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 (go1.25+)

Skywire commands can be executed via go run:

$ go run github.com/skycoin/skywire@develop
┌─┐┬┌─┬ ┬┬ ┬┬┬─┐┌─┐
└─┐├┴┐└┬┘││││├┬┘├┤
└─┘┴ ┴ ┴ └┴┘┴┴└─└─┘
v1.3.54
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

The new config omits the "binary" field and the first two arguments app <app-name> :

[
  {
    "name": "vpn-client",
    "args": [
      "--dns",
      "1.1.1.1"
    ],
    "auto_start": false,
    "port": 43
  },
  {
    "name": "skychat",
    "args": [
      "--addr",
      ":8001"
    ],
    "auto_start": true,
    "port": 1
  },
  {
    "name": "skysocks",
    "auto_start": true,
    "port": 3
  },
  {
    "name": "skysocks-client",
    "args": [
      "--addr",
      ":1080"
    ],
    "auto_start": false,
    "port": 13
  },
  {
    "name": "vpn-server",
    "auto_start": false,
    "port": 44
  }
]

For comparison, the external apps launcher config:

[
  {
    "name": "vpn-client",
    "binary": "skywire",
    "args": [
      "app",
      "vpn-client",
      "--dns",
      "1.1.1.1"
    ],
    "auto_start": false,
    "port": 43
  },
  {
    "name": "skychat",
    "binary": "skywire",
    "args": [
      "app",
      "skychat",
      "--addr",
      ":8001"
    ],
    "auto_start": true,
    "port": 1
  },
  {
    "name": "skysocks",
    "binary": "skywire",
    "args": [
      "app",
      "skysocks"
    ],
    "auto_start": true,
    "port": 3
  },
  {
    "name": "skysocks-client",
    "binary": "skywire",
    "args": [
      "app",
      "skysocks-client",
      "--addr",
      ":1080"
    ],
    "auto_start": false,
    "port": 13
  },
  {
    "name": "vpn-server",
    "binary": "skywire",
    "args": [
      "app",
      "vpn-server"
    ],
    "auto_start": false,
    "port": 44
  }
]

To run the visor native applications with external apps configuration, one must first have the skywire binary explicitly installed:

go install github.com/skycoin/skywire@develop

Then, either: * place the binary in the current working directory where skywire is running OR * set thebin_path in the skywire-config.json to the directory containing the skywire binary

Running a custom skywire visor app requires that the binary for that app exists in the directory specified by "bin_path" in the visor's config

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.

Docker

For docker-specific documentation, see the Docker guide.