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Installation

Prerequisites

Requirement Version Notes
Claude Code CLI Latest Install docs
Anthropic account — With Claude Code access
HTTPS exposure — Via ngrok (built-in) or a domain + reverse proxy (Traefik/Caddy)

No Docker required

Herald is a single Go binary. Docker is available as an option, but running the binary directly gives you native access to Claude Code and your filesystem.

Install from Release

The quickest way to install Herald. Detects your OS and architecture, downloads the latest release, verifies the checksum, and installs to /usr/local/bin.

curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/btouchard/herald/main/install.sh | sh

After installation, the script launches an interactive setup wizard that walks you through port, exposure method (ngrok / custom domain / local-only), and project configuration. It generates a ready-to-use herald.yaml.

To install to a custom directory:

INSTALL_DIR=~/.local/bin curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/btouchard/herald/main/install.sh | sh

Build from Source

Requires Go 1.26+ (download).

git clone https://github.com/btouchard/herald.git
cd herald
make build

The binary is at ./bin/herald. It's statically linked (~15MB) and has zero runtime dependencies.

To install from your local build and run the setup wizard:

./install.sh --local

Zero CGO

Herald compiles with CGO_ENABLED=0. No C toolchain needed. Cross-compiles to any Go-supported platform.

Cross-compilation

# Linux AMD64
CGO_ENABLED=0 GOOS=linux GOARCH=amd64 go build -ldflags="-s -w" -o bin/herald ./cmd/herald

# Linux ARM64 (Raspberry Pi, etc.)
CGO_ENABLED=0 GOOS=linux GOARCH=arm64 go build -ldflags="-s -w" -o bin/herald ./cmd/herald

# macOS ARM64 (Apple Silicon)
CGO_ENABLED=0 GOOS=darwin GOARCH=arm64 go build -ldflags="-s -w" -o bin/herald ./cmd/herald

Verify Installation

# Check the binary runs
./bin/herald version

# Verify Claude Code is available
claude --version

What's Next

  1. Configure Herald — Set up herald.yaml with your domain and projects
  2. Connect from Claude Chat — Add the Custom Connector
  3. Start coding from your phone