Installation

Installation

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Download and run WispTerm on Windows, macOS, or experimental Linux, or build it from source.

WispTerm ships for Windows and macOS. A Linux x86_64 AppImage is also published for community testing and remains experimental.

Windows

1. Download the latest Windows release from GitHub Releases.
2. Unzip it and run wispterm.exe.

WispTerm does not elevate shells on its own — a normally launched window gives you a standard token. To run an elevated shell, right-click wispterm.exe and choose Run as administrator (see FAQ).

Portable profile (Windows only): put a file named wispterm.conf next to wispterm.exe and WispTerm uses it as the config, so the whole setup is self-contained on a USB stick or shared folder.

macOS

Requires macOS 13+. Download the .app for your CPU (Apple Silicon or Intel) and move it to /Applications.

• Launch WispTerm.app normally, or
• Run the binary directly to pass CLI flags:

  WispTerm.app/Contents/MacOS/wispterm --version

Passing command-line options requires the binary path — double-clicking the .app cannot take flags.

Linux (experimental)

Download the WispTerm-*-x86_64.AppImage release asset, mark it executable, and run it:

chmod +x WispTerm-*-x86_64.AppImage
./WispTerm-*-x86_64.AppImage

On hosts without FUSE support, add --appimage-extract-and-run. The Linux build bundles SDL3 and is intended for community testing; it is not yet considered stable.

Build from source

Requires Zig 0.15.2.

Windows (PowerShell):

zig build                         # Debug build for development
zig build -Doptimize=ReleaseFast  # ReleaseFast build for distribution

macOS:

zig build macos-app -Dtarget=aarch64-macos   # Apple Silicon (use x86_64-macos on Intel)
open zig-out/bin/WispTerm.app

For full build, packaging, and release details see docs/development.md.

Verify the install

wispterm --version            # print the WispTerm version
wispterm --show-config-path   # print the resolved config path

Staying up to date

By default WispTerm checks GitHub Releases shortly after startup and shows a clickable prompt when a newer version is available. Set auto-update-check = false to turn that off. You can also update on demand from the command center:

• Check for Updates — look for a newer release now.
• Download Update — download the latest release into your Downloads folder.
• Open Latest Release — open the release page in a browser.

After upgrading, What's New (in the command center, and shown automatically the first time you launch a new version) summarizes what changed. Update Skills downloads the latest bundled AI skills from GitHub.

Next: Getting-Started.

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See also: Getting-Started · Configuration