Install Aura On macOS

Aura publishes separate macOS 15 archives for Apple silicon and Intel. The installer uses uname to select the correct archive.

1. Confirm The Mac Architecture

Open Terminal and run:

uname -m

• arm64 means Apple silicon.
• x86_64 means Intel.

Both results are supported. Other macOS architectures do not have a release archive.

2. Install Aura

macOS includes curl, tar, and shasum, which are the tools used by the verified installer:

curl -fsSL https://johnolafenwa.github.io/Aura/install.sh | sh

The script downloads the matching v0.3.2-preview archive and checks it against the release's SHA256SUMS file before copying anything into the installation prefix.

3. Add Aura To zsh

The default installation location is ~/.local/bin/aura. Add that directory to the zsh login environment once:

grep -qxF 'export PATH="$HOME/.local/bin:$PATH"' "$HOME/.zshrc" || \
  printf '%s\n' 'export PATH="$HOME/.local/bin:$PATH"' >> "$HOME/.zshrc"
source "$HOME/.zshrc"

If aura --version already works, the directory was already on PATH and this step is unnecessary.

4. Verify The Installation

command -v aura
aura --version

The command path should end in .local/bin/aura, and the version should begin with:

aura 0.3.2-preview

5. Run A Program

Create hello.au:

def main():
    print("hello from Aura on macOS")

Run it:

aura run hello.au

6. Enable Native Builds

The default MIR execution path does not need Xcode. Direct native execution and aura build need Apple's linker and C toolchain. Install them with:

xcode-select --install

After the installer completes, verify and build:

xcode-select -p
aura build -o hello hello.au
./hello

Upgrade Aura

Upgrade the installed CLI and runtime to the current published preview:

aura upgrade
aura --version

The command preserves the active install prefix and uses the same verified installer as a fresh installation.

Troubleshooting

aura: command not found

Confirm the file exists and reload the shell:

ls -l "$HOME/.local/bin/aura"
source "$HOME/.zshrc"

The installer reports an unsupported architecture

Run uname -m. Aura currently publishes macOS archives only for arm64 and x86_64.

Native linking fails

Run xcode-select -p. If it fails, install or repair the Xcode command-line tools before using aura build or --backend direct.

Continue with the VS Code extension guide or Getting Aura Running.