Installation

Install, verify, update, or remove a portable Clarvis beta without requiring a development toolchain.

Portable Clarvis releases are self-contained. They include the exact Bun runtime and native OpenTUI dependencies, so an end user does not need Bun, Node.js, a compiler, a package manager, administrator access, or a source checkout.

These commands work only after v0.0.1-beta and its assets appear on GitHub Releases. Confirm the release exists before running an installer.

Supported release targets

Operating system	Architectures	Archive target	Current evidence
Linux (glibc)	x64, arm64	linux-x64, linux-arm64	Configured; Linux x64 built and first-paint-smoked locally
macOS	Intel, Apple silicon	darwin-x64, darwin-arm64	Configured; native release run required
Windows	x64, arm64	windows-x64, windows-arm64	Configured; native release run required

The corresponding native GitHub Actions job must complete before a configured target is described as release-tested. Clarvis requires a real interactive terminal for the TUI; headless use is available with clarvis -p.

Linux and macOS

Prerequisites are tar, mktemp, curl, and either sha256sum or shasum. The beta Linux archives target GNU/glibc systems; Alpine and other musl-only distributions are not supported by these portable assets.

Install from the versioned beta tag:

curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/getclarvis/clarvis/v0.0.1-beta/install.sh | sh

If you prefer to inspect the installer before executing it, download it first (less is used here only for review):

(
set -e
installer=$(mktemp "${TMPDIR:-/tmp}/clarvis-install.XXXXXX")
trap 'rm -f "$installer"' 0 HUP INT TERM
curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/getclarvis/clarvis/v0.0.1-beta/install.sh -o "$installer"
less "$installer"
sh "$installer"
)

The default managed installation lives beneath ${XDG_DATA_HOME:-$HOME/.local/share}/clarvis. A small launcher is placed in ${CLARVIS_BIN_DIR:-${XDG_BIN_HOME:-$HOME/.local/bin}}/clarvis. The installer does not edit shell profiles; if the resolved launcher directory is absent from PATH, it prints the line appropriate for adding it and a new shell may be required.

Windows PowerShell

Windows requires PowerShell with Invoke-RestMethod (irm), Invoke-Expression (iex), Invoke-WebRequest, Get-FileHash, and the system tar.exe.

irm https://raw.githubusercontent.com/getclarvis/clarvis/v0.0.1-beta/install.ps1 | iex

To inspect the PowerShell installer before executing it:

$installer = Join-Path ([System.IO.Path]::GetTempPath()) ("clarvis-install-" + [guid]::NewGuid() + ".ps1")
try {
  Invoke-WebRequest https://raw.githubusercontent.com/getclarvis/clarvis/v0.0.1-beta/install.ps1 -OutFile $installer -ErrorAction Stop
  Get-Content $installer
  & $installer
} finally {
  Remove-Item -LiteralPath $installer -Force -ErrorAction SilentlyContinue
}

The managed installation defaults to %LOCALAPPDATA%\Clarvis. Its bin directory is added to the user PATH unless CLARVIS_SKIP_PATH=1 is set. Reopen the terminal if clarvis is not immediately found.

What the installer verifies

For the detected operating system and architecture, the installer:

1. downloads the target's versioned .tar.gz archive and SHA256SUMS from the same release;
2. requires one exact checksum entry and verifies the downloaded bytes;
3. extracts to a private staging directory;
4. verifies that the staged CLI reports the requested version;
5. refuses to replace an unrelated command at the launcher path;
6. activates the new version only after those checks succeed.

Each archive also has an internal release.json manifest with the exact path, size, and SHA-256 of every payload file. Clarvis verifies that manifest again before an update is activated.

To verify the downloaded archive manually, download both the archive and SHA256SUMS, isolate the line whose filename exactly matches the archive, and use the platform's SHA-256 tool. Do not install an asset when its name or digest differs.

Run and update

clarvis --version
cd /path/to/project
clarvis
clarvis --update

The updater works only for a managed portable installation. It does not run automatically on startup. It stages and verifies the candidate, retains the previous version, and changes the active version last. Source checkouts and bun link installations intentionally refuse self-update; update those through Git and the development setup instead.

A prerelease can advance to a newer prerelease or the later stable release. A stable installation does not select prereleases.

Unsigned beta binaries

The first beta is not yet code-signed or notarized. macOS Gatekeeper or Windows SmartScreen may ask the user to confirm a downloaded application. Read the platform warning, confirm the release URL and SHA-256, and follow the operating system's normal approval UI. The Clarvis installers do not disable or bypass platform protections.

Remove Clarvis

There is no automatic uninstaller in the first beta. Before removing anything, locate the managed root and launcher and confirm they belong to Clarvis.

On Linux or macOS, remove only the marked launcher at ${CLARVIS_BIN_DIR:-${XDG_BIN_HOME:-$HOME/.local/bin}}/clarvis and the Clarvis directory at ${CLARVIS_INSTALL_ROOT:-${XDG_DATA_HOME:-$HOME/.local/share}/clarvis}. On Windows, remove the Clarvis directory beneath %LOCALAPPDATA% and remove its bin entry from the user PATH.

User configuration and credentials default to ~/.clarvis (or %USERPROFILE%\.clarvis) and are separate from the managed binary. Removal of the application does not delete that state. Delete it only after backing up anything needed and confirming that stored provider credentials and sessions are no longer required.

Installation paths can be overridden with the documented operator variables in install.sh and install.ps1. If an override was used, remove the resolved paths rather than the defaults.