Installation

mew is a terminal-based AI coding assistant. It runs on your machine and connects to LLM providers you configure. No data leaves your system except API calls to your chosen provider.

macOS and Linux

Homebrew

brew tap mewcomputer/mew
brew install mew

Upgrade later with:

brew upgrade mew

Install script

curl --proto '=https' --tlsv1.2 -sSf https://mew.computer/get.sh | sh

The script detects your platform, downloads the latest release from GitHub, verifies the SHA256 checksum, and installs mew to ~/.local/bin or ~/bin. Re-run the script to upgrade.

Install the latest nightly build instead:

curl --proto '=https' --tlsv1.2 -sSf https://mew.computer/get.sh | sh -s -- --nightly

Environment variables:

Variable	Description
MEW_CHANNEL	stable or nightly (default: stable)
MEW_VERSION	Install a specific stable release, e.g. v0.2.0 (default: latest)
MEW_INSTALL_DIR	Override the install directory
MEW_DRY_RUN	Set to 1 to preview without installing
MEW_VERBOSE	Set to 1 for extra logging

Manual download

Grab the tarball for your platform from the GitHub Releases page. Each release includes a SHA256SUMS file for verification.

Build from source

Prerequisites

• Rust 1.75+ with the 2021 edition
• A terminal that supports 256 colors and UTF-8
• An API key for at least one provider (see Providers)

Install with cargo

cargo install --git https://github.com/mewcomputer/mew mew

This builds and installs the mew binary to ~/.cargo/bin/mew. Make sure ~/.cargo/bin is on your PATH.

Clone and build

git clone https://github.com/mewcomputer/mew.git
cd mew
cargo build --release -p mew

The binary lands at target/release/mew. Copy it somewhere on your PATH:

cp target/release/mew /usr/local/bin/

Or use the install recipe:

just install

For a system-wide install that survives across cargo toolchain updates:

just install-system   # builds, then sudo cp to /usr/local/bin

Verify the installation

mew --version

You should see a version string. If mew isn’t found, check that your install directory (~/.local/bin, ~/bin, ~/.cargo/bin, or /usr/local/bin) is on your PATH.

What gets installed

Binary	Source crate	Purpose
mew	crates/mew	The main binary. Runs the TUI, one-shot prompts, and the daemon.
mew-web	crates/mew-web-bridge	Web UI bridge. Serves the browser-based chat interface. Build separately with just build-web.

The mew binary covers every subcommand: interactive chat (default), one-shot prompts (mew run), the daemon (mew daemon), and config editing (mew config). You only need mew-web if you want the browser interface.

Subcommands

Command	Description
mew	Start an interactive TUI session (default)
mew run "prompt"	Run a single prompt non-interactively
mew chat	Same as the default, but accepts --connect to attach to a remote daemon
mew daemon	Start the WebSocket daemon (for web UI or remote clients). Add --iroh for P2P transport.
mew pair	Generate a QR code for pairing mobile/remote clients over iroh.
mew config show	Print current configuration
mew config edit	Open the config file in your editor
mew debug	Debug tools (permission simulator, VFS inspector)

Next steps

• Quick Start: send your first prompt
• Configuration: set up providers and credentials
• Providers: available providers and how to configure them