Installation

Installation

jasem needs Python 3.8 or newer and has no third-party dependencies.

Recommended: pipx

pipx installs jasem into its own isolated environment and puts the jasem command on your PATH — the cleanest option for a CLI tool.

pipx install jasem

If you don't have pipx yet:

python3 -m pip install --user pipx
python3 -m pipx ensurepath      # then open a new shell

Alternative: pip

pip install jasem

Use a virtual environment if you don't want to install into your system Python:

python3 -m venv ~/.venvs/jasem
~/.venvs/jasem/bin/pip install jasem
~/.venvs/jasem/bin/jasem version

Verify the install

jasem version        # e.g. "jasem 1.0.1"   (also: jasem --version, jasem -v)
jasem help           # the full built-in command reference
jasem                # the dashboard (empty until you add something)

First run

The first time you add something, jasem creates the data directory and files for you — no setup, no config file:

jasem todo "try jasem out today"

This writes to ~/.jasem/ (tasks.md, timelog.md, spending.md). See Data Files for the format and Configuration to move the directory elsewhere.

Optional: set up AI parsing

Out of the box, jasem expects a local Ollama model for the best natural-language parsing — but it works without one too: if no model is reachable, entries are still saved (dates parsed by a built-in regex). To get the full experience either run Ollama locally or point jasem at a hosted API; see AI Backends.

# Local, free, private (the default backend)
ollama serve
ollama pull qwen2.5:3b

Upgrading

pipx upgrade jasem      # if installed with pipx
pip install -U jasem    # if installed with pip

Your data in ~/.jasem/ is never touched by an upgrade.

Uninstalling

pipx uninstall jasem    # or: pip uninstall jasem

Your Markdown data files remain in ~/.jasem/; delete that directory yourself if you also want to remove your data.