Installing Skywire

Skywire can be installed by package, downloaded as a release binary, or compiled from source via go install / go run.

go install or go run Skywire (go1.26+)

Skywire commands can be executed via go run:

$ go run github.com/skycoin/skywire@develop
┌─┐┬┌─┬ ┬┬ ┬┬┬─┐┌─┐
└─┐├┴┐└┬┘││││├┬┘├┤
└─┘┴ ┴ ┴ └┴┘┴┴└─└─┘
v1.3.67
built with go1.26.3

Available Commands:
  visor     Skywire Visor
  cli       Command Line Interface for skywire
  svc       Skywire services
  dmsg      DMSG services & utilities
  app       skywire native applications

Flags:
  -b, --bv        print runtime/debug.BuildInfo.Main.Version
  -d, --info      print runtime/debug.BuildInfo
  -v, --version   version for skywire

The skywire visor can now (as of v1.3.32) run directly with go run when using the default in-process visor native applications configuration

go run github.com/skycoin/skywire@develop cli config gen -br #print the config & output to skywire-config.json
go run github.com/skycoin/skywire@develop visor #uses skywire-config.json by default

By default the bundled apps (vpn, skysocks, skychat, …) run in-process — there are no separate app binaries to install or manage, and config gen produces this config automatically. For most users nothing else is needed.

Want the visor to launch apps as separate executables instead — e.g. to run a custom app? See Running apps as external binaries at the end of this page.

Installing Skywire from Release

Releases for Windows & macOS are available from the release section.

Install as a package on Debian or Arch Linux: Package Installation Guide.

Binary Releases for many platforms and architectures are provided if none of the other installation methods are preferred.

Linux Packages

All Linux packages provide a virtually identical installation, helper scripts, and systemd services regardless of the linux distro.

Consider the skywire PKGBUILD as a reference for building and installing skywire on any linux distribution.

Debian packages

Debian packages are maintained for skywire, as well as several build variants for archlinux.

It's recommended to install the debian packages from the apt repo - see the instructions here:

https://deb.skywire.skycoin.com/

Arch Linux AUR packages

Installing skywire-bin from the AUR will install the release binaries provided by the release section of this repository:

yay -S skywire-bin

To build the debian packages using the release binaries:

yay --mflags " -p cc.deb.PKGBUILD " -S skywire-bin

Installing skywire from the AUR will compile binaries using the source archive for the latest version release:

yay -S skywire

Build the skywire Arch Linux package from git sources to the latest commits on the develop branch:

yay --mflags " -p git.PKGBUILD " -S skywire

NixOS / Nix flake

Two derivations under /nix/ — same flavors as the AUR packages: skywire (source build, static-musl, mirrors make build-static) and skywire-bin (the upstream release tarball).

From a checkout:

cd nix
nix build .#skywire        # source, static musl
nix build .#skywire-bin    # prebuilt tarball
nix run   .#skywire -- --bv

Or as a flake input from elsewhere:

inputs.skywire.url = "github:skycoin/skywire?dir=nix";
# ...
environment.systemPackages = [ skywire.packages.${system}.skywire ];

See the nix details page for the per-arch hash-fill flow on skywire-bin, the visor's --apps-dir integration, and the static-binary sanity check.

Running apps as external binaries

Advanced — most users should use the default in-process apps described above.

By default each app entry in skywire-config.json just names the app and its args, and the visor runs it inside its own process:

{ "name": "skysocks", "auto_start": true, "port": 3 }

To launch an app as a separate executable instead, the entry adds a "binary" field and prepends app <app-name> to its args:

{ "name": "skysocks", "binary": "skywire", "args": ["app", "skysocks"], "auto_start": true, "port": 3 }

This requires the app binaries to be reachable. Install skywire:

go install github.com/skycoin/skywire@develop

then either run the visor from the directory containing the binary, or set "bin_path" in skywire-config.json to the directory holding the app binaries. A custom app must have its binary present in bin_path.

Docker

For docker-specific documentation, see the Docker guide.