Installation

Kinmokusei is distributed as the keika command. Running, building, dependency resolution, and direct Go package imports use an installed Go toolchain.

Requirements

Requirement	Supported
Operating systems	64-bit Linux, macOS, and Windows release targets listed below
Go toolchain	Go 1.23 through Go 1.27
Kinmokusei source	Files ending in .km

The release compiler is built with Go 1.27 so it can consume package export data from all supported toolchains. A compiler installed from source reads export data with the Go version used to build it.

Install a release archive

Download the archive and SHA256SUMS from the latest GitHub release.

Platform	Archive pattern
Linux x86-64	keika_<version>_linux_amd64.tar.gz
Linux ARM64	keika_<version>_linux_arm64.tar.gz
macOS Intel	keika_<version>_darwin_amd64.tar.gz
macOS Apple Silicon	keika_<version>_darwin_arm64.tar.gz
Windows x86-64	keika_<version>_windows_amd64.zip

Verify only the downloaded archive: SHA256SUMS also lists other platforms and the editor extension, which need not be present locally. The commands below use v0.4.6; set release_version to the tag's numeric version if installing a different release. Choose the archive matching your OS and architecture.

Linux

release_version=0.4.6
release_archive="keika_${release_version}_linux_amd64.tar.gz"
awk -v archive="$release_archive" '$2 == archive { print }' SHA256SUMS | sha256sum -c - || exit 1
tar -xzf "$release_archive"
mkdir -p ~/.local/bin
install -m 0755 "keika_${release_version}_linux_amd64/keika" ~/.local/bin/keika

macOS

release_version=0.4.6
release_archive="keika_${release_version}_darwin_arm64.tar.gz"
awk -v archive="$release_archive" '$2 == archive { print }' SHA256SUMS | shasum -a 256 -c - || exit 1
tar -xzf "$release_archive"
mkdir -p ~/.local/bin
install -m 0755 "keika_${release_version}_darwin_arm64/keika" ~/.local/bin/keika

Windows PowerShell

$release_version = "0.4.6"
$release_archive = "keika_${release_version}_windows_amd64.zip"
$checksum_lines = @(Get-Content .\SHA256SUMS | Where-Object { ($_ -split '\s+', 2)[1] -eq $release_archive })
if ($checksum_lines.Count -ne 1) { throw "Expected one checksum for $release_archive" }
$expected_hash = ($checksum_lines[0] -split '\s+', 2)[0]
$actual_hash = (Get-FileHash -LiteralPath $release_archive -Algorithm SHA256).Hash
if ($actual_hash -ne $expected_hash) { throw "Archive checksum mismatch" }
Expand-Archive -LiteralPath $release_archive

On Windows, move keika.exe into a dedicated tools directory and add that directory to the user Path setting.

The Go compiler itself is not bundled. The keika binary includes Go runtime and standard-library code; release archives carry LICENSE, THIRD_PARTY_NOTICES.md and licenses/go/. Retain these materials when redistributing the compiler. See the repository's third-party notices.

Install with Go

If Go is already installed, install the latest tagged compiler directly:

go install github.com/puffball1567/kinmokusei/cmd/keika@latest

For a reproducible installation, replace latest with the exact vX.Y.Z tag shown on the release page. Use the same exact release for the compiler and editor extension.

Go writes the command to GOBIN, or to the default Go bin directory when GOBIN is unset. That directory must be on PATH.

Verify the installation

keika version
go version

An untagged compiler built from a checkout reports devel.

Install the editor extension

The matching .vsix is attached to each GitHub release. In Visual Studio Code, run Extensions: Install from VSIX, select the downloaded file, and ensure keika is visible on the editor process's PATH.

The extension and compiler should use the same release. See Editor and diagnostics for the LSP contract and other editor clients.

Build from a checkout

From the repository root:

go build -trimpath -o ./keika ./cmd/keika
./keika version

Continue with the five-minute quick start.