Requirements and platforms

What Xaden needs on your machine, and what differs between Linux, macOS and Windows.

What you need

Needed	Why
Linux or macOS (Windows: WSL or Git Bash, untested)	Scripts are bash + POSIX tools
git, bash, awk, sed, tar, grep, cksum	Preinstalled on Linux/macOS
An AI coding tool	Claude Code recommended; Aider, Cline, Continue, Cursor, Codex, Copilot, ChatGPT or a local model (Ollama, LM Studio) also work — see Use Xaden with other assistants and local models
Recommended: shellcheck, gitleaks, semgrep	Static analysis and secret scanning. Locally a missing tool is skipped and the run reported INCOMPLETE; CI and releases use `--strict`, where it fails. Once a stack exists, its tools are required too: ruff, mypy, bandit, pip-audit, pytest (Python) or npm with `lint`/`typecheck`/`test` scripts (Node)
Optional: Obsidian	Comfortable reading and editing of the prompt library
Optional: extra checks and plugins	`xaden check` suggests the ones that fit your project (`TIP:` lines); list in Optional tools and assistant plugins
Optional: Ponytail	Third-party rule set (MIT) that pushes assistants towards less new code; see the add-ons note below
Optional: Caveman	Third-party rule set (Apache-2.0) that makes assistant replies shorter; see the add-ons note below
Optional: Token Optimizer	Third-party plugin (PolyForm Noncommercial, not open source) that compresses context and tool output; see the add-ons note below
Optional: claude-mem	Third-party plugin (Apache-2.0) that carries memory of past sessions into new ones; see the add-ons note below
Optional: obsidian-skills	Third-party plugin (MIT) that teaches assistants Obsidian’s Markdown, Bases and Canvas formats; see the add-ons note below
Optional: impeccable	Third-party plugin (Apache-2.0) for projects with a web UI: design guidance and 59 deterministic checks for generated frontend design; see the add-ons note below

Optional: assistant add-ons

The add-ons in the table above are third-party; the scaffold installs none of them, and your project’s AGENTS.md takes precedence over each. Install commands, sources, licenses and the risks to know before installing are in Optional tools and assistant plugins.

Linux

git, bash, awk, sed, tar, grep and cksum are normally preinstalled; install a missing one with your distribution’s package manager. If ~/.local/bin is not on your PATH, scripts/install.sh prints the line to add, usually to ~/.bashrc (bash) or ~/.zshrc (zsh).

macOS

bash 3.2, the version macOS ships, is supported. If git is missing, running it once offers to install Apple’s command line tools. The default shell is zsh: put the PATH line that scripts/install.sh prints into ~/.zshrc.

Windows

Untested: nobody has run these steps on Windows yet, so expect to adapt them. WSL is recommended: open a WSL shell and follow the Linux steps, keeping Xaden and your projects in the Linux file system (your WSL home directory) rather than under /mnt/c. Git Bash is also possible but untested. Native PowerShell is not supported, because the scripts are bash.

Install Xaden.