Install Nika

Latest release: v, what brew install and the install script give you. Main may be ahead with unreleased features. Run nika --version and nika --help after install; those commands are the executable source of truth for your local binary. The nika: v1 language envelope is stable.

Install today

Homebrew
curl
cargo binstall
nix
source

brew install supernovae-st/tap/nika

Recent Homebrew versions gate third-party taps behind a trust prompt — if the install reports the tap as untrusted, run brew trust supernovae-st/tap once and retry.

curl -LsSf https://nika.sh/install.sh | sh

Detects platform (macOS / Linux), prefers Homebrew when NIKA_VERSION=latest and Homebrew is available, then falls back to the GitHub release binary. Prefer a guided page? nika.sh/install walks the same install step by step, alongside this raw script.

cargo binstall --git https://github.com/supernovae-st/nika nika-cli

Fetches the prebuilt release tarball (no compile — the crate ships binstall metadata mapping every release asset). One honest wart until the crates.io publish: the binary lands as ~/.cargo/bin/nika-cli (the crate’s declared bin name) — add the public name once with ln -sf ~/.cargo/bin/nika-cli ~/.cargo/bin/nika.

nix run github:supernovae-st/nika

Builds the exact release source via the repo’s root flake.nix — the first run compiles, the store caches it, and the binary answers as nika (the flake renames the seed crate at install, same as the release). nix profile install github:supernovae-st/nika for a durable install. Zero gatekeeper: no nixpkgs queue, the flake ships in-repo.

git clone https://github.com/supernovae-st/nika.git
cd nika
cargo test --workspace --lib
cargo build --release -p nika-cli
mkdir -p ~/.nika/bin
ln -sf "$PWD/target/release/nika-cli" ~/.nika/bin/nika
export PATH="$HOME/.nika/bin:$PATH"
nika --version

First-run verification

nika --version
nika try       # see a canonical workflow WORK — offline, zero keys, nothing written
nika doctor    # providers + editor/agent readiness + exact fixes
nika init      # repo-local schema + AGENTS.md
nika wire all  # explicit MCP wiring for agent clients

nika try is the zero-risk first contact: it rehearses a canonical example under the mock provider — nothing written, nothing owned, and bare nika try lists what there is to see. nika init scaffolds repo-local schema wiring and agent context. Newer binaries also expose nika wire cursor / nika wire all for explicit MCP client setup. Installers do not mutate editor configs automatically.

Platforms

Platform	Release asset	Status
macOS Apple Silicon	`nika-macos-arm64-<release>.tar.gz`	shipped
macOS Intel	`nika-macos-x64-<release>.tar.gz`	shipped
Linux x86_64	`nika-linux-x64-<release>.tar.gz`	shipped
Linux aarch64	`nika-linux-arm64-<release>.tar.gz`	shipped
Windows	`x86_64-pc-windows-msvc`	🧭 planned post-1.0
WASM (sandboxed)	`wasm32-wasip2`	🧭 planned · a future major

Trust but verify

The install script lives at nika.sh/install.sh. Read it before piping to sh. It’s a small POSIX shell script.Release binaries are published at github.com/supernovae-st/nika/releases with SHA256 sums.

Provider keys

Nika needs a provider to run inference (local needs no key at all).

# Local · zero key (Ollama daemon)
ollama pull llama3.2:3b

# Or export any cloud provider key (ephemeral)
export MISTRAL_API_KEY=...
export ANTHROPIC_API_KEY=sk-ant-...

See Providers catalog for all providers with their env var names.

What gets installed

nika, the binary (single file, no daemon, no background process)
Nothing else. No service, no telemetry, no home-dir pollution beyond files you explicitly create with nika init or nika wire.

Shell completions

The binary generates its own completions — no separate package, always in sync with the verbs your version actually ships:

zsh
bash
fish

mkdir -p ~/.zsh/completions
nika completions zsh > ~/.zsh/completions/_nika
# once, in ~/.zshrc (before compinit):
# fpath=(~/.zsh/completions $fpath)
exec zsh

mkdir -p ~/.local/share/bash-completion/completions
nika completions bash > ~/.local/share/bash-completion/completions/nika
exec bash

nika completions fish > ~/.config/fish/completions/nika.fish

Also available: elvish and powershell. Re-run the same command after an upgrade to pick up new verbs.

On engines up to 0.93.x the generated script bound completions to the internal binary name instead of nika — fixed on current main. If completions don’t fire after installing, upgrade and regenerate.

Uninstall

# Homebrew
brew uninstall nika

# Manual install
rm ~/.nika/bin/nika

First workflow

Your first .nika.yaml.

Editor setup

Schema validation + LSP roadmap.

Live state

Track live engine state.

Architecture

Why Nika is built this way.

Overview

Getting started

Agents & integrations

Concepts

Install Nika

Install today

First-run verification

Platforms

Trust but verify

Provider keys

What gets installed

Shell completions

Uninstall

Next

First workflow

Editor setup

Live state

Architecture

The Nika ecosystem

​Install today

​First-run verification

​Platforms

​Trust but verify

​Provider keys

​What gets installed

​Shell completions

​Uninstall

​Next

First workflow

Editor setup

Live state

Architecture

​The Nika ecosystem

Install today

First-run verification

Platforms

Trust but verify

Provider keys

What gets installed

Shell completions

Uninstall

Next

The Nika ecosystem