Step-by-Step Setup Guide

January 10, 2026 · View on GitHub

This guide will walk you through installing and configuring yarGen-Go from scratch.

Step 1: Prerequisites

Required:

  • Go 1.22 or later - Download Go
  • No C compiler needed - uses pure Go SQLite implementation

Note: Previous versions required GCC for SQLite compilation, but yarGen-Go now uses a pure Go SQLite implementation (modernc.org/sqlite) which requires no C compiler. This makes building on Windows much easier!

Step 2: Clone and Build

# Clone the repository
git clone https://github.com/Neo23x0/yarGen-Go.git
cd yarGen-Go

# Download dependencies
go mod tidy

# Build binaries
go build -o yargen ./cmd/yargen
go build -o yargen-util ./cmd/yargen-util

# Verify build
./yargen --help
./yargen-util --help

Alternative: Using Make (if available):

make build        # Build for current platform
make install      # Install to GOPATH/bin

Step 3: Download Goodware Databases

The goodware database is essential for filtering out common strings found in legitimate software.

# Download built-in databases (~913 MB)
./yargen-util update

# Verify databases
./yargen-util list

This will create a dbs/ directory with the goodware databases. The first download may take several minutes depending on your connection.

Step 4: Configuration Directory

The config directory (./config/) already exists in the project. The configuration file will be created in Step 5 by copying the example file to ./config/config.yaml.

Note: If you prefer to use a config file in your home directory instead, you can create ~/.yargen/ and use the --config flag when running yarGen.

LLM integration improves string selection quality. The easiest way to set up configuration is to copy the example file.

  1. Copy the example configuration:

    The default config location is ./config/config.yaml in the project directory. Copy the example file there:

    Linux / macOS:

    cp config/config.example.yml config/config.yaml

    Windows (PowerShell):

    Copy-Item -Path "config\config.example.yml" -Destination "config\config.yaml"

    Windows (Command Prompt):

    copy config\config.example.yml config\config.yaml

    Note: If you prefer to use a config file in your home directory instead (e.g., ~/.yargen/config.yml), you can copy it there and use the --config flag: ./yargen serve --config ~/.yargen/config.yml

  2. Edit the config file to match your LLM provider:

    Open config/config.yaml in your project directory and adjust:

    For OpenAI:

    llm:
  provider: "openai"
  model: "gpt-4o-mini"  # or gpt-4o, gpt-4-turbo
  api_key: "${OPENAI_API_KEY}"

    For Anthropic:

    llm:
  provider: "anthropic"
  model: "claude-sonnet-4-20250514"  # or claude-opus-4-20250514
  api_key: "${ANTHROPIC_API_KEY}"

    For Google Gemini:

    llm:
  provider: "gemini"
  model: "gemini-1.5-pro"  # or gemini-1.5-flash
  api_key: "${GEMINI_API_KEY}"

    For Ollama (Local):

    llm:
  provider: "ollama"
  model: "llama3.3"  # or llama3.2, qwen2.5, mistral
  endpoint: "http://localhost:11434"
  api_key: ""  # Not needed for local

  3. Set your API key as an environment variable:

    The config file uses ${VARIABLE_NAME} syntax to read from environment variables.

    Linux / macOS:

    # For OpenAI
export OPENAI_API_KEY="sk-your-key-here"

# For Anthropic
export ANTHROPIC_API_KEY="sk-ant-your-key-here"

# For Gemini
export GEMINI_API_KEY="your-gemini-key-here"

# Add to ~/.bashrc or ~/.zshrc for persistence:
echo 'export OPENAI_API_KEY="sk-your-key-here"' >> ~/.bashrc

    Windows (PowerShell):

    # For OpenAI
$env:OPENAI_API_KEY="sk-your-key-here"

# For Anthropic
$env:ANTHROPIC_API_KEY="sk-ant-your-key-here"

# For Gemini
$env:GEMINI_API_KEY="your-gemini-key-here"

# Permanent:
[System.Environment]::SetEnvironmentVariable("OPENAI_API_KEY", "sk-your-key-here", "User")

    Windows (Command Prompt):

    set OPENAI_API_KEY=sk-your-key-here
REM Or set permanently via System Properties → Environment Variables

  4. Get API Keys (if needed):

The example config file (config/config.example.yml) contains detailed comments explaining all options and model choices for each provider.

Step 6: First-Time Usage

Test CLI Mode

# Create a test malware directory
mkdir test-malware
# Add some sample files (PE executables, etc.)

# Generate rules
./yargen -m ./test-malware -o test-rules.yar

# With LLM refinement
./yargen -m ./test-malware -o test-rules.yar --opcodes

Test Web UI

# Start web server
./yargen serve

# Or on custom port
./yargen serve --port 3000

Then open http://127.0.0.1:8080 in your browser.

Web UI Features:

  • Drag & drop malware samples
  • Configure generation options
  • View generated rules
  • Manage scoring rules
  • Check LLM configuration status

Step 7: Verify Installation

# Check version/build info
./yargen --version

# Test database loading
./yargen-util list

# Verify config loading (will use defaults if config doesn't exist)
./yargen -m ./test-malware --debug

Troubleshooting

Build Issues:

  • Go version: Update to Go 1.22+ if you see version errors
  • Permission denied: On Linux/macOS, you may need chmod +x yargen yargen-util

Database Issues:

  • Download fails: Check internet connection, retry with ./yargen-util update
  • Database not found: Ensure you ran ./yargen-util update and dbs/ directory exists

LLM Issues:

  • API key not found: Verify environment variable is set (use echo $OPENAI_API_KEY or $env:OPENAI_API_KEY in PowerShell)
  • Connection errors: Check API key validity, network connectivity, and firewall settings
  • Config not loading: Verify config file location (default is ./config/config.yaml in project directory, or use --config flag to specify a different path)

Memory Issues:

  • If you get out-of-memory errors, reduce max_candidates in config
  • Disable opcodes with --no-opcodes flag to reduce memory usage
  • Consider using a smaller LLM model

Installation (Alternative Methods)

Using Pre-built Binaries

Download pre-built binaries from the Releases page for your platform.

Using Go Install

go install github.com/Neo23x0/yarGen-Go/cmd/yargen@latest
go install github.com/Neo23x0/yarGen-Go/cmd/yargen-util@latest

Binaries will be installed to $GOPATH/bin or $HOME/go/bin (add to PATH if needed).