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Bridge can be installed in three main ways today:
  • the official release installers
  • Homebrew on macOS
  • from source with Rust
This page also covers where the binary is installed, how PATH setup works, and how Bridge shell completions are installed or generated manually.

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Choose an install method

MethodBest forNotes
Official installerMost usersDownloads the latest GitHub release, verifies checksums, installs the binary, and tries to wire up PATH and completions
HomebrewmacOS users who already use HomebrewQuick to install, but shell integration depends on your local Homebrew setup
Source installContributors and advanced usersRequires Rust and installs from the checked-out code

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Platform support

The current installer scripts support these release targets:
InstallerSupported targets
install.shmacOS x86_64, macOS aarch64, Linux x86_64
install.ps1Windows x86_64
Current installer limitations worth knowing:
  • Linux arm64 is not supported by install.sh today
  • Windows ARM64 is not supported by install.ps1 today
The official installers are the best default because they:
  • fetch the latest GitHub release automatically
  • download the matching archive for your platform
  • verify SHA-256 checksums before installing
  • install the binary into a user-local directory
  • try to update PATH and install shell completions

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macOS and Linux

curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/usebridgeai/cli/main/install.sh | sh
The shell installer installs Bridge to: 
~/.bridge/bin/bridge

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Windows (PowerShell)

irm https://raw.githubusercontent.com/usebridgeai/cli/main/install.ps1 | iex
The PowerShell installer installs Bridge to: 
$env:USERPROFILE\.bridge\bin\bridge.exe

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What the installers do

Both installers follow the same safety model:
  1. fetch the latest GitHub release tag
  2. download the platform-specific archive
  3. download checksums.txt
  4. compute the local SHA-256 digest
  5. abort if the checksum does not match
  6. install the verified binary into your user-local Bridge directory
The installers fail hard if checksum verification cannot complete. They do not install an unverified binary.

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Install with Homebrew

If you are on macOS and prefer Homebrew, Bridge is documented in the repo as: 
brew install usebridgeai/tap/bridge
After installation, verify that Homebrew put bridge on your PATH: 
bridge --version
If you want explicit shell completion setup after a Homebrew install, you can always generate completions manually with bridge completions <shell>.

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Install from source

Source installs are most useful if you are developing Bridge itself or testing changes before a release. Bridge currently declares Rust 1.94.1 in its crate metadata, so use a compatible Rust toolchain. If you are inside the CLI crate directory: 
cargo install --path .
If you are working from the current monorepo root used by this docs site, the Rust crate lives in cli/, so install it with: 
cargo install --path ./cli
That installs bridge through Cargo’s normal binary path, which is usually: 
~/.cargo/bin
On Windows, the Cargo bin directory is usually: 
%USERPROFILE%\.cargo\bin

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Verify the installation

No matter which install path you use, the two quickest checks are: 
bridge --version
bridge --help
If those work, Bridge is installed and visible on your PATH.

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PATH setup

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What the Unix installer updates

The shell installer tries to update PATH based on your detected shell:
  • zsh: ~/.zprofile on macOS if it already exists, plus ~/.zshrc
  • bash: ~/.bash_profile on macOS or ~/.bashrc on Linux
  • fish: ~/.config/fish/config.fish if it already exists
If the installer cannot detect your shell, or if the expected profile file does not exist, it prints the PATH export you should add manually: 
export PATH="$HOME/.bridge/bin:$PATH"
For fish, the equivalent is: 
fish_add_path ~/.bridge/bin

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What the Windows installer updates

The PowerShell installer appends Bridge’s install directory to the user PATH environment variable. After installation, restart your terminal so the updated PATH is picked up.

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Shell completions

Bridge can generate completions for these shells:
  • bash
  • elvish
  • fish
  • powershell
  • zsh
The command surface is: 
bridge completions <SHELL>
Examples: 
bridge completions zsh
bridge completions bash
bridge completions fish
bridge completions elvish

bridge completions powershell
bridge completions does not require a bridge.yaml file because it only emits shell integration code.

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Automatic completion setup by the official installers

The release installers currently try to wire up completions like this:
ShellAutomatic installer behavior
zshWrites ~/.zfunc/_bridge and adds ~/.zfunc to fpath in ~/.zshrc if needed
bashWrites ~/.local/share/bash-completion/completions/bridge
fishWrites ~/.config/fish/completions/bridge.fish
powershellAppends the generated completion script to $PROFILE
elvishNo automatic installer wiring today
If completion setup fails during installation, the installers keep going and Bridge still installs successfully.

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Manual completion setup

If you want to manage completion files yourself, Bridge already gives you the generated script on stdout.

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Zsh

mkdir -p ~/.zfunc
bridge completions zsh > ~/.zfunc/_bridge
If ~/.zfunc is not already on your fpath, add this to ~/.zshrc: 
fpath=(~/.zfunc $fpath)

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Bash

mkdir -p ~/.local/share/bash-completion/completions
bridge completions bash > ~/.local/share/bash-completion/completions/bridge

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Fish

mkdir -p ~/.config/fish/completions
bridge completions fish > ~/.config/fish/completions/bridge.fish

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PowerShell

$profileDir = Split-Path $PROFILE
New-Item -ItemType Directory -Force -Path $profileDir | Out-Null
bridge completions powershell >> $PROFILE

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Elvish

Bridge can generate an Elvish completion script: 
bridge completions elvish
The current Bridge installers do not place Elvish completions automatically, so use your normal Elvish completion-loading flow if you want to wire it up manually.

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Common install issues

Your PATH change may not be loaded in the current terminal session yet. Restart your shell or add Bridge’s install directory to PATH manually.
Bridge will not install a release archive whose SHA-256 digest does not match checksums.txt. Try again, or inspect the release assets and checksums on GitHub before installing manually.
The current scripts do not support Linux arm64 or Windows ARM64. In those cases, use a supported release target or build from source if your toolchain and platform can support it.
Bridge may already be installed correctly even if completion setup failed. Generate the completion script manually with bridge completions <shell> and place it in your shell’s completion directory.

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Uninstall

If you installed with the official release scripts, remove the user-local Bridge directory: 
rm -rf ~/.bridge

Remove-Item -Recurse $env:USERPROFILE\.bridge
If you installed from source with Cargo, use Cargo’s uninstall flow: 
cargo uninstall bridge-cli
After uninstalling, remove any PATH or shell-profile lines you added manually if you no longer want them.

Quickstart

Once Bridge is installed, use the quickstart to create bridge.yaml and connect your first provider.

Commands

See the full CLI reference, including the bridge completions command.

Development

If you are building Bridge itself, see the contributor workflow and local Rust setup.