Installation

macOS

caro is available via Homebrew, Cargo, and as a standalone binary.

Homebrew

Install	Upgrade
brew install wildcard/tap/caro	brew upgrade caro

Cargo

cargo install caro

# For Apple Silicon with MLX GPU acceleration:
cargo install caro --features embedded-mlx

Precompiled binaries

Download from the releases page or use the install script:

curl -fsSL https://setup.caro.sh | bash

Apple Silicon

For maximum performance with MLX GPU acceleration on M1/M2/M3/M4 Macs, use cargo install caro --features embedded-mlx or install via Homebrew.

Linux & BSD

caro is available via Cargo and as precompiled binaries for most Linux distributions.

Cargo

cargo install caro

Debian, Ubuntu (apt)

# Add repository (coming soon)
# sudo apt install caro

# For now, use the install script:
curl -fsSL https://setup.caro.sh | bash

Fedora, CentOS, RHEL (dnf)

# Package coming soon. For now, use:
curl -fsSL https://setup.caro.sh | bash

Precompiled binaries

Download from the releases page:

Platform	Download
Linux x86_64	caro-linux-amd64
Linux ARM64	caro-linux-arm64

Windows

caro is available via WinGet, Cargo, and as a standalone binary.

WinGet

# Coming soon
# winget install wildcard.caro

Cargo

cargo install caro

Precompiled binary

Download caro-windows-amd64.exe from the releases page.

Caution

Windows support is experimental. WSL2 is recommended for the best experience.

Build from source

git clone https://github.com/wildcard/caro.git
cd caro
cargo build --release
./target/release/caro --version

Prerequisites: Rust 1.83+, CMake. For Apple Silicon GPU acceleration, install Xcode.

macOS

# Install Rust
curl --proto '=https' --tlsv1.2 -sSf https://sh.rustup.rs | sh
source "$HOME/.cargo/env"

# Install CMake via Homebrew
brew install cmake

# Clone and build
git clone https://github.com/wildcard/caro.git
cd caro
cargo build --release

Ubuntu/Debian

# Install dependencies
sudo apt update
sudo apt install -y build-essential cmake curl

# Install Rust
curl --proto '=https' --tlsv1.2 -sSf https://sh.rustup.rs | sh
source "$HOME/.cargo/env"

# Clone and build
git clone https://github.com/wildcard/caro.git
cd caro
cargo build --release

Fedora/RHEL

# Install dependencies
sudo dnf install -y cmake gcc-c++ curl

# Install Rust
curl --proto '=https' --tlsv1.2 -sSf https://sh.rustup.rs | sh
source "$HOME/.cargo/env"

# Clone and build
git clone https://github.com/wildcard/caro.git
cd caro
cargo build --release

Verifying Installation

After installation, verify everything is working:

# Check version
caro --version
# Output: caro 0.1.0

# Test basic functionality
caro "show current directory"
# Output: pwd

# Test with a more complex query
caro "find all markdown files"
# Output: find . -name "*.md"

First Run

On first run, caro will download the required model (~1.1GB):

$ caro "list files"
Downloading model... [====================] 100%
Model cached at ~/.cache/caro/models/

find . -type f

Note

The model is cached locally and won’t be downloaded again unless you clear the cache or update to a new version.

Configuration

caro stores configuration in:

• macOS: ~/Library/Application Support/caro/
• Linux: ~/.config/caro/
• Windows: %APPDATA%\caro\

Model cache location:

• macOS: ~/Library/Caches/caro/models/
• Linux: ~/.cache/caro/models/
• Windows: %LOCALAPPDATA%\caro\cache\

Troubleshooting

”command not found: caro”

Ensure Cargo’s bin directory is in your PATH:

# Add to ~/.bashrc or ~/.zshrc
export PATH="$HOME/.cargo/bin:$PATH"

# Reload shell
source ~/.bashrc  # or ~/.zshrc

Build fails with CMake error

Install CMake:

# macOS
brew install cmake

# Ubuntu/Debian
sudo apt install cmake

# Fedora
sudo dnf install cmake

Model download fails

Check your internet connection and try again:

# Clear partial download
rm -rf ~/.cache/caro/models/

# Retry
caro "test"

Next Steps

• Quick Start - Learn the basics
• macOS Setup - Enable GPU acceleration
• Configuration - Customize caro