd kode
make install

make install runs go install with the correct linker flags to embed the version, commit, and build date into the binary. The installed binary lands wherever $GOPATH/bin points, which is typically already on your PATH.

To build a binary without installing it:

make build
# produces bin/kode (or bin/kode.exe on Windows)

The Makefile also supports cross-compilation for all release targets via make release-checksum, which produces platform binaries in dist/.

Building from source requires Go 1.22 or later. Run go version to check. The module path is github.com/kode/kode — the CLI entry point is in cmd/kode/.