codewhale/docs/INSTALL.md

Installing DeepSeek TUI

This page covers every supported install path and the most common "it didn't install" failures, including Linux ARM64 and other less common platforms.

If you just want the short version, see the main README or 简体中文 README.

---

1. Supported platforms

deepseek-tui ships prebuilt binaries for these platform/architecture combinations from v0.8.8 onward:

Platform	Architecture	npm install	cargo install	GitHub release asset
Linux	x64 (x86_64)	✅	✅	deepseek-linux-x64, deepseek-tui-linux-x64
Linux	arm64	✅	✅	deepseek-linux-arm64, deepseek-tui-linux-arm64
macOS	x64	✅	✅	deepseek-macos-x64, deepseek-tui-macos-x64
macOS	arm64 (M-series)	✅	✅	deepseek-macos-arm64, deepseek-tui-macos-arm64
Windows	x64	✅	✅	deepseek-windows-x64.exe, deepseek-tui-windows-x64.exe
Other Linux (musl, riscv64, …)	—	❌¹	✅²	build from source
FreeBSD / OpenBSD	—	❌	✅²	build from source

¹ The npm package will exit with a clear error and point you here. ² Provided your toolchain can compile a recent Rust workspace; see Build from source below.

Linux ARM64 note (v0.8.7 and earlier). v0.8.7 and earlier do not publish a Linux ARM64 prebuilt; users on HarmonyOS thin-and-light, Asahi Linux, Raspberry Pi, AWS Graviton, etc. saw Unsupported architecture: arm64 from npm i -g deepseek-tui. v0.8.8 publishes both deepseek-linux-arm64 and deepseek-tui-linux-arm64, so a plain npm i -g deepseek-tui works on any glibc-based ARM64 Linux. If you're stuck on v0.8.7, jump to Build from source — cargo install works fine.

---

2. Install via npm (recommended)

npm install -g deepseek-tui
deepseek

postinstall downloads the right pair of binaries from the matching GitHub release, verifies a SHA-256 manifest, and exposes both deepseek and deepseek-tui on your PATH.

Useful environment variables:

Variable	Purpose
DEEPSEEK_TUI_VERSION	Pin which release the wrapper downloads (defaults to deepseekBinaryVersion)
DEEPSEEK_TUI_GITHUB_REPO	Point the downloader at a fork (owner/repo)
DEEPSEEK_TUI_RELEASE_BASE_URL	Override the download root (e.g. an internal mirror or release-asset proxy)
DEEPSEEK_TUI_FORCE_DOWNLOAD=1	Re-download even if a cached binary marker matches
DEEPSEEK_TUI_DISABLE_INSTALL=1	Skip the postinstall download entirely (CI smoke, vendored binaries)
DEEPSEEK_TUI_OPTIONAL_INSTALL=1	Don't fail npm install on download/extract errors — useful in CI matrices

Slow npm download from mainland China? If npm install itself is slow (not just the postinstall binary download), use an npm registry mirror:

npm config set registry https://registry.npmmirror.com
npm install -g deepseek-tui

See also Section 3 if you prefer Cargo over npm.

---

3. Install via Cargo (any Tier-1 Rust target)

If GitHub releases are slow, blocked, or you're on an unsupported architecture, install from crates.io directly. Both crates are required — the dispatcher delegates to the TUI runtime at runtime.

# Requires Rust 1.85+ (https://rustup.rs)
cargo install deepseek-tui-cli --locked   # provides `deepseek`
cargo install deepseek-tui     --locked   # provides `deepseek-tui`
deepseek --version

China / mirror-friendly install

When installing from mainland China, configure mirrors for both rustup (the Rust toolchain installer) and Cargo (the package registry) to avoid TLS timeouts and download failures.

Step 1: Install Rust via a rustup mirror

# PowerShell
[Net.ServicePointManager]::SecurityProtocol = [Net.SecurityProtocolType]::Tls12
(New-Object Net.WebClient).DownloadFile('https://win.rustup.rs/x86_64', 'rustup-init.exe')

# git-bash / msys2
export RUSTUP_DIST_SERVER=https://mirrors.tuna.tsinghua.edu.cn/rustup
export RUSTUP_UPDATE_ROOT=https://mirrors.tuna.tsinghua.edu.cn/rustup/rustup
./rustup-init.exe -y --default-toolchain stable

# Linux / macOS
export RUSTUP_DIST_SERVER=https://mirrors.tuna.tsinghua.edu.cn/rustup
export RUSTUP_UPDATE_ROOT=https://mirrors.tuna.tsinghua.edu.cn/rustup/rustup
curl --proto '=https' --tlsv1.2 -sSf https://sh.rustup.rs | sh -s -- -y --default-toolchain stable

The RUSTUP_DIST_SERVER and RUSTUP_UPDATE_ROOT environment variables must be set before running rustup-init; the toolchain download otherwise hits the same TLS handshake problem as the installer.

Step 2: Configure Cargo registry mirror

# ~/.cargo/config.toml
[source.crates-io]
replace-with = "tuna"

[source.tuna]
registry = "sparse+https://mirrors.tuna.tsinghua.edu.cn/crates.io-index/"

rsproxy, Tencent COS, and Aliyun OSS mirrors work the same way; pick whichever is fastest from your network.

---

4. Install via Nix

Try it

If you already have Nix setup with flake support, you can try out deepseek-tui with the nix run command:

nix run github:Hmbown/DeepSeek-TUI

Nix will build deepseek-tui and run it.

If you want to pass arguments this way, use e.g. nix run github:Hmbown/DeepSeek-TUI -- --help.

Flake

Add inputs to flake.nix

{
  inputs = {
    nixpkgs.url = "github:NixOS/nixpkgs/nixos-unstable";

    deepseek-tui.url = "github:Hmbown/DeepSeek-TUI";
    deepseek-tui.inputs.nixpkgs.follows = "nixpkgs";
  };
}

Install into a NixOS Module

{
  outputs = { self, nixpkgs, deepseek-tui }:
  let
    # replace system "x86_64-linux" with your system
    system = "x86_64-linux";
  in
  {
    # change `yourhostname` to your actual hostname
    nixosConfigurations.yourhostname = nixpkgs.lib.nixosSystem {
      inherit system;
      modules = [
        # ...
        {
          environment.systemPackages = [ deepseek-tui.packages.${system}.default ];
        }
      ];
    };
  };
}

---

5. Manual download from GitHub Releases

Grab the matching pair of binaries for your platform from the Releases page and drop them side by side into a directory on your PATH (e.g. ~/.local/bin):

# Linux ARM64 example
mkdir -p ~/.local/bin
curl -L -o ~/.local/bin/deepseek      \
    https://github.com/Hmbown/DeepSeek-TUI/releases/latest/download/deepseek-linux-arm64
curl -L -o ~/.local/bin/deepseek-tui  \
    https://github.com/Hmbown/DeepSeek-TUI/releases/latest/download/deepseek-tui-linux-arm64
chmod +x ~/.local/bin/deepseek ~/.local/bin/deepseek-tui
deepseek --version

Verify integrity against the per-release SHA-256 manifest:

curl -L -o /tmp/deepseek-artifacts-sha256.txt \
    https://github.com/Hmbown/DeepSeek-TUI/releases/latest/download/deepseek-artifacts-sha256.txt
( cd ~/.local/bin && sha256sum -c /tmp/deepseek-artifacts-sha256.txt --ignore-missing )

(Use shasum -a 256 -c instead of sha256sum on macOS.)

---

6. Build from source

This is the catch-all for any platform we don't ship — including musl, riscv64, LoongArch, FreeBSD, and pre-2024 ARM64 distros.

Prerequisites

• Rust 1.85 or later — install with rustup.
• Linux build-time deps (Debian/Ubuntu/openEuler/Kylin):

  sudo apt-get install -y build-essential pkg-config libdbus-1-dev
  # openEuler / RHEL family:
  # sudo dnf install -y gcc make pkgconf-pkg-config dbus-devel
  

• A working cmake is not required.

Build and install

git clone https://github.com/Hmbown/DeepSeek-TUI.git
cd DeepSeek-TUI

cargo install --path crates/cli --locked   # provides `deepseek`
cargo install --path crates/tui --locked   # provides `deepseek-tui`

deepseek --version

Both binaries land in ~/.cargo/bin/ by default; make sure that directory is on your PATH.

Cross-compiling from x64 to ARM64 Linux

If you want to build an ARM64 Linux binary on an x64 Linux host (e.g. for a HarmonyOS / openEuler ARM64 thin-and-light), use cross, which wraps the official Rust cross-targets in a Docker container:

# Once
rustup target add aarch64-unknown-linux-gnu
cargo install cross --locked

# Per build
cross build --release --target aarch64-unknown-linux-gnu -p deepseek-tui-cli
cross build --release --target aarch64-unknown-linux-gnu -p deepseek-tui

The resulting binaries land in target/aarch64-unknown-linux-gnu/release/deepseek and target/aarch64-unknown-linux-gnu/release/deepseek-tui. Copy the matched pair to the ARM64 host (e.g. via scp) and chmod +x them.

If you don't have Docker available, install the cross-linker directly and let Cargo do the work:

sudo apt-get install -y gcc-aarch64-linux-gnu
rustup target add aarch64-unknown-linux-gnu

cat >> ~/.cargo/config.toml <<'EOF'
[target.aarch64-unknown-linux-gnu]
linker = "aarch64-linux-gnu-gcc"
EOF

cargo build --release --target aarch64-unknown-linux-gnu -p deepseek-tui-cli
cargo build --release --target aarch64-unknown-linux-gnu -p deepseek-tui

The same recipe works for aarch64-unknown-linux-musl if your distro is musl-based.

Windows build from source

Building on Windows requires the MSVC C toolchain from Visual Studio Build Tools (the free workload-selectable installer, not the full IDE).

Prerequisites (Windows)

1. Install Visual Studio 2022 Build Tools — select the "Desktop development with C++" workload.
2. Install Rust 1.85+ (see the China mirror instructions above if downloading from mainland China).
3. Install Git for Windows (provides git and the git-bash terminal).

Recommended terminals: Windows Terminal, git-bash, or PowerShell. cmd.exe works but has a small buffer and limited PATH behavior.

Setting up the MSVC environment

Visual Studio Build Tools install cl.exe to a versioned directory but do not add it to PATH globally. You must set the environment manually or use a Developer Command Prompt. The required variables are:

# Adjust version numbers to match your installation
$msvc = "C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft Visual Studio\2022\BuildTools\VC\Tools\MSVC\14.44.35207"
$sdk   = "C:\Program Files (x86)\Windows Kits\10"
$sdkv  = "10.0.26100.0"

$env:INCLUDE  = "$msvc\include;$msvc\atlmfc\include;$sdk\Include\$sdkv\ucrt;$sdk\Include\$sdkv\um;$sdk\Include\$sdkv\shared"
$env:LIB      = "$msvc\lib\x64;$msvc\atlmfc\lib\x64;$sdk\Lib\$sdkv\ucrt\x64;$sdk\Lib\$sdkv\um\x64"
$env:LIBPATH  = "$msvc\lib\x64;$msvc\atlmfc\lib\x64"
$env:CC       = "$msvc\bin\Hostx64\x64\cl.exe"
$env:CXX      = "$msvc\bin\Hostx64\x64\cl.exe"
$env:PATH     = "$msvc\bin\Hostx64\x64;$env:PATH"

Alternatively, open a "Developer Command Prompt for VS 2022" (available from the Start Menu after installing Build Tools), which runs vcvars64.bat to configure all of the above automatically. Then add cargo to PATH inside that session and run cargo build from the project root.

Cargo registry mirror — on Windows the mirror config goes to %USERPROFILE%\.cargo\config.toml. See Step 2 above.

Build

git clone https://github.com/Hmbown/DeepSeek-TUI.git
cd DeepSeek-TUI
set CARGO_HTTP_CHECK_REVOKE=false   # may be needed behind some Chinese ISPs
cargo build --release

Both binaries appear in target\release\deepseek.exe and target\release\deepseek-tui.exe.

Prefer npm install -g on Windows unless you need to modify source. The npm package pulls prebuilt binaries and avoids the C toolchain dependency entirely — see Section 2.

---

7. Troubleshooting

Unsupported architecture: arm64 on platform linux

You're on a release earlier than v0.8.8 that doesn't publish Linux ARM64 binaries. Either upgrade (npm i -g deepseek-tui@latest) or use cargo install per Section 3.

MISSING_COMPANION_BINARY at runtime

The dispatcher (deepseek) requires the TUI runtime (deepseek-tui) to be on the same PATH. If you installed only one crate via cargo install, install both:

cargo install deepseek-tui-cli --locked
cargo install deepseek-tui     --locked

deepseek update reports no asset found for platform deepseek-linux-aarch64

This is #503 in v0.8.7 — the self-updater used Rust's aarch64/x86_64 arch names instead of the release artifact's arm64/x64. Workaround until v0.8.8:

npm i -g deepseek-tui@latest
# or
cargo install deepseek-tui-cli --locked

npm download is slow or times out from mainland China

Set DEEPSEEK_TUI_RELEASE_BASE_URL to a mirrored release-asset directory (rsproxy, TUNA, Tencent COS, Aliyun OSS), or skip npm entirely and use the Cargo mirror setup in Section 3.

Debian/Ubuntu: error: linker 'cc' not found while building

Install the C toolchain:

sudo apt-get install -y build-essential pkg-config libdbus-1-dev

Wrapper installs but deepseek isn't found

npm i -g installs into $(npm prefix -g)/bin; make sure that directory is on your shell's PATH. With nvm: nvm use --lts && hash -r.

Windows: TLS handshake eof or CRYPT_E_REVOCATION_OFFLINE from rustup-init

The TLS handshake to static.rust-lang.org fails from behind the GFW or certain Chinese ISPs. Set the rustup mirror environment variables before running the installer:

# git-bash / msys2
export RUSTUP_DIST_SERVER=https://mirrors.tuna.tsinghua.edu.cn/rustup
export RUSTUP_UPDATE_ROOT=https://mirrors.tuna.tsinghua.edu.cn/rustup/rustup
./rustup-init.exe -y --default-toolchain stable

If you see CRYPT_E_REVOCATION_OFFLINE from Cargo after Rust is installed, also set CARGO_HTTP_CHECK_REVOKE=false during cargo build.

Windows: MSVC compiler (cl.exe) not found during cargo build

Visual Studio Build Tools do not add cl.exe to the global PATH. Either:

1. Open "Developer Command Prompt for VS 2022" from the Start Menu, add %USERPROFILE%\.cargo\bin to PATH in that window, and run cargo build from there; or
2. Set the MSVC environment variables manually — see the Windows build from source section for the PowerShell snippet.

Verify the compiler is reachable: cl.exe /? should print help text.

Windows: 拒绝访问 (os error 5) when Cargo executes build scripts

Third-party antivirus software (Huorong, 360, Kaspersky, etc.) may block Cargo from executing freshly-compiled build-script binaries (e.g. libsqlite3-sys, aws-lc-sys, instability). The error is path-agnostic — moving target-dir does not help.

Symptoms: could not execute process ... build-script-build (never executed)

Workarounds (pick one):

1. Add the project's target/ directory to your AV exclusions list.
2. Close the antivirus software temporarily during cargo build.
3. Use npm install -g deepseek-tui instead — the npm package ships prebuilt binaries and skips the Cargo build entirely (Section 2).
4. Use cargo install deepseek-tui-cli --locked from crates.io — this changes the binary path, which some AV tools treat differently.

To verify that the build-script binary itself is valid (not corrupted), locate it under target/debug/build/<crate>/build-script-build and run it manually:

target/debug/build/libsqlite3-sys-*/build-script-build
# If this runs but panics with "NotPresent" (no C compiler), the binary is
# fine — the AV is blocking Cargo's process-spawning path specifically.

---

8. Verifying your install

deepseek --version
deepseek doctor       # checks API key, provider, runtime, and PATH integrity
deepseek doctor --json

doctor exits non-zero if it finds a problem and prints structured remediation hints. Paste the JSON output into a GitHub issue if you need help.