privateer / docs
Getting started/Installation

Installation

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Install Privateer on Windows, Linux, or macOS, and verify the install.

Choose the option that matches your platform:

Option 1: Install via script (macOS / Linux / WSL)

/bin/bash -c "$(curl -sSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/privateerproj/pvtr/main/install.sh)"

The script handles the full installation automatically: it detects your OS and architecture, downloads the latest release binary, verifies the checksum, and adds pvtr to your PATH. No manual steps required.

Windows: this script will not run in PowerShell, /bin/bash doesn’t exist and curl is an alias for Invoke-WebRequest, which rejects the -sSL flags. Use Option 2 or Option 3 instead. (It does work inside WSL, since that’s a Linux environment.)

Verify the installation completed successfully:

pvtr version

Option 2: Download from GitHub Releases

Visit the releases page and download the archive for your platform.

Linux and macOS:

# Extract the archive
tar xzf privateer_*.tar.gz

# Move the binary to a directory on your PATH
mv pvtr /usr/local/bin/pvtr

# Ensure it is executable
chmod +x /usr/local/bin/pvtr

# Create the default plugin directory
mkdir -p $HOME/.privateer/bin

Windows (PowerShell):

  1. Download pvtr_Windows_x86_64.zip from the releases page and extract it.
  2. From the extracted folder, create a bin directory, move pvtr.exe into it, and add it to your PATH:
mkdir $HOME\bin -Force
Move-Item .\pvtr.exe $HOME\bin\
[Environment]::SetEnvironmentVariable(
    "Path",
    [Environment]::GetEnvironmentVariable("Path", "User") + ";$HOME\bin",
    "User")
  1. Create the default plugin directory:
mkdir $HOME\.privateer\bin -Force
  1. Close and reopen PowerShell (so the new PATH takes effect), then verify:
pvtr version

Option 3: Build from source

Use this option if you want to run the latest unreleased code or contribute to Privateer development.

Prerequisites: Go 1.26 or later. Make is optional (used by the build scripts on macOS/Linux).

macOS / Linux:

# Clone the repository
git clone https://github.com/privateerproj/pvtr.git
cd pvtr

# Download dependencies
go mod tidy

# Build and run tests
make build

# Move the binary to your PATH
cp pvtr /usr/local/bin/pvtr

Windows (PowerShell): make and bash aren’t available by default, so build directly with Go:

git clone https://github.com/privateerproj/pvtr.git
cd pvtr
go mod tidy
go build -o pvtr.exe .
.\pvtr.exe version

Verify:

pvtr version

Note: A build from source reports edge (or edge-dev if you have uncommitted changes) as the version string rather than a release number. This is expected. If you need a stable, versioned build, use Option 1 or Option 2 instead.

Option 4: Homebrew (macOS)

brew install privateerproj/tap/pvtr

Homebrew manages updates automatically. To upgrade later:

brew upgrade privateerproj/tap/pvtr

Verify:

pvtr version

Verify installation

pvtr version

Expected output depends on how you installed:

  • A released binary (install script, GitHub release, or Homebrew) prints a version tag, e.g. v0.15.0.
  • A source build prints edge (or edge-dev if you have uncommitted local changes). This is expected as source builds aren’t stamped with a release number.

For a full view of your installation, use pvtr info:

pvtr info

Example output:

Binary:      C:\Users\Lucy\bin\pvtr.exe
Config:      none
Plugins Dir: C:\Users\Lucy\.privateer\bin
Plugins:     plugins.json, pvtr-github-repo-scanner.exe
Version:     edge-dev
Commit:      3c8d139a413ce0ba2a1721036dbb6aba66a15d48
Build Time:  2026-05-23T20:54:22Z
Go Version:  go1.26.3
OS/Arch:     windows/amd64