Install

Windows: download the app

1. Download wanna.sh for Windows (Windows 10 or 11, 64-bit).
2. Open the file you downloaded. It installs wanna.sh for your account only, so it doesn’t ask for administrator rights, and adds it to the Start menu.
3. wanna.sh opens in its own window. The first time, it downloads Python and its core parts, which takes a minute or two. After that it starts in a few seconds.

Then continue with your first chat.

“Windows protected your PC”

The installer isn’t code-signed yet, so Windows SmartScreen may warn about it. Click More info, check the publisher line reads Unknown publisher and the file is wanna.sh-setup-windows-x64.exe, then click Run anyway. You can check the download first on GitHub, which builds it from the public source code.

Good to know:

• Chat works straight away. Pictures, video, voices and music need extra AI libraries (about 3 GB). wanna.sh offers to download them the first time you open one of those pages, matched to your graphics card.
• Your graphics card: keep the NVIDIA driver up to date. wanna.sh picks the chat engine and AI libraries that suit the driver you have.
• While the window is open, other apps can use wanna.sh’s API at http://localhost:7860. Closing the window stops wanna.sh and frees the graphics card.
• Code needs Docker Desktop for its sandbox.
• Where things are: your models, pictures and settings are in C:\Users\<you>\.wanna, the app in %LOCALAPPDATA%\wanna.sh, and its Python and logs in %LOCALAPPDATA%\sh.wanna.desktop.

Linux and macOS: one command

Open a terminal and run:

curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/wanna-sh/wanna/main/install.sh | bash

The installer:

1. Checks your computer: git, curl, Node.js 20.9 or newer, and your graphics cards.
2. Installs uv if you don’t have it. uv sets up Python for wanna.sh.
3. Downloads wanna.sh to ~/wanna.sh.
4. Installs the app and its AI libraries. The first time, this downloads several gigabytes (mostly PyTorch).
5. Builds the interface.
6. Adds a wanna command to ~/.local/bin.

When it finishes, start wanna.sh:

wanna

and open http://localhost:7860 in your browser. Next: your first chat.

Tip

If the installer says ~/.local/bin isn’t on your PATH, add this line to ~/.bashrc (or ~/.zshrc on macOS) and open a new terminal:

export PATH="$HOME/.local/bin:$PATH"

A specific version

The command above installs the latest version. To install a particular release instead, give its version (see releases):

curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/wanna-sh/wanna/main/install.sh | WANNA_BRANCH=v0.1.0 bash

Running the installer again with another version switches to it. Running it without one updates to the latest.

Installer options

Pass options after bash -s --:

curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/wanna-sh/wanna/main/install.sh | bash -s -- --chat-only

Option	What it does
--dir PATH	Install somewhere other than ~/wanna.sh.
--chat-only	Skip the AI libraries for pictures, video, voices and music. Saves several gigabytes; chat and Code still work. Run the installer again without it to add them later.
--help	Show the options.

You can also set WANNA_DIR (same as --dir), WANNA_BIN_DIR (where the wanna command goes) and WANNA_BRANCH (which branch to install).

If you’d rather read the script before running it (a good habit), download it first:

curl -fsSLO https://raw.githubusercontent.com/wanna-sh/wanna/main/install.sh
less install.sh
bash install.sh

Windows with WSL2

Prefer the command line? wanna.sh also runs on Windows inside WSL2, a Linux environment built into Windows. Most people should use the Windows app instead.

1. Install WSL2. Open PowerShell as administrator and run wsl --install, then restart. This installs Ubuntu by default. See Microsoft’s guide for details.
2. Install the NVIDIA driver on Windows, not inside Linux. The Windows driver also makes your graphics card available inside WSL2 (NVIDIA’s guide).
3. Install Node.js inside Ubuntu. For example with nvm: nvm install --lts.
4. Optional, for Code: install Docker Desktop and turn on WSL integration for your Ubuntu distribution in its settings.
5. Open the Ubuntu terminal and run the installer command above.

Open http://localhost:7860 in your normal Windows browser; WSL2 forwards it automatically.

Caution

WSL2 gets a share of your computer’s memory (by default, half of it). Large models that spill out of the graphics card use this memory. If WSL2 runs out, it can stop suddenly. Microsoft explains how to change the limit in WSL configuration.

macOS

1. Install the Xcode command line tools for git: xcode-select --install.
2. Install Node.js from nodejs.org or with Homebrew (brew install node).
3. Run the installer command above in Terminal.

Install by hand

If you prefer to do each step yourself:

git clone https://github.com/wanna-sh/wanna.git
cd wanna

# The app (Python 3.11 or newer)
cd backend
uv venv --python 3.13 .venv
uv pip install --python .venv/bin/python -e ".[ml]"   # or -e . for chat only

# The interface (Node.js 20.9 or newer)
cd ../frontend
npm ci
npm run build

# Start it
cd ../backend
.venv/bin/python -m wanna

python -m wanna and the wanna command are the same thing. See command options.

Docker

wanna.sh also runs in a container. See Run in Docker.