Download Kaappi v0.21.0

Recommended: install script

The install script auto-detects your platform, downloads the latest release, verifies SHA256 checksums, and installs everything to the right place:

curl -fsSL https://kaappi-lang.org/install.sh | bash

This installs kaappi and thottam (the package manager) to ~/.local/bin/ and standard libraries to ~/.kaappi/lib/. Set INSTALL_DIR to change the binary location:

curl -fsSL https://kaappi-lang.org/install.sh | INSTALL_DIR=/usr/local/bin bash

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Manual downloads

Download individual files from the latest GitHub release. You need at minimum the kaappi binary for your platform and the library archive.

Binaries

Platform	Architecture	kaappi	thottam
macOS	ARM64 (Apple Silicon)	kaappi-aarch64-macos	thottam-aarch64-macos
Linux	x86_64	kaappi-x86_64-linux	thottam-x86_64-linux
Linux	ARM64	kaappi-aarch64-linux	thottam-aarch64-linux
Linux	RISC-V 64	kaappi-riscv64-linux	thottam-riscv64-linux
Linux	s390x (IBM Z)	kaappi-s390x-linux	thottam-s390x-linux
Linux	ppc64le (POWER)	kaappi-powerpc64le-linux	thottam-powerpc64le-linux
Windows	x86_64 (x64)	kaappi-x86_64-windows.exe	thottam-x86_64-windows.exe
Windows	ARM64	kaappi-aarch64-windows.exe	thottam-aarch64-windows.exe
FreeBSD	x86_64	kaappi-x86_64-freebsd	thottam-x86_64-freebsd
FreeBSD	ARM64	kaappi-aarch64-freebsd	thottam-aarch64-freebsd
OpenBSD	x86_64	kaappi-x86_64-openbsd	thottam-x86_64-openbsd
OpenBSD	ARM64	kaappi-aarch64-openbsd	thottam-aarch64-openbsd
NetBSD	x86_64	kaappi-x86_64-netbsd	thottam-x86_64-netbsd
NetBSD	ARM64	kaappi-aarch64-netbsd	thottam-aarch64-netbsd

macOS binaries are Developer ID signed and Apple notarized. Windows binaries are not code-signed — SmartScreen may show a "Windows protected your PC" warning on first run. Click More info → Run anyway to proceed. See Troubleshooting.

The RISC-V, s390x, and ppc64le builds run the bytecode interpreter; kaappi compile (the LLVM native backend) is available on aarch64 and x86_64 only, and on other architectures exits with a clear error rather than attempt it.

Other assets

File	Description
kaappi-lib.tar.gz	Standard libraries (SRFI, Scheme). Extract to ~/.kaappi/lib/
kaappi.wasm	WebAssembly binary (wasm32-wasi)
libkaappi_rt-<platform>.a	Runtime library for native compilation (kaappi compile) on macOS, Linux, and the BSDs — one per aarch64/x86_64 target. The install script fetches it for you; manual installs need it too (see below)
libkaappi_rt-x86_64-windows.lib	Same, for Windows x64. Install it as kaappi_rt.lib (see below)
libkaappi_rt-aarch64-windows.lib	Same, for Windows ARM64

Manual install

After downloading, place the binaries in your PATH.

The runtime library goes in the lib directory beside the one holding the binaries — ~/.local/bin/kaappi pairs with ~/.local/lib/. That is where kaappi compile looks (it searches KAAPPI_LIB_DIR, then <exe>/../lib, then zig-out/lib, then /usr/local/lib), so it is not ~/.kaappi/lib/, which holds Scheme libraries only. Put the binaries somewhere else and either keep the same bin/lib pairing or point KAAPPI_LIB_DIR at the directory you chose.

macOS / Linux:

chmod +x kaappi-* thottam-*
mv kaappi-*-$(uname -s | tr A-Z a-z) ~/.local/bin/kaappi
mv thottam-*-$(uname -s | tr A-Z a-z) ~/.local/bin/thottam

# Extract standard libraries
mkdir -p ~/.kaappi/lib
tar xzf kaappi-lib.tar.gz -C ~/.kaappi/lib

# Runtime library for native compilation (kaappi compile).
# aarch64-macos shown; substitute your platform.
mkdir -p ~/.local/lib
mv libkaappi_rt-aarch64-macos.a ~/.local/lib/libkaappi_rt.a

Windows (PowerShell):

# x64 shown; on ARM64 substitute aarch64 for x86_64 throughout.
Move-Item kaappi-x86_64-windows.exe C:\Users\$env:USERNAME\.local\bin\kaappi.exe
Move-Item thottam-x86_64-windows.exe C:\Users\$env:USERNAME\.local\bin\thottam.exe

# Extract standard libraries
mkdir "$env:USERPROFILE\.kaappi\lib" -Force
tar xzf kaappi-lib.tar.gz -C "$env:USERPROFILE\.kaappi\lib"

# Runtime library for native compilation (kaappi compile). It belongs in the
# lib directory beside the binaries' bin directory — not in .kaappi\lib, which
# kaappi compile does not search. kaappi looks for it named kaappi_rt.lib, so
# rename it on the way in.
mkdir "C:\Users\$env:USERNAME\.local\lib" -Force
Move-Item libkaappi_rt-x86_64-windows.lib "C:\Users\$env:USERNAME\.local\lib\kaappi_rt.lib"

Note

The install script (install.sh) supports macOS, Linux, FreeBSD, OpenBSD, and NetBSD. Windows users should download and install manually as shown above.

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Windows notes

Kaappi runs on Windows 11, on x86_64 and ARM64, with prebuilt binaries for both. There is no installer — download the kaappi and thottam executables for your architecture, place them on your PATH (see Manual install above), and run them from a terminal (Windows Terminal recommended). install.sh does not apply. Both architectures run the same code, so everything below applies to both. A few behaviors differ from the macOS, Linux, and BSD builds:

• REPL. A plain prompt and line reader — debug commands, multi-line input, and themes all work, but without history, completion, or line editing.
• Package manager. thottam's install, remove, update, list, and verify work for pure-Scheme packages (most of the ecosystem). Packages with a native build: step (C FFI libraries) are refused, and git operations need Git for Windows on your PATH.
• SRFI-170. The POSIX-only filesystem procedures — uid/gid, user-info/group-info, symlinks, hard links, FIFOs, set-file-mode, umask, truncate-file, set-file-times — raise a catchable file error; the names stay bound so portable code can probe them with guard. file-info works. See SRFI-170.
• Feature detection. Windows builds expose the windows feature identifier and omit posix, so portable code can branch with (cond-expand (windows ...) (else ...)). See Standards Conformance.

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Verifying releases

Every release includes SHA256 checksums and a GPG signature:

File	Description
SHA256SUMS	SHA256 checksums for all artifacts
SHA256SUMS.asc	GPG detached signature

The install script verifies checksums automatically, but you can also verify manually:

SHA256 checksums

cd ~/Downloads  # or wherever you downloaded the binary
curl -LO https://github.com/kaappi/kaappi/releases/latest/download/SHA256SUMS
sha256sum --check --ignore-missing SHA256SUMS

GPG signature

The release checksums are signed with the maintainer's GPG key. The public key is available at keybase.io/baijum.

# Import the public key from Keybase
curl https://keybase.io/baijum/pgp_keys.asc | gpg --import

# Download the signature and verify
curl -LO https://github.com/kaappi/kaappi/releases/latest/download/SHA256SUMS.asc
gpg --verify SHA256SUMS.asc SHA256SUMS

A successful verification shows "Good signature from ..." in the output.

macOS binaries

macOS binaries are additionally Developer ID signed and Apple notarized — no Gatekeeper warnings when downloading from GitHub releases.

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Build from source

See the Installation guide for building from source with Zig 0.16+.

Previous releases

All past releases are available on the GitHub Releases page.