Installing a release binary
Download the archive for your system from the Releases page (under Assets, on the latest release). Not sure which file you need? See the FAQ. Each archive contains two binaries directly:obsidianlog (the CLI) and obsidianlog-ingest (the standalone
ingest server). There’s no installer and no dependencies to install
separately.
Whether extracting it lands those two files in their own folder depends
on how you extract it. Double-clicking the archive (or Extract All on
Windows) creates a new folder named after it automatically. Extracting
from a raw tar command doesn’t, it dumps the files into whatever
directory you’re already in. The commands below account for both, so you
end up in a tidy folder either way.
- macOS
- Windows
- Linux
Double-click the downloaded Prefer to do the extraction from a terminal too?
.tar.gz file in Finder. It extracts into
a new folder named after the archive. Open that folder, open a
terminal there, and run:chmod step on
macOS/Linux is needed because the executable bit isn’t always preserved
inside the archive.
obsidianlog is a command-line tool, not a GUI app. The commands above need
an actual terminal (Terminal on macOS, PowerShell or Windows Terminal on
Windows, your terminal app on Linux). Double-clicking the binary itself
does not start setup: it has no command to run, so it prints the help
screen and exits. Open a terminal, change into the extracted folder, then
run ./obsidianlog init (or .\obsidianlog.exe init on Windows).cd (including the space), then drag the extracted folder
from Finder into the Terminal window and press Enter. Then run:
obsidianlog (the CLI) ships with the sia Cargo feature built in. The
Sia backend works out of the box, no source build needed. obsidianlog init
still defaults to the local backend regardless. Sia only gets used if you
choose it. obsidianlog-ingest (the standalone, minimal ingest-only binary)
stays local-only by design.
The first time you run it, your OS may flag it as unsigned, since these
binaries aren’t code-signed today:
- macOS
- Windows
- Linux
Gatekeeper blocks it. Right-click
obsidianlog in Finder and choose
Open once, or run xattr -d com.apple.quarantine obsidianlog in a
terminal.The init → serve → query → verify loop
The CLI wraps setup, ingestion, retrieval, and integrity checking: The commands below assume you are still in the folder you extracted and use./obsidianlog on macOS/Linux. On Windows, use ./obsidianlog as
.\obsidianlog.exe instead. Leave serve running, then open a second
terminal in that same folder for the curl, query, and verify commands.
On macOS,
init will prompt at most once for your login-keychain password.
This is the OS asking permission for obsidianlog to store the credentials
it just generated, not an ObsidianLog password. Click Always Allow
rather than just Allow, so later serve/query/verify runs read them
without prompting again.obsidianlog init is idempotent: it detects an existing
config/key and reuses them. Pass --force to rotate the key (this makes
previously archived data undecryptable with the new key, so it asks for
confirmation unless you’re also non-interactive).
What’s next
- Choosing a Backend: local disk, hosted Sia Storage, or bring your own indexer.
- Docker Compose Quickstart: the same loop, containerized.
- No local install at all: fork the repo and run the GitHub Actions demo to watch the whole pipeline run in your browser.