Installing bd

Quick Install (Recommended)

Homebrew (macOS/Linux)

bash

brew install beads

Install Script (macOS/Linux/FreeBSD)

bash

curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/gastownhall/beads/main/scripts/install.sh | bash

PowerShell (Windows)

pwsh

irm https://raw.githubusercontent.com/gastownhall/beads/main/install.ps1 | iex

npm

bash

npm install -g @beads/bd

Platform-Specific Notes

macOS

Homebrew is recommended. Alternatively: go install github.com/steveyegge/beads/cmd/bd@latest (requires CGO dependencies - see Building from source below).

Linux

Homebrew works on Linux. For Arch Linux: yay -S beads-git or paru -S beads-git (AUR).

Windows

Native Windows support - no MSYS or MinGW required. The PowerShell installer above is the recommended path. Go is only required for building from source.

Verifying Installation

bash

bd version
bd help

If you see bd: command not found, ensure your install location is in PATH. For Homebrew and npm this is automatic. For go install, add $(go env GOPATH)/bin to your PATH.

Building from Source

Building from source or using go install requires CGO dependencies:

Platform	Command
macOS	`brew install icu4c zstd`
Debian/Ubuntu	`sudo apt-get install -y libicu-dev libzstd-dev`
Fedora/RHEL	`sudo dnf install -y libicu-devel libzstd-devel`

bash

git clone https://github.com/gastownhall/beads
cd beads
go build -o bd ./cmd/bd

See CONTRIBUTING.md for full developer setup.

Next Steps

Initialize a project: cd your-project && bd init
Learn the basics: Quick Start
Configure your editor: IDE Setup
Upgrading later: Upgrading