Install

The latest release of Clifton is available at GitHub but we describe below automatic ways to install it. To install Clifton choose your operating system from the tabs below:

Download the binary of Clifton using curl:

% curl -L https://github.com/isambard-sc/clifton/releases/latest/download/clifton-macos-aarch64 -o clifton
% chmod u+x clifton

% curl -L https://github.com/isambard-sc/clifton/releases/latest/download/clifton-macos-x86_64 -o clifton
% chmod u+x clifton

If you want it accessible from any directory on your computer, you can place the binary in /usr/local/bin with:

% sudo mv clifton /usr/local/bin/

If you don’t, you will need to specify the path to the executable when running it. So instead of clifton auth as described below you would run e.g. ./clifton auth or ~/clifton auth.

To update Clifton, run those same commands again.

Allowing Clifton to run on macOS

If you download the Clifton through your web browser rather than with curl, you may be presented with a macOS warning dialog when trying to run the executable, e.g.

“clifton” can’t be opened because Apple cannot check it for malicious software.

If this occurs you will have to go into “System Settings > Privacy & Security” and allow use of the clifton executable (see Open a Mac app from an unidentified developer from the macOS documentation). Note that you will need to have admin privileges to change the settings in “Privacy & Security”.

Download the binary of Clifton using curl:

$ curl -L https://github.com/isambard-sc/clifton/releases/latest/download/clifton-linux-musl-x86_64 -o clifton
$ chmod u+x clifton

$ curl -L https://github.com/isambard-sc/clifton/releases/latest/download/clifton-linux-musl-aarch64 -o clifton
$ chmod u+x clifton

If you want it accessible from any directory on your computer, you can place the binary in ~/.local/bin (or any directory on your $PATH you wish) with:

$ mkdir -p ~/.local/bin
$ mv clifton ~/.local/bin/

Setting the path

Some Linux distributions do not have ~/.local/bin in the $PATH by default. In this cae, either put the program somewhere which is already in the $PATH, or add ~/.local/bin with:

$ echo 'export PATH="~/.local/bin:$PATH"' >> ~/.bashrc

If you don’t, you will need to specify the path to the executable when running it. So instead of clifton auth as described below you would run e.g. ./clifton auth or ~/clifton auth.

To update Clifton, run those same commands again.

Alternatively, a tool like mise can install it for you with mise use -g github:isambard-sc/clifton.

Clifton is available through WinGet. WinGet is a package installer from Microsoft which is installed by default on most Windows computers.

Open a terminal window (search for “Terminal” or “Powershell” in the search bar at the bottom) and run:

> winget install clifton

You will then need to close and reopen the terminal window before you can run any clifton commands.

To update clifton, run winget upgrade clifton.

If WinGet is not available then you can download the file manually using

> curl.exe -L https://github.com/isambard-sc/clifton/releases/latest/download/clifton-windows-x86_64.exe -o clifton.exe

If you have downloaded Clifton manually, when running it you will need to specify the path. So instead of clifton auth as described below you would run e.g. ./clifton auth or ~/clifton auth.

You can check that it successfully installed by running

clifton --version

which should print out

clifton 0.3.0