Installation

Get Digit up and running in under two minutes!

Platform Support

For the full platform support matrix (which OSes, distribution methods, and platform-gated features are supported), see Platform Support.

Quick Install

Digit installs from the command line. The desktop app ships with it — there is no separate installer to download.

macOS (Homebrew)

brew install digitable-lol/tap/digit

Linux / macOS / WSL2 / Android (Termux)

curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/digitable-lol/digit/main/scripts/install.sh | bash

Windows (native)

Run in powershell:

iex (irm https://raw.githubusercontent.com/digitable-lol/digit/main/scripts/install.ps1) 

Desktop app

Once the command line install is done, start the desktop app with

digit desktop

What the Installer Does

The installer handles everything automatically — all dependencies (Python, Node.js, ripgrep, ffmpeg), the repo clone, virtual environment, global digit command setup, and LLM provider configuration. By the end, you're ready to chat.

Install Layout

Where the installer puts things depends on whether you're installing as a normal user or as root:

Installer	Code lives at	digit binary	Data directory
Per-user (git installer)	~/.digit/digit/	~/.local/bin/digit (symlink)	~/.digit/
Root-mode (sudo curl … | sudo bash)	/usr/local/lib/digit/	/usr/local/bin/digit	/root/.digit/ (or $DIGIT_HOME)

The root-mode FHS layout (/usr/local/lib/…, /usr/local/bin/digit) matches where other system-wide developer tools land on Linux. It's useful for shared-machine deployments where one system install should serve every user. Per-user config (auth, skills, sessions) still lives under each user's ~/.digit/ or explicit DIGIT_HOME.

After Installation

Reload your shell and start chatting:

source ~/.bashrc   # or: source ~/.zshrc
digit             # Start chatting!

To reconfigure individual settings later, use the dedicated commands:

digit model          # Choose your LLM provider and model
digit tools          # Configure which tools are enabled
digit gateway setup  # Set up messaging platforms
digit config set     # Set individual config values
digit config get     # Inspect individual config values
digit setup          # Or run the full setup wizard to configure everything at once

Fastest path: Nous Portal

One subscription covers 300+ models plus the Tool Gateway (web search, image generation, TTS, cloud browser). Skip the per-tool key juggling:

digit setup --portal

That logs you in, sets Nous as your provider, and turns on the Tool Gateway in one command.

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Prerequisites

Installer: On non-Windows platforms, the only prerequisite is Git. On Linux, also make sure curl and xz-utils are available (the installer downloads Node.js as a .tar.xz archive). The desktop app additionally requires g++ (or build-essential on Debian/Ubuntu) to compile native modules. The installer automatically handles everything else:

• uv (fast Python package manager)
• Python 3.11 (via uv, no sudo needed)
• Node.js v22 (for browser automation and WhatsApp bridge)
• ripgrep (fast file search)
• ffmpeg (audio format conversion for TTS)

info

You do not need to install Python, Node.js, ripgrep, or ffmpeg manually. The installer detects what's missing and installs it for you. Just make sure git is available (git --version). On Linux, ensure curl and xz-utils are installed (sudo apt install curl xz-utils on Debian/Ubuntu). For the desktop app, also install build-essential (sudo apt install build-essential).

Nix users

Nix is no longer an explicitly supported install path (best-effort only). If you already use Nix (on NixOS, macOS, or Linux), there's a dedicated setup path with a Nix flake, declarative NixOS module, and optional container mode. See the Nix & NixOS Setup guide.

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Manual / Developer Installation

If you want to clone the repo and install from source — for contributing, running from a specific branch, or having full control over the virtual environment — see the Development Setup section in the Contributing guide.

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Non-Sudo / System Service User Installs

Running Digit as a dedicated unprivileged user (e.g. a digit systemd service account, or any user without sudo access) is supported. The only thing on the install path that genuinely needs root is Playwright's --with-deps step, which apt-installs shared libraries (libnss3, libxkbcommon, etc.) used by Chromium. The installer detects whether sudo is available and gracefully degrades when it isn't — it will install the Chromium binary into the service user's own Playwright cache and print the exact command an administrator needs to run separately.

Recommended split (Debian/Ubuntu):

1. One time, as an admin user with sudo, install the system libraries Chromium needs:

   sudo npx playwright install-deps chromium

   (You can run this from anywhere — npx will fetch Playwright on the fly.)

2. As the unprivileged service user, run the regular installer. It will detect the missing sudo, skip --with-deps, and install Chromium into the user's local Playwright cache:

   curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/digitable-lol/digit/main/scripts/install.sh | bash

   If you want to skip the Playwright step entirely — for example because you're running headless and don't need browser automation — pass --skip-browser:

   curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/digitable-lol/digit/main/scripts/install.sh | bash -s -- --skip-browser

3. Make digit available to the service user's shells. The installer writes the launcher to ~/.local/bin/digit. System service accounts often have a minimal PATH that doesn't include ~/.local/bin. Either add it to the user's environment, or symlink the launcher into a system location:

   # Option A — add to the service user's profile
   echo 'export PATH="$HOME/.local/bin:$PATH"' >> ~/.bashrc
   
   # Option B — symlink system-wide (run as an admin)
   sudo ln -s /home/digit/.digit/digit/venv/bin/digit /usr/local/bin/digit

4. Verify: digit doctor should now run cleanly. If you get ModuleNotFoundError: No module named 'dotenv', you're invoking the repo source digit file (~/.digit/digit/digit) with system Python instead of the venv launcher (~/.digit/digit/venv/bin/digit) — fix step 3.

The same pattern works on Arch (the installer uses pacman with the same sudo-detection logic), Fedora/RHEL, and openSUSE — those distros don't support --with-deps at all, so an administrator always installs the system libraries separately. The relevant dnf/zypper commands are printed by the installer.

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Troubleshooting

Problem	Solution
digit: command not found	Reload your shell (source ~/.bashrc) or check PATH
API key not set	Run digit model to configure your provider, or digit config set OPENROUTER_API_KEY your_key
Missing config after update	Run digit config check then digit config migrate

For more diagnostics, run digit doctor — it will tell you exactly what's missing and how to fix it.

Install method auto-detection

Digit auto-detects whether it was installed via the git installer, Docker, or NixOS, and digit update prints the matching update command for that path. There's no env var to set — the detection is based on the install layout (~/.digit/hermes-agent/ checkout, Docker image stamp, or Nix store path). digit doctor also surfaces the detected method under its environment summary.