Installation

Prerequisites

Wave requires a few tools to be available on your system:

Tool	Purpose	Required	Min Version
git	Version control, worktree isolation	Yes	2.x
claude	LLM adapter (Claude Code)	Yes*	Latest stable
gh	GitHub CLI for gh-* pipelines	Optional	2.x
Go	Building from source	Optional	1.25+
Nix	Sandboxed development shell	Optional	2.x

* At least one LLM CLI adapter is required. claude is the default; other adapters can be configured in wave.yaml.

Installing Prerequisites

Git — usually pre-installed on macOS and Linux:

# macOS
xcode-select --install
# Linux (Debian/Ubuntu)
sudo apt install git
# Linux (Fedora)
sudo dnf install git

Claude Code (default LLM adapter):

npm install -g @anthropic-ai/claude-code

GitHub CLI (optional — needed for impl-issue, ops-pr-review, etc.):

# macOS
brew install gh
# Linux (Debian/Ubuntu)
sudo apt install gh
# Nix
nix-env -iA nixpkgs.gh

Nix (optional — for sandboxed development):

curl --proto '=https' --tlsv1.2 -sSf -L https://install.determinate.systems/nix | sh -s -- install

Install Wave

Build from Source

Build from source:

git clone https://github.com/re-cinq/wave.git
cd wave
make build
sudo mv wave /usr/local/bin/

Or install to a user directory without sudo:

git clone https://github.com/re-cinq/wave.git
cd wave
make build
mkdir -p ~/.local/bin
mv wave ~/.local/bin/

Install Script

The install script detects your OS and architecture, downloads the correct binary from GitHub Releases, and verifies the SHA256 checksum:

curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/re-cinq/wave/main/scripts/install.sh | sh

Install a specific version:

curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/re-cinq/wave/main/scripts/install.sh | sh -s -- 0.3.0

Override the install directory:

WAVE_INSTALL_DIR=~/bin curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/re-cinq/wave/main/scripts/install.sh | sh

Supported platforms: Linux (x86_64, ARM64), macOS (Intel, Apple Silicon)

The script installs to /usr/local/bin when run as root, or ~/.local/bin otherwise. It warns you if the install directory is not on your PATH.

Debian / Ubuntu (.deb)

curl -LO https://github.com/re-cinq/wave/releases/latest/download/wave_linux_amd64.deb
sudo dpkg -i wave_linux_amd64.deb

Manual Download

Download pre-built archives from GitHub Releases:

Platform	Architecture	Archive
Linux	x86_64	wave_<version>_linux_amd64.tar.gz
Linux	ARM64	wave_<version>_linux_arm64.tar.gz
macOS	Intel	wave_<version>_darwin_amd64.zip
macOS	Apple Silicon	wave_<version>_darwin_arm64.zip

Versioning

Wave follows Semantic Versioning. Releases are created automatically on every merge to main, with the version bump determined by conventional commit prefixes:

• fix:, docs:, chore: -> patch (0.0.X)
• feat: -> minor (0.X.0)
• feat!: or BREAKING CHANGE: -> major (X.0.0)

Verify Installation

wave --version
wave --help
claude --version

Run wave doctor to check your entire environment — it verifies Wave initialization, adapter health, forge CLI availability, and required tools:

wave doctor

wave doctor exit codes: 0 = all checks pass, 1 = warnings, 2 = errors found. Use wave doctor --fix to auto-resolve common issues.

Uninstall

# Remove binary
sudo rm /usr/local/bin/wave
# or
rm ~/.local/bin/wave

# Debian/Ubuntu
sudo apt remove wave

# Remove project files (optional)
rm -rf ~/.wave

Next Steps

• Quick Start - Get running in 60 seconds
• Pipeline Configuration - Configure your first pipeline