Installing bd

Quick Install (Recommended)

Homebrew (macOS/Linux)

brew install beads

Install Script (macOS/Linux/FreeBSD)

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

PowerShell (Windows)

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

npm

npm install -g @beads/bd

Platform-Specific Notes

macOS

Homebrew is recommended. If you specifically need go install, use one of the supported modes below.

# Server-mode only
CGO_ENABLED=0 go install github.com/steveyegge/beads/cmd/bd@latest

# Embedded-capable
CGO_ENABLED=1 GOFLAGS=-tags=gms_pure_go go install github.com/steveyegge/beads/cmd/bd@latest

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

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 requires Go, git, and a C compiler for embedded Dolt. ICU headers are not required; builds use gms_pure_go.

git clone https://github.com/gastownhall/beads
cd beads
make build

See CONTRIBUTING.md for full developer setup.

Next Steps

1. Initialize a project: cd your-project && bd init
2. Learn the basics: Quick Start
3. Configure your agent: bd init creates or updates AGENTS.md by default; run bd setup --list for integrations like bd setup codex, bd setup factory, bd setup claude, and bd setup mux
4. Upgrading later: Upgrading

Use bd onboard only as the manual snippet fallback for unsupported agents, custom instruction files, or existing projects where you cannot rerun bd init/bd setup.