Install ​

This page shows the ways to install OpenVaala and what each one includes.

OpenVaala runs on Linux and macOS, on amd64 and arm64. Windows is not supported. There are three ways to get it:

From GitHub Releases ​

Each release has:

• The openvaala binary for each platform, with the web UI built in. Download the one for your system, make it executable and put it on your PATH:

  bash

  chmod +x openvaala-linux-amd64
  sudo mv openvaala-linux-amd64 /usr/local/bin/openvaala
  openvaala --version

• Desktop packages for macOS (a universal app for Apple silicon and Intel, macOS 12 or later) and Linux. The desktop app contains the full command-line tool as well; see Desktop for how to use it from a terminal and what Linux needs.

With go install ​

If you have Go, this installs the command-line tool into $(go env GOPATH)/bin:

go install github.com/VaalaCat/openvaala/cmd/openvaala@latest

Published version tags include the built web UI, so @latest and explicit release versions work with openvaala web without Node.js or pnpm. The development branch keeps generated pages out of Git: @main does not include the web UI. To run the web UI from a development checkout, build from source as described below.

Go 1.27.3 or later is required.

From source ​

Building from source gives you the CLI with the web UI, and optionally the desktop app.

You need:

• Go 1.27.3 or later, and Git
• Node.js 24 or later and pnpm, for the web UI

The builds need no C toolchain. To run the desktop app on Linux you need GTK 3, plus WebKitGTK 4.1 for the WebView interface.

git clone https://github.com/VaalaCat/openvaala.git
cd openvaala
script/build.sh

script/build.sh builds the web UI, embeds it, and writes dist/openvaala-<os>-<arch> for your platform. Useful options:

• --matrix — build for Linux and macOS on amd64 and arm64.
• --os linux --arch amd64,arm64 — choose targets.
• --skip-frontend — skip the web UI build and reuse an existing one (or build without the web UI).
• --version v0.2.0 — set the version string; by default it is the nearest Git tag.
• --output DIR — write somewhere other than dist/.

To build the desktop app:

script/build-desktop.sh                          # macOS universal, Linux amd64 and arm64
script/build-desktop.sh --platform linux/amd64   # one target

The results are in dist/desktop/. A macOS .dmg, code signing and notarization need a macOS machine and the matching credentials; on other hosts the script still builds the .app and skips those steps (--skip-dmg and --skip-notarize skip them explicitly).

Run either script with --help for all options.

Next ​

Continue with the Quickstart to add a model and start your first conversation.