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Installation

tinycode is a single static binary with no runtime dependencies. Works with any OpenAI-compatible LLM endpoint --- local or cloud.

Binary install (recommended)

One-liner (install.sh)

Downloads the latest GitHub release for your platform and installs to ~/.local/bin:

curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/bobbyjohnstx/tinycode/main/install.sh | sh

Supported platforms: macOS and Linux (amd64 / arm64). Override defaults with environment variables:

Variable Default Purpose
TINYCODE_INSTALL_DIR $HOME/.local/bin Install destination
VERSION latest release Pin a release tag (for example v2.1.3)
TINYCODE_REPO bobbyjohnstx/tinycode GitHub owner/repo
TINYCODE_BASE_URL https://github.com Release download host
TINYCODE_API_URL https://api.github.com Releases API host

If ~/.local/bin is not on your PATH, the script prints shell-specific instructions.

Homebrew

brew install bobbyjohnstx/tap/tinycode

Manual download

Download a platform archive from GitHub Releases (for example tinycode-darwin-arm64.tar.gz), extract the tinycode binary, and place it on your PATH.

Build from source

Prerequisites

  • Go 1.27.1+ -- download (matches go.mod)
  • make -- included on macOS and most Linux distributions
  • git -- to clone the repo

No C toolchain needed. SQLite is pure Go (modernc.org/sqlite), so CGO is not required.

macOS

# Clone and build
git clone https://github.com/bobbyjohnstx/tinycode.git
cd tinycode
make build

# Run from the build directory
./dist/tinycode

# Or install to PATH
sudo cp dist/tinycode /usr/local/bin/

Go can be installed via Homebrew:

brew install go

Linux

# Install Go 1.27.1+ from https://go.dev/dl/ (distro packages may be older)

# Clone and build
git clone https://github.com/bobbyjohnstx/tinycode.git
cd tinycode
make build

# Run
./dist/tinycode

# Or install to PATH
sudo cp dist/tinycode /usr/local/bin/

Clipboard support (Linux)

For /copy and /paste-image to work on Linux, install a clipboard utility:

  • X11: sudo apt install xclip
  • Wayland: sudo apt install wl-clipboard

Without a clipboard utility, clipboard commands will fail with an error message. The rest of tinycode works fine.

Image paste (Linux)

For /paste-image with image support, xclip must be compiled with image format support (the default package includes it). On Wayland, wl-paste handles images natively.

Windows (WSL)

Native Windows is not supported -- bubbletea requires a Unix terminal.

Use WSL2 instead:

  1. Install WSL2: wsl --install (from PowerShell as admin)
  2. Open your WSL distribution (Ubuntu is the default)
  3. Follow the Linux instructions above (binary install or build from source)

Configuration

Config files are loaded with a 3-name fallback in each directory:

  1. tinycode.jsonc
  2. tinycode.json
  3. config.json

Global config: ~/.config/tinycode/ (first matching name wins). Project config: .tinycode/ walking up from the working directory (innermost wins). JSONC comments are supported.

// ~/.config/tinycode/tinycode.jsonc
{
  "model": "ollama/qwen3.5:9b",
  "default_agent": "build"
}

Cross-compilation

Build for all supported platforms at once:

make build-all

This produces binaries in dist/ for:

  • linux/amd64
  • linux/arm64
  • darwin/amd64
  • darwin/arm64
  • windows/amd64

Dependencies

Requirement When Notes
Go 1.27.1+ Build only Not needed at runtime; matches go.mod
make Build only For the Makefile targets
xclip / wl-clipboard Runtime (optional) Linux clipboard support

The built binary is fully self-contained. No Node.js, no runtime dependencies, no separate server process. The web UI is embedded via go:embed.

Verify installation

# Check version
tinycode version

# Run diagnostics (checks config, database, providers, agents, plugins, skills)
tinycode doctor

# Show CLI usage
tinycode help

# Show config and provider status
tinycode debug config
tinycode debug paths

# List discovered models (requires a running provider)
tinycode models

tinycode doctor is the recommended post-install check. It verifies every subsystem and exits non-zero if any critical check fails.

Updating

Binary install

Re-run install.sh, or brew upgrade tinycode if you installed via Homebrew.

From source

Pull the latest source and rebuild:

cd tinycode
git pull
make build

If installed to PATH, copy the new binary:

sudo cp dist/tinycode /usr/local/bin/