Install openhost

As of v0.3.0+ (once the first release fires the binary workflow) you have two options: grab a pre-built archive from GitHub Releases, or build from source. Pre-built is the fast path.

Pre-built binaries

Download the archive for your platform from the GitHub Releases page:

Platform	Archive
Linux x86_64	`openhost-linux-x86_64.tar.gz`
macOS Apple Silicon (M-series)	`openhost-macos-aarch64.tar.gz`
macOS Intel	`openhost-macos-x86_64.tar.gz`
Windows x86_64	`openhost-windows-x86_64.zip`

Each archive carries three binaries (openhostd, openhost-dial, openhost-resolve), the CHANGELOG.md, both LICENSE-* files, and the distribution/ tree (systemd unit + launchd plist + install notes).

# Linux / macOS
curl -sSL https://github.com/kaicoder03/openhost/releases/latest/download/openhost-linux-x86_64.tar.gz \
  | tar xz
install -m 0755 openhost-linux-x86_64/openhost* ~/.local/bin/

# Windows PowerShell
Invoke-WebRequest -Uri https://github.com/kaicoder03/openhost/releases/latest/download/openhost-windows-x86_64.zip -OutFile openhost.zip
Expand-Archive openhost.zip -DestinationPath .

Verify:

openhostd --version
openhost-dial --version
openhost-resolve --version

All three should print the same version, matching the release tag.

Running as a service

Linux (systemd): copy distribution/systemd/openhostd.service into /etc/systemd/system/ and follow the distribution README.
macOS (launchd): copy distribution/launchd/com.openhost.openhostd.plist to ~/Library/LaunchAgents/.
Windows: run openhostd run from a terminal for now; a Windows Service wrapper is tracked as a future ROADMAP item.

Homebrew

macOS (Apple Silicon + Intel) and Linux x86_64 can install via Homebrew once the tap repo is live:

brew tap kaicoder03/openhost
brew install openhost

The formula ships the three binaries (openhostd, openhost-dial, openhost-resolve) only; follow Running as a service above for launchd / systemd setup.

The tap repo at kaicoder03/homebrew-openhost is a companion to the main repo; it’s created + populated by a maintainer on the first v0.3.0+ release. If the brew tap above fails with a 404, the tap is not yet live — install directly from the formula in the main repo instead:

brew install --HEAD https://raw.githubusercontent.com/kaicoder03/openhost/main/distribution/homebrew/openhost.rb

See distribution/homebrew/README.md for the formula source, the pre-tap testing procedure, and the maintainer’s tap-setup checklist.

Build from source

Fallback when pre-built isn’t an option: a supported platform that isn’t on the pre-built list, or a build-from-HEAD for pre-release work.

Prerequisites

Rust 1.90 (stable). The repository pins this version via rust-toolchain.toml, so rustup fetches it automatically the first time you build.
pnpm (only if you also want to work on this documentation site).
macOS, Linux, or Windows. The daemon has been exercised on all three.

Install rustup from rustup.rs if you don’t have it; no other Rust setup is required.

Clone and build

git clone https://github.com/kaicoder03/openhost.git
cd openhost

# Daemon + (optional) debug CLI that reads pkarr records.
cargo build --release -p openhost-daemon

# Client crate, including the openhost-dial + openhost-resolve binaries
# that sit behind the `cli` feature.
cargo build --release --features cli -p openhost-client

The first build fetches the pinned toolchain and every dependency, and will take 3–8 minutes on a warm machine. Subsequent builds are incremental.

Where the binaries land

target/release/openhostd        # host daemon
target/release/openhost-dial    # client CLI — dial a host, get an HTTP response
target/release/openhost-resolve # debug CLI — inspect a host's published pkarr record

Copy them into a directory on your PATH; ~/.local/bin or /usr/local/bin are common choices.

install -m 0755 target/release/openhostd        ~/.local/bin/
install -m 0755 target/release/openhost-dial    ~/.local/bin/
install -m 0755 target/release/openhost-resolve ~/.local/bin/

Platform notes

macOS. The build uses a forked webrtc crate pinned via the workspace’s [patch.crates-io]. Apple’s toolchain occasionally lags on rustls/ring ABI compatibility; if a build fails, a rustup toolchain update stable is usually enough.
Linux. No distro-specific packages required beyond a working C toolchain for ring’s assembly fast paths (build-essential on Debian/Ubuntu, base-devel on Arch).
Windows. Build works under both MSVC and GNU toolchains; MSVC gets better download sizes. The pair-DB file watcher uses ReadDirectoryChangesW under the hood; no extra configuration needed.

What’s next

Homebrew tap, Windows Service wrapper, and musl / Alpine Linux builds are tracked in ROADMAP.md. Binary releases for Linux x86_64, macOS (aarch64 + x86_64), and Windows x86_64 fire automatically on every v* tag via .github/workflows/release.yml.

With the binaries in place, head to Quickstart to bring up a reachable service.