The number-one request since launch wasn't a feature. It was: "How do I install this on my machine?"

yaak started with two install paths: cargo install yaak and a Homebrew tap. That covers macOS developers and anyone comfortable with the Rust toolchain — but it left Arch users reaching for makepkg, Nix users wondering where the flake was, Debian admins wanting a .deb, and Windows users staring at a shell script that assumed /bin/bash existed.

Fair enough. Today yaak ships to seven distribution channels, all updated automatically the moment we tag a release. Here's the full list.

curl — the universal one-liner

Still the fastest path from zero to running. Downloads the latest binary, verifies the SHA256 checksum, and installs to ~/.local/bin:

curl -fsSL https://getyaak.ai/install.sh | bash

Works on any macOS or Linux box with curl and tar. Pin a version or redirect the install:

YAAK_VERSION=v0.1.3 curl -fsSL https://getyaak.ai/install.sh | bash
YAAK_INSTALL_DIR=/usr/local/bin curl -fsSL https://getyaak.ai/install.sh | bash

No package manager opinions. No runtime dependencies. Just a binary in your PATH.

Homebrew — for the macOS/Linux crowd

brew install hanneshapke/yaak/yaak

Tracks releases via a custom tap. brew upgrade yaak does what you'd expect. This has been around since day one and it's still the smoothest install on macOS.

AUR — because Arch users were asking

Two packages, because the Arch community has strong opinions about how software should arrive:

# Build from source — the way Tux intended
yay -S yaak-cli

# Or grab the prebuilt binary — faster, same result
yay -S yaak-cli-bin

(The packages are named yaak-cli because yaak was already taken on the AUR by an unrelated project. Both packages install the yaak binary — the -cli is just the AUR package name.)

The source package (yaak-cli) downloads the release tarball and runs cargo build --release on your machine. The binary package (yaak-cli-bin) grabs the prebuilt x86_64 Linux binary from GitHub Releases. Both install shell completions for bash, zsh, and fish.

Works with yay, paru, pikaur, or plain makepkg -si if you're a purist.

The PKGBUILDs are maintained in the yaak repo and pushed to the AUR automatically on every release — version bumps, hash updates, .SRCINFO generation, all handled by CI.

Nix — declarative and reproducible

# Try it without installing anything permanently
nix run github:hanneshapke/yaak -- find all log files larger than 100MB

# Or install it to your profile
nix profile install github:hanneshapke/yaak

The flake exposes packages.<system>.yaak for x86_64 and aarch64 on both Linux and macOS. Shell completions come via installShellFiles. A default.nix shim is included for anyone not using flakes yet.

Here's what's nice about the Nix setup: the flake reads version directly from Cargo.toml and pins dependencies via Cargo.lock. There's no separate version file to bump. Every tagged release is immediately available — no hash-updating ritual, no waiting for a nixpkgs PR to merge.

NixOS users can add the flake as an input to their system configuration and drop yaak into environment.systemPackages. Home Manager works too.

Debian / Ubuntu — a proper .deb

curl -LO https://github.com/hanneshapke/yaak/releases/latest/download/yaak_0.1.3_amd64.deb
sudo dpkg -i yaak_0.1.3_amd64.deb

A .deb package ships with every GitHub release, built via cargo-deb as part of the CI pipeline. It includes the binary, license, and shell completions for bash, zsh, and fish. Works on Debian, Ubuntu, Pop!_OS, Linux Mint, and anything else that speaks dpkg.

No PPA or APT repository yet — for now it's a direct download from the release page. We're looking at hosting a proper APT repo so sudo apt install yaak and apt upgrade work out of the box (see "What's next" below).

Scoop — Windows gets a seat at the table

# Add the bucket (one-time)
scoop bucket add yaak https://github.com/hanneshapke/scoop-yaak

# Install
scoop install yaak

The Scoop manifest tracks the prebuilt Windows x86_64 binary. scoop update yaak picks up new releases. The manifest is generated entirely by CI — no manual hash copying.

Cargo — build it yourself

cargo install yaak

The original install method. Builds from source using whatever Rust toolchain you have. Works on any platform Rust supports, including architectures where we don't ship prebuilt binaries.

The release pipeline

We didn't want "add a package manager" to mean "add a manual step to every release." So all seven channels are fully automated. When we push a version tag, CI does the following without human intervention:

1. Builds release binaries for Linux (x86_64), macOS (x86_64 + aarch64), and Windows (x86_64). 2. Builds a .deb package with cargo-deb, shell completions included. 3. Publishes everything to GitHub Releases with SHA256 checksums. 4. Pushes the crate to crates.io. 5. Updates the Homebrew formula in the tap repo. 6. Patches the AUR PKGBUILDs with fresh version and hashes, generates .SRCINFO, pushes to both AUR repos. 7. Generates a Scoop manifest with the Windows zip hash and pushes to the bucket repo. 8. Verifies the Nix flake still builds.

Tag, push, walk away. Seven distribution channels, zero manual steps.

What's next

A few things still on the list:

  • APT repository — so Debian/Ubuntu users can sudo apt install yaak and get updates via apt upgrade instead of downloading each .deb by hand.
  • nixpkgs upstream — so yaak is available via nix-env -iA nixpkgs.yaak without adding a flake input.
  • winget — the other Windows package manager.
  • Alpine APK — for Alpine-based Docker images and lightweight server installs.
  • Snapcraft / Flatpak — for Linux users who prefer sandboxed packages.

If there's a package manager you want yaak on, open an issue. We'll get to it.

Get started

No matter which install method you pick, the next step is the same:

yaak --config

Pick your language, choose a provider, enter your API key, and you're done. The whole setup takes about thirty seconds — which, come to think of it, is also how long it takes to forget the tar flags for the last time.

yaak is open source under the Apache-2.0 license. Install it from your favorite package manager, set an API key, and stop googling bash syntax.

-> getyaak.ai . GitHub