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CLI installation options

The CLI installation guide has direct, package-manager, and offline methods. Use this page to inspect the bootstrap, pin a version, or choose an installation prefix. Keep using the same owner for updates and removal.

Review the installer before running it

Download the bootstrap, read it, and run a dry run before installation:

curl -fSLo colossus-install.sh \
  https://github.com/obscuritylabs/Colossus/releases/latest/download/colossus-install.sh
less colossus-install.sh
sh colossus-install.sh --dry-run
sh colossus-install.sh --yes

Invoke-WebRequest `
  https://github.com/obscuritylabs/Colossus/releases/latest/download/colossus-install.ps1 `
  -OutFile colossus-install.ps1
Get-Content .\colossus-install.ps1
.\colossus-install.ps1 -DryRun
.\colossus-install.ps1 -Yes

The versioned bootstrap source is retained in the corresponding Git tag under release/bootstrap/. Release assets include adjacent SHA-256 files for offline comparison. A dry run resolves the release without downloading an archive, creating a directory, or installing anything.

Choose a version, channel, or prefix

Pass these options to the downloaded installer script:

Choice macOS and Linux Windows PowerShell
Exact stable version --version vX.Y.Z -Version vX.Y.Z
Latest preview --channel preview -Channel preview
Exact preview --channel preview --version vX.Y.Z-preview.N -Channel preview -Version vX.Y.Z-preview.N
Absolute installation prefix --prefix PATH -Prefix PATH
Resolve without installing --dry-run -DryRun
Forbid profile changes --no-modify-path -NoModifyPath
Mark unattended use --yes -Yes

Stable is the default channel. The current installers do not prompt or change shell profiles. The chosen prefix must have trusted ownership and no replaceable, shared writable path components.

Supported targets

Host Release target Archive
macOS, Apple silicon aarch64-apple-darwin .tar.gz
macOS, Intel x86_64-apple-darwin .tar.gz
Linux, ARM64 aarch64-unknown-linux-musl .tar.gz
Linux, x86-64 x86_64-unknown-linux-musl .tar.gz
Windows, ARM64 aarch64-pc-windows-msvc .zip
Windows, x86-64 x86_64-pc-windows-msvc .zip

An unsupported host fails before any archive download.

Ubuntu workspace sandbox

For sandbox.profile: workspace-development on Ubuntu 24.04 or later, a root-owned, non-replaceable binary path and the archive's narrowly attached AppArmor profile may be needed:

sudo ./install.sh --prefix /usr/local
sudo ./install-apparmor.sh /usr/local/bin/colossus

Check sandbox doctor first. If it already reports protected-path exclusions as supported, this step is unnecessary. Do not disable Ubuntu's host-wide unprivileged-user-namespace restriction to run Colossus; use the exact-path profile or the OCI backend.

After installing, return to CLI verification. For ownership, updates, and removal, see CLI installation lifecycle.