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Install Pop CLI

Quick install (macOS/Linux with Homebrew)

brew install r0gue-io/pop-cli/pop

Need Homebrew? Follow Install Homebrew.

Other install options

Using cargo-binstall (cross-platform, downloads pre-built binaries when available):

# Install cargo-binstall if you don't have it
curl -L --proto '=https' --tlsv1.2 -sSf https://raw.githubusercontent.com/cargo-bins/cargo-binstall/main/install-from-binstall-release.sh | bash

# Install pop-cli
cargo binstall pop-cli --locked

Using Ubuntu PPA:

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:r0gue-io/pop
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install pop-cli

If add-apt-repository is not found, install it with sudo apt-get install software-properties-common.

Debian/Ubuntu (using .deb package from GitHub Releases):

sudo dpkg -i pop-cli_*.deb

Nix/NixOS:

Arch Linux (using pacman with a .pkg.tar.zst from GitHub Releases):

1. Install Pop CLI

1.1 For macOS and Linux (Homebrew)

Install Homebrew (if not installed)

Run the official installer (more info here):

Add Homebrew to your PATH (if the installer didn’t do it for you):

  • macOS (Apple Silicon):

  • Linux:

Verify:

Install Pop CLI with Homebrew:

1.2 Build from source (any OS)

Firstly, install Rust:

And now build pop-cli from source and install it:

2. Set up your environment

Recommended next step: Run pop install to set up OS packages, Rust tooling, and optional frontend dependencies.

Warning: pop install may download and run external scripts when dependencies are missing, including the official installers for Homebrew, rustup, nvm, and Bun.

Install command flags

Flag
Description

-y, --skip-confirm

Skip confirmation prompts and install everything non-interactively.

-f, --frontend

Install frontend dependencies (Node.js v20+ and Bun).

JSON mode

Use global --json for structured automation output:

JSON mode notes:

  • pop --json install requires -y/--skip-confirm.

  • pop --json completion requires a shell via positional SHELL or --shell.

Interactive prompts

By default, pop install prompts you before installing OS packages and frontend dependencies. Use -y to skip all prompts.

Rust toolchain setup

pop install installs or updates rustup, then:

  • Sets the default toolchain to stable

  • Updates Rust

  • Adds the wasm32-unknown-unknown target

  • Installs components: cargo, clippy, rust-analyzer, rust-src, rust-std, rustc, rustfmt

Compatibility notes: Pop CLI targets ink! v6 by default in the latest releases. If you need ink! v5 support, install version 0.10.0:

Installing frontend dependencies

If you plan to use frontend templates with your chains or contracts, you can install the required frontend dependencies:

This will install:

  • Node.js (v20+) via nvm if your current node --version check fails or is too old

  • Bun (required for certain frontend templates like inkathon)

If Bun installs successfully but is not on your PATH yet, Pop CLI checks the default location at ~/.bun/bin/bun.

These dependencies are automatically checked when you use the --with-frontend flag with pop new chain or pop new contract.

Set up shell completion

Use pop completion to generate shell completion scripts for Bash, Zsh, Fish, PowerShell, or Elvish.

Usage

Arguments and flags

Argument/flag
Description

SHELL

Optional positional shell (bash, zsh, fish, powershell, elvish). Mutually exclusive with --shell.

--shell <SHELL>

Shell to generate completions for (same values as SHELL).

-o, --output <PATH>

Write the completion script to a file instead of stdout.

Behavior and defaults

  • If you omit --output, Pop writes the completion script to stdout.

  • If you pass --output, Pop writes the file and prints post-install steps for the selected shell.

  • If you pass --output without a shell, Pop tries to detect the shell from $SHELL. If it detects one, it uses that shell and continues. If it cannot detect one and stdin is a TTY, it falls back to interactive setup. If stdin is not a TTY, it returns an error.

  • In interactive setup, Pop asks you to choose a shell, suggests a default output path, and confirms before writing the file.

Default output paths (interactive)

Shell
Default path

bash

~/.local/share/bash-completion/completions/pop

zsh

~/.zsh/completions/_pop

fish

~/.config/fish/completions/pop.fish

powershell

~/.config/powershell/Completions/pop.ps1

elvish

~/.config/elvish/lib/pop.elv

Post-install steps by shell

Shell
Steps

bash

Source the file once, add source <PATH> to ~/.bashrc, then restart your shell.

zsh

Add the completion directory (the parent of the output file) to fpath, run autoload -Uz compinit && compinit, then restart your shell.

fish

Restart your shell; Fish auto-loads completions from the standard completions directory.

powershell

Ensure your PowerShell profile loads the completion file, then restart your shell.

elvish

Ensure your Elvish config loads the completion file, then restart your shell.

Examples

Errors and constraints

  • --output requires a shell if $SHELL is not set and stdin is not a TTY.

  • The output path cannot be empty.

  • Interactive setup requires a resolved home directory.

3. Advanced details

OS packages and behavior

If your OS/distro is unsupported, pop install prints a warning and exits without installing OS packages or tooling.

OS
Package manager
Packages installed

macOS

Homebrew

homebrew, protobuf, openssl, cmake, rustup

Arch (or compatible)

pacman

curl, git, clang, make, protobuf, rustup

Ubuntu (or compatible)

apt

git, clang, curl, libssl-dev, protobuf-compiler, lsof, pkg-config, rustup

Debian (or compatible)

apt

git, clang, curl, libssl-dev, llvm, libudev-dev, make, protobuf-compiler, lsof, rustup

Red Hat (or compatible)

yum

gcc, gcc-c++, make, cmake, pkgconf, pkgconf-pkg-config, clang, curl, git, openssl-devel, protobuf-compiler, lsof, rustup

When you pass --frontend, pop install also installs unzip on Arch, Ubuntu, and Debian. Need help?

Ask on Polkadot Stack Exchange (tag it pop) or drop by our Telegram. We're here to help!

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