Install¶

The shortest path on macOS and Linux:

brew install cesarferreira/tap/stax

Or with cargo binstall:

cargo binstall stax

Both stax and the short alias st are installed.

Prebuilt binaries¶

From GitHub Releases:

# macOS (Apple Silicon)
curl -fsSL https://github.com/cesarferreira/stax/releases/latest/download/stax-aarch64-apple-darwin.tar.gz | tar xz
# macOS (Intel)
curl -fsSL https://github.com/cesarferreira/stax/releases/latest/download/stax-x86_64-apple-darwin.tar.gz | tar xz
# Linux (x86_64)
curl -fsSL https://github.com/cesarferreira/stax/releases/latest/download/stax-x86_64-unknown-linux-gnu.tar.gz | tar xz
# Linux (arm64)
curl -fsSL https://github.com/cesarferreira/stax/releases/latest/download/stax-aarch64-unknown-linux-gnu.tar.gz | tar xz

mkdir -p ~/.local/bin
mv stax st ~/.local/bin/

Ensure ~/.local/bin is on your PATH:

echo 'export PATH="$HOME/.local/bin:$PATH"' >> ~/.zshrc   # or ~/.bashrc

Windows¶

Download stax-x86_64-pc-windows-msvc.zip from Releases, extract stax.exe and st.exe, and place them on your PATH. See Windows notes for shell and tmux limitations.

Native macOS app¶

The native GUI is published as a separate artifact on the same GitHub Release as the CLI. It is not a new crates.io package, and installing it does not change or enlarge the stax and st CLI binaries.

One-liner (macOS):

curl -fsSL https://cesarferreira.com/stax/install-gui.sh | sh

Manual install for Apple Silicon:

curl -fLO https://github.com/cesarferreira/stax/releases/latest/download/Stax-aarch64-apple-darwin.zip
ditto -x -k Stax-aarch64-apple-darwin.zip .
mv Stax.app /Applications/

Intel:

curl -fLO https://github.com/cesarferreira/stax/releases/latest/download/Stax-x86_64-apple-darwin.zip
ditto -x -k Stax-x86_64-apple-darwin.zip .
mv Stax.app /Applications/

Download only from the project GitHub Releases page. For an ad-hoc-signed release, try to open /Applications/Stax.app once, then open System Settings → Privacy & Security and choose Open Anyway for Stax. Authenticate and confirm Open. The override is available for about an hour after the blocked launch. Do not disable Gatekeeper globally. Developer ID-signed and notarized releases open normally.

Launch the welcome window from Finder or Spotlight, or open a repository directly with st gui [path]. The app bundle id is com.cesarferreira.stax.

Build from source¶

Requires Rust and system OpenSSL (Debian/Ubuntu: libssl-dev pkg-config · Fedora/RHEL: openssl-devel · Arch: openssl pkg-config).

cargo install --path . --locked

Without system OpenSSL:

cargo install --path . --locked --features vendored-openssl

Verify and onboard¶

stax --version
st setup --yes       # shell integration, AI skills, and auth from gh (if available)
st cli upgrade       # later, upgrade via the install method you used

For native shell completion, evaluate or install the generated script. For example:

source <(st completions bash)
source <(st completions zsh)
st completions fish | source
# PowerShell
st completions powershell | Out-String | Invoke-Expression
# Elvish
eval (st completions elvish | slurp)

Next: Quick start →