Installation — Liu Terminal

Install Liu Terminal on macOS. Download the DMG for Apple Silicon or Intel, or install via Homebrew.

Install Liu on macOS or Linux — grab a packaged build from the download menu or compile from source in under a minute.

Install

Grab a packaged build from the download menu (macOS .dmg per Apple Silicon / Intel, Linux .tar.gz), or use a package manager:

# macOS (Homebrew)
brew install --cask calculusteam/liu/liu

# Arch (AUR)
paru -S liu-bin

# Debian/Ubuntu (PPA)
sudo add-apt-repository ppa:calculusteam/liu && sudo apt update && sudo apt install liu

# Fedora (COPR)
sudo dnf copr enable calculusteam/liu && sudo dnf install liu

Package-manager commands are shown for stores that may not be published on every release. The reproducible source-build path below works independently of those repositories.

Official packaged macOS releases are Developer ID signed and notarized by Apple. A local source build is not automatically signed or notarized.

Or install the latest signed build via the script (fallback):

curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/calculusteam/liu/main/scripts/install.sh | bash

Build from source

From the repository root, the build helper detects the platform and selects a Release baseline by default:

./scripts/build.sh --yes      # recommended non-interactive build
./scripts/build.sh --debug    # Debug build
./scripts/build.sh --native   # host CPU tuning
./scripts/build.sh --package  # Release build + macOS DMG/Linux tarball

The direct CMake path is:

cmake -B build -DCMAKE_BUILD_TYPE=Release
cmake --build build -j$(sysctl -n hw.ncpu 2>/dev/null || nproc)
./build/Liu

Prerequisites

  • CMake 3.20+
  • A C11 compiler - Apple clang, mainline clang, or gcc 10+
  • libssh2 (system library or vendored build, selected by CMake)
  • Linux also needs OpenSSL/libcrypto, X11 and OpenGL development packages. Debian/Ubuntu example: libssh2-1-dev libssl-dev libx11-dev libxcursor-dev libxrandr-dev libgl-dev pkg-config.

SQLite3, stb_truetype, stb_image and cJSON are vendored in third_party/ - you do not install them separately.

macOS — Primary target

brew install libssh2
git clone https://github.com/calculusteam/liu.git && cd liu

cmake -B build -DCMAKE_BUILD_TYPE=Release
cmake --build build -j$(sysctl -n hw.ncpu)

./build/Liu

Release builds add LTO and -O3. The default is a portable baseline; pass -DLIU_NATIVE_ARCH=ON to cmake for -march=native on x86_64 (Apple arm64 uses -mcpu=apple-m1). For a debuggable build swap Release for Debug.

Linux

sudo apt install cmake build-essential libssh2-1-dev
git clone https://github.com/calculusteam/liu.git && cd liu

cmake -B build -DCMAKE_BUILD_TYPE=Release
cmake --build build -j$(nproc)

./build/Liu

The Metal backend is skipped off-macOS; you get the OpenGL 3.3 core renderer. Pass -DUSE_METAL=OFF on macOS too if you want to force OpenGL.

Useful flags

cmake -B build -DUSE_ASM=OFF        # skip the SIMD assembly
cmake -B build -DUSE_METAL=OFF      # force OpenGL on macOS
cmake -B build -DUSE_LIBFUZZER=ON   # enable libFuzzer harnesses
cmake -B build -DLIU_NATIVE_ARCH=ON       # tune Release for this CPU
cmake -B build -DLIU_BROWSER=OFF             # disable the macOS WebKit browser
cmake -B build -DUSE_VENDORED_SSH_DEPS=OFF  # use system SSH/crypto deps
cmake -B build -DAUTO_DOWNLOAD_SSH_DEPS=OFF # do not bootstrap missing macOS deps

Companion binaries

A single top-level build produces two sibling binaries next to the main app:

cmake --build build --target liu-notify   # notification daemon + CLI
cmake --build build --target liu-history  # standalone agent-history CLI

Packaging (macOS)

./scripts/build_macos_compat_deps.sh    # vendor libssh2 + OpenSSL
./scripts/package_macos_dmg.sh          # signed .app + DMG

Custom terminfo

Liu ships its own terminal entry so remote shells advertise the correct capabilities - truecolor, mouse modes, bracketed paste, Mode 2026 synchronized output, OSC 7/8/133.

tic -x liu.terminfo

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