1. Installation

One command, any machine

macOS / Linux

curl -fsSL https://rayucode.com/install | bash

Windows (PowerShell)

irm https://rayucode.com/install.ps1 | iex

Then open a new terminal and run:

rayu

Nothing else is required — not Node, not npm, not sudo. Read the script before running it if you prefer: https://rayucode.com/install.sh (https://rayucode.com/install.ps1 for Windows).

What the installer does

Detects your OS, CPU architecture and libc (glibc vs musl).
Installs a standalone binary for your platform when one is published for this release — it embeds its own runtime, so nothing else is needed.
Otherwise downloads the published npm tarball directly from the registry and extracts the single pre-bundled file (dist/rayu.js). There is no dependency resolution and nothing is compiled.
Uses your system Node when it is >= 18; otherwise it unpacks a private, checksum-verified Node runtime into ~/.rayu/runtime that only Rayu uses.
Installs the launcher into ~/.rayu/bin — never a system directory — and adds that directory to your PATH (.bashrc, .zshrc, .profile, config.fish, or the Windows user PATH).
Verifies the result by running rayu --version before reporting success.

Every download is checksum-verified (SHA-256 for binaries and the Node runtime, the registry SHA-1 for the npm tarball). A mismatch aborts the install and changes nothing.

Why not `npm install -g`

npm install -g @rayu-dev/rayu-cli still works, but it fails in a different way on almost every machine: it depends on your Node version, your npm version, write access to the global npm prefix (the EACCES/sudo errors), and on npm installing ~80 transitive packages — including native ones — that the shipped bundle never loads at runtime. The installer above removes all four variables.

Layout on disk

~/.rayu/
  bin/rayu               launcher (or the standalone binary)
  bin/.rayu-installer    local copy of the installer, used by `rayu update`
  lib/current -> lib/rayu-<version>/rayu.js
  runtime/node/          private Node runtime (only when your Node was unusable)
  install.json           what was installed, how, and when

Settings and credentials stay in ~/.rayu and are untouched by reinstalls.

Options

Pass flags through the pipe with -s --:

# a specific version
curl -fsSL https://rayucode.com/install | bash -s -- --version 1.6.13

# somewhere else, and leave my shell profiles alone
curl -fsSL https://rayucode.com/install | bash -s -- --dir ~/bin --no-modify-path

# force the JS build even if a standalone binary exists
curl -fsSL https://rayucode.com/install | bash -s -- --npm-tarball

# all options
curl -fsSL https://rayucode.com/install | bash -s -- --help

Flag	Environment variable	Meaning
`--version <v>`	`RAYU_VERSION`	Install an exact version
`--dir <path>`	`RAYU_INSTALL_DIR`	Launcher directory (default `~/.rayu/bin`)
—	`RAYU_HOME`	State directory (default `~/.rayu`)
`--no-modify-path`	—	Do not touch shell profiles
`--npm-tarball`	—	Skip the standalone binary
`--uninstall`	—	Remove the install
`--quiet`	—	Less output
—	`RAYU_NPM_REGISTRY`	Use a registry mirror
—	`RAYU_NODE_VERSION`	Pin the private Node version
—	`HTTPS_PROXY`	Install through a proxy

On Windows the same options are PowerShell parameters (-Version, -Dir, -NoModifyPath, -NpmTarball, -Uninstall, -Quiet). Because irm | iex cannot forward arguments, download the script first:

irm https://rayucode.com/install.ps1 -OutFile install.ps1
.\install.ps1 -Version 1.6.13

Updating

rayu update

For an installer-managed install this re-runs the installer, which swaps lib/current to the new version. Re-running the original one-liner does exactly the same thing.

Uninstalling

curl -fsSL https://rayucode.com/install | bash -s -- --uninstall

& "$env:USERPROFILE\.rayu\bin\.rayu-installer.ps1" -Uninstall

This removes the launcher, the versioned bundles, the private Node runtime and the PATH entry. Your settings and credentials in ~/.rayu are kept — delete them with rm -rf ~/.rayu if you want a clean slate.

Alternatives

npm

npm install -g @rayu-dev/rayu-cli

Requires Node >= 18 and a writable global npm prefix. If you hit EACCES, point npm at a directory you own instead of using sudo:

npm config set prefix ~/.npm-global
export PATH="$HOME/.npm-global/bin:$PATH"

Linux packages

.deb and .rpm packages install the binary to /usr/bin/rayu system-wide — see Building binaries.

From source

Requires Bun >= 1.3:

cd rayu
bun install
bun run build            # -> dist/rayu.js
node dist/rayu.js --version

bun run package compiles standalone executables for every platform into dist/bin/. See Building binaries.

Troubleshooting

rayu: command not found right after installing. The PATH change only applies to new shells. Either open a new terminal or run:

export PATH="$HOME/.rayu/bin:$PATH"

The installer warns that another rayu is earlier on your PATH. An older npm install -g copy is shadowing the new one. Remove it:

npm uninstall -g @rayu-dev/rayu-cli

Alpine / musl. Handled automatically: the installer detects musl and uses a musl Node build. If no prebuilt runtime exists for your platform, install Node yourself (apk add nodejs) and re-run.

Corporate proxy or air-gapped network. Export HTTPS_PROXY before running, or set RAYU_NPM_REGISTRY to an internal mirror.

checksum mismatch. The download was corrupted or tampered with. Nothing was installed. Retry; if it persists, report it with the printed hashes.

Runtime note: the Grep tool calls an external ripgrep (rg) binary and git features require git. Neither is bundled — install them for full functionality (Rayu works without them, with reduced search/git support).

Next: Quickstart →