Installation

curl -fsSL https://milo-language.github.io/milo/install.sh | sh

That drops a single self-contained milo binary in ~/.local/bin. The standard library is baked into it — there is nothing else to fetch.

Then:

milo --version

You also need clang

Milo compiles to LLVM IR and shells out to clang to assemble and link. macOS: xcode-select --install. Debian/Ubuntu: sudo apt install clang. The installer warns you if it can't find one.

Options

Variable	Default	Purpose
MILO_INSTALL_DIR	~/.local/bin	where the binary lands
MILO_TAG	latest	which release tag to pull

MILO_INSTALL_DIR=/usr/local/bin curl -fsSL https://milo-language.github.io/milo/install.sh | sh

Manual download

Prebuilt binaries for macOS and Linux, arm64 and x64, are on the releases page.

macOS quarantines browser downloads

A binary downloaded through Safari or Chrome is quarantined, and macOS will refuse to run it (often deleting it outright). curl -L the tarball or use the installer above — neither sets the quarantine attribute. If you already downloaded it in a browser: xattr -d com.apple.quarantine milo.

Build from source

You want this if you're working on the compiler rather than with it, or you're on a platform with no prebuilt binary.

Dependencies: Bun (runs the compiler, which is TypeScript) and LLVM/Clang.

curl -fsSL https://bun.sh/install | bash          # bun
brew install llvm                                  # macOS
sudo apt install llvm clang                        # Debian/Ubuntu

git clone https://github.com/milo-language/milo.git
cd milo
./milo run examples/hello.milo

The repo ships a milo wrapper — it's just bun run src/main.ts <args>. To use it from any directory, put it on your PATH:

# symlink (the wrapper follows the link back to the repo)
sudo ln -s "$PWD/milo" /usr/local/bin/milo

# — or — add the repo to PATH
echo "export PATH=\"$PWD:\$PATH\"" >> ~/.zshrc && source ~/.zshrc

git pull keeps a source install current; the symlink keeps pointing at the repo.

Verify it works

milo run examples/hello.milo

Hello, Milo!

Editor support

Milo ships an LSP server (milo lsp) and a VS Code extension. See IDE Setup.

Next: Your first program