Install

Pick the path for your OS, then come back to Get Started. The download page has the same commands plus direct artifacts for the current release.

Linux

Alera installs from a signed package repository so libmpv and the rest of the dependency closure resolve through your package manager. The same command installs and updates:

curl -fsSL https://alera.build/install.sh | sh

The script detects apt or dnf, verifies the repository signing key against a fingerprint pinned inside the script, configures the repository, and installs the package. Pass --dry-run to see what it would do, or --repo-only to configure the repository without installing.

Requires x86_64 and Ubuntu 24.04 or newer, Debian 13 or newer, or Fedora. On RHEL, Rocky, and AlmaLinux enable RPM Fusion first, which is where mpv-libs comes from. openSUSE is not supported yet.

On a distribution with no package of ours, download the Linux tarball from GitHub Releases and extract it somewhere you own, such as ~/.local/share/alera. Install libmpv, webkit2gtk-4.1, gtk3, and the Vulkan loader through your own package manager first. Alera updates a tarball installation in place; a repository installation keeps updating through apt or dnf.

Manual repository setup, the signing-key fingerprint, and current artifact names live on the download page.

macOS

brew tap leynier/tap
brew install --cask alera

Requires Apple Silicon and macOS 14 or newer. The cask clears the quarantine attribute after installing, because the macOS build is not notarized yet.

You can also download the macOS tarball from GitHub Releases and move Alera.app to /Applications.

Windows

scoop bucket add leynier https://github.com/leynier/scoop-bucket
scoop install leynier/alera

choco install alera

Requires 64-bit Windows. Or download the Windows archive from GitHub Releases and extract it anywhere.

Updating

Alera updates itself only when no package manager owns the installation. Under Homebrew or Scoop, Settings → Updates runs that manager’s own upgrade and reopens Alera. Under Chocolatey and on Linux it shows the command to run, because those upgrades need elevation or a dependency resolution Alera must not do itself.

Mobile

The Android companion is a separate app. Download the universal APK from the mobile releases, then pair it with your runtime. It is a window into the host, not a phone IDE.

From source

Alera is a Flutter desktop app. You need Flutter 3.44.8 or newer (Dart 3.12.1 or newer; CI is pinned to Flutter 3.44.8), a Rust toolchain (rustup), Zig 0.16.0, Git, and the native compiler for your platform.

git clone https://github.com/leynier/alera.git
cd alera
make init-submodules
flutter pub get
flutter run -d linux   # or macos / windows

Linux source builds also need the system development packages listed in Contributing. On Windows, run pwsh -File tool/development/setup_windows.ps1 -InstallMissingTools first.

A local build runs as Alera Dev by default so it can coexist with an installed release without sharing user data.