Create standalone binaries for distribution

[richardkiene]

Overview

Create standalone executable binaries for MCProbe to simplify installation and enable Homebrew distribution without Python dependency management.

Target Platforms

macOS

• macOS Intel (x86_64)
• macOS Apple Silicon (arm64)

Linux

• Linux x86_64
• Linux arm64

Windows

• Windows x86_64
• Windows arm64

Implementation

Build Tool

Use PyInstaller to create single-file executables:

pyinstaller --onefile src/mcprobe/cli/main.py -n mcprobe

CI/CD

Create GitHub Actions workflow to:

1. Build binaries on each platform using matrix strategy
2. Run smoke tests on built binaries
3. Upload as release artifacts on tagged releases
4. Generate checksums (SHA256) for each binary

Release Structure

releases/
├── mcprobe-vX.X.X-darwin-x86_64
├── mcprobe-vX.X.X-darwin-arm64
├── mcprobe-vX.X.X-linux-x86_64
├── mcprobe-vX.X.X-linux-arm64
├── mcprobe-vX.X.X-windows-x86_64.exe
├── mcprobe-vX.X.X-windows-arm64.exe
└── checksums.txt

Future Work

• Homebrew tap using the macOS binaries
• Scoop/Chocolatey for Windows
• AUR package for Arch Linux
• .deb and .rpm packages for Linux

Considerations

• Binary size optimization (--strip, UPX compression)
• Code signing for macOS (notarization)
• Code signing for Windows (optional but recommended)
• Test that MCP server functionality works in bundled binary