Installer

The quickstart takes you through your first installation and chat. This page is for choosing installer settings, automating setup, or maintaining an existing installation.

Guided installation

The installer recommends settings for your hardware. You can review them before installing or choose Customize to make changes. New installations use the latest stable release, including when building from source. Your choices of release, acceleration, and installation method are saved for the next time you run it.

Command-line options

Use these options to choose settings directly or automate installation. They take precedence over saved settings and legacy environment variables.

macOS / Linux	Windows PowerShell	Purpose
--release VERSION	-Release VERSION	Choose latest, master, or a release tag such as v0.9.5.
--backend BACKEND	-Backend BACKEND	Choose auto, cpu, or cuda; macOS also supports metal.
--from-source	-FromSource	Build the selected release instead of downloading a binary.
--with-ffmpeg	-WithFFmpeg	Install optional FFmpeg support for video input.
--no-nccl	-NoNccl	Omit NCCL from source builds.
--yes, -y	-Yes	Accept the selected plan and prerequisite-installation prompts.
--dry-run	-DryRun	Preview settings without downloading packages or changing files.
--verbose	-Verbose	Stream full command output during installation.
--help, -h	-Help	Show available options.

For CUDA builds, use --allow-cuda-mismatch (-AllowCudaMismatch on Windows) to allow a toolkit newer than the driver supports.

On macOS and Linux, pass options after sh -s --:

curl -fsSL https://mistralrs.dev/install.sh | sh -s -- --release v0.9.5 --yes

In PowerShell, use a script block to pass arguments:

& ([scriptblock]::Create((irm https://mistralrs.dev/install.ps1))) -Release v0.9.5 -Yes

Existing automation can continue using the installer environment variables.

Acceleration and source builds

By default, the installer selects a prebuilt binary when one is available for your hardware. See hardware support for the available combinations. Source builds need the platform prerequisites; prebuilt binaries do not need Rust.

If installation fails, the installer prints the diagnostics and saves a log. The troubleshooting guide covers the next steps.

Install locations and maintenance

Prebuilt and source installs use the same locations:

Platform	Managed files	Command location
macOS / Linux	~/.mistralrs	~/.local/bin/mistralrs
Windows	%USERPROFILE%\.mistralrs	%USERPROFILE%\.local\bin\mistralrs.cmd

Saved settings live in install.conf inside the managed directory.

The installer adds the command directory to PATH. Open a new terminal or follow the activation instructions it prints to use the command in your current shell. If the command is still unavailable, see PATH troubleshooting.

On macOS and Linux, run mistralrs update to update an installation and mistralrs uninstall to remove it. You can also rerun the installer to change your saved settings.

On Windows, stop running mistralrs processes before rerunning the installer to update. To remove it, run mistralrs uninstall for manual removal instructions.