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Install

abstract runs on macOS (Apple Silicon and Intel) and Linux (x64 and arm64).

The easy way: one command

Section titled “The easy way: one command”

  1. Open a terminal. On a Mac: press ⌘+Space, type Terminal, and press Enter.

  2. Paste this and press Enter:

    Terminal window
    curl -fsSL https://useabstract.co/install.sh | sh

    It downloads abstract for your computer, checks it, and installs it. Nothing else is needed: no Bun, no Node, no admin password.

  3. Open a new terminal window (so it finds the new command), then check it works:

    Terminal window
    abstract --version

Next: the quick start takes you from an empty folder to a verified draft.

What the installer does

Section titled “What the installer does”
  • Detects your system and downloads the matching file from GitHub Releases.
  • Verifies its SHA-256 checksum against the published SHA256SUMS. If they don’t match, it stops and installs nothing.
  • Puts the abstract command in ~/.local/bin, and adds that folder to your PATH in your shell’s startup file (~/.zshrc, ~/.bashrc, …) if it isn’t there already.

You can read the script first: useabstract.co/install.sh. Options are set with environment variables:

Terminal window
# a specific version
curl -fsSL https://useabstract.co/install.sh | ABSTRACT_VERSION=0.2.0 sh
# another folder, without touching your shell files
curl -fsSL https://useabstract.co/install.sh | ABSTRACT_INSTALL_DIR=~/bin ABSTRACT_NO_MODIFY_PATH=1 sh

Where the files come from

Section titled “Where the files come from”

Every release is built by GitHub Actions from the public source code, on GitHub’s own machines, not on anyone’s laptop. Each file comes with a build-provenance attestation, and you can verify it with the GitHub CLI:

Terminal window
gh attestation verify abstract-darwin-arm64.tar.gz --repo rabieHs/abstract

For developers: npm or Bun

Section titled “For developers: npm or Bun”

If you already use Bun (1.1 or newer), you can install the package instead. This version runs on your Bun:

Terminal window
bun install -g abstract-cli

Update

Section titled “Update”

Run the installer again. It replaces the old version and keeps your settings and workspaces:

Terminal window
curl -fsSL https://useabstract.co/install.sh | sh

With npm or Bun: npm i -g abstract-cli@latest or bun install -g abstract-cli@latest.

Then restart abstract (stop it with Ctrl+C and run abstract again).

Uninstall

Section titled “Uninstall”
Terminal window
rm ~/.local/bin/abstract        # installed with the installer
npm uninstall -g abstract-cli    # or with npm / bun remove -g abstract-cli

This removes the program only. Your data stays where it is: settings, keys, and skills in ~/.abstract, and each workspace in its own folder. Delete those yourself if you want them gone, and remove the # added by the abstract installer line from your shell’s startup file.