Install and run Incan¶
This page documents the public 0.4 install path. Use the SDK installer when you want to try Incan as a user. Use the source-build path only when you are contributing to the compiler or testing an unreleased branch.
Supported hosts¶
The 0.4 SDK installer ships archives for macOS arm64, macOS x86_64, and Linux x86_64. Native Windows and Linux arm64 are not part of the initial SDK installer; use WSL2 or a source build for those hosts for now. Generated Rust projects still use the local Rust toolchain, so install Rust with rustup before running projects that build binaries.
The SDK manifest also records the Rust backend policy for the release, including the wasm32-wasip1 target used by packages that ship vocabulary companions.
Install the SDK¶
The canonical 0.4 artifact source is the GitHub Release. The release publishes install.sh, manifest.json, checksums, and platform SDK archives; Homebrew, npm, and pip are thin adapters over that same manifest rather than separate compiler builds.
The direct installer path is:
curl -fsSL https://github.com/dannys-code-corner/incan/releases/latest/download/install.sh | sh
For a dry run that resolves the manifest and target without writing files:
curl -fsSL https://github.com/dannys-code-corner/incan/releases/latest/download/install.sh | sh -s -- --dry-run
The installer reads the release manifest, selects the archive for your host target, verifies the archive checksum, installs into INCAN_HOME (default ~/.incan), and links incan plus incan-lsp into INCAN_BIN_DIR (default ~/.local/bin). Make sure the bin directory is on PATH.
export PATH="$HOME/.local/bin:$PATH"
incan --version
incan-lsp --version
Package-manager installs use the same SDK archive contract:
brew install https://github.com/dannys-code-corner/incan/releases/latest/download/incan.rb
npm install -g incan-sdk
pipx install incan-sdk
Use Homebrew when you want native macOS or Linux command management. Use npm when you want the SDK command shims available through Node-based tooling, editors, or CI images. Use pipx for Python-oriented environments; plain pip install --user incan-sdk also works, but pipx keeps the command package isolated from project environments.
The npm and pip packages install the SDK into a package-local cache on first install or first command use, then delegate to the real incan and incan-lsp binaries from the verified SDK archive. Set INCAN_SDK_MANIFEST to pin a manifest, or use the direct install.sh --manifest <URL|PATH> path when you need fully explicit release control.
Create a starter project¶
After installation, the shortest first run is:
incan new hello --yes
cd hello
incan run
incan test
incan build --release
incan new creates an incan.toml, src/main.incn, tests/test_main.incn, README.md, and .gitignore. The generated project is intentionally small: one function, one entrypoint, and one test that checks the generated behavior.
Source-build fallback for contributors¶
If you are working on Incan itself, build from the repository instead:
git clone https://github.com/dannys-code-corner/incan.git
cd incan
make install
incan run examples/simple/hello.incn
The source-build path links the compiler from the checkout and is useful for development. It is not the public first-contact path for evaluating an SDK release.