Installation

Active early development

jackin' is not production-ready. It is intentionally in active early development while the core concept, runtime integrations, CLI/TUI workflows, schemas, and documentation are still being refined. Major breaking changes are expected before a stable release; features may be redesigned, replaced, or removed when that leads to a better project. Early adopters are welcome, but the priority right now is concept quality and fast iteration rather than freezing today's behavior.

Prerequisites

• Docker — jackin’ uses Docker to create isolated containers. Make sure Docker is installed and the Docker daemon is running.
• macOS or Linux — jackin’ currently supports macOS and Linux. Windows support via WSL2 is possible but untested.

Install jackin’

The easiest way to install on macOS or Linux is via Homebrew. The Homebrew formulae are maintained in the jackin-project/homebrew-tap repository.

Homebrew

brew tap jackin-project/tap

# Active early-development channel
brew install jackin@preview

From source

cargo install --git https://github.com/jackin-project/jackin.git

Verify installation

jackin --version

You should see the jackin’ version and the banner:

jackin 0.6.0-dev

Docker setup

jackin’ requires Docker to be running. Verify with:

docker info

Tip

On macOS, OrbStack is a lightweight alternative to Docker Desktop that works well with jackin’.

What gets installed

jackin’ installs the host CLI plus the matching in-container runtime. Homebrew installs the jackin-capsule Linux binary beside the CLI so the first agent load does not need an extra GitHub download. Source installs can still fetch or build that runtime on first use.

When you first load an agent, jackin’ will:

1. Pull the construct image — the shared Debian-based base image every agent extends
2. Fetch the role repository — cached locally so subsequent loads of the same role do not re-clone
3. Build a derived image — layers the role’s tools and the agent runtime on top of the construct
4. Create a per-agent Docker network — for isolation between agents

Subsequent loads of the same role are typically fast: Docker’s layer cache is reused, the role-repo cache is reused, and only changed layers rebuild. Pass --rebuild when you want jackin’ to refresh the agent-runtime install layer (for example, to pick up a newer agent release).

Next steps

Ready to go? Head to the Quick Start to load your first agent.