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Build from source

This guide installs the priompt, promptctl, and priompt-auth binaries from source with Go. It works on Linux, macOS, and Windows. Every binary is pure Go, with no C toolchain needed, and cross-compiles with two environment variables.

Prerequisites​

Before you begin, make sure you have:

  • Go 1.25 or later: on Linux, use the tarball from go.dev/dl, because distribution packages are often older. On macOS, run brew install go. On Windows, run winget install GoLang.Go.
  • git: only to build from a clone.

1. Install the binaries​

The Go modules are published under github.com/priompt, so go install needs no clone.

To install the binaries:

  1. Install the server. The other two binaries are optional:

    go install github.com/priompt/priompt/cmd/priompt@latest
    go install github.com/priompt/cli/cmd/promptctl@latest
    go install github.com/priompt/auth/cmd/priompt-auth@latest

    Go puts the binaries in $(go env GOPATH)/bin. To pin a release, replace @latest with a version tag such as @v0.7.4.

  2. Check the server's version:

    priompt version
    Output
    priompt v0.7.4 (commit unknown, go1.26.4)

  3. Create a database to check that the storage engine works:

    priompt migrate -db check.db
    Output
    schema up to date (version 4)

    Delete check.db afterwards. promptctl and priompt-auth print their usage when you run them without arguments.

2. Build the server from a clone​

Build from a clone to run unreleased changes. The repo builds on its own and fetches the other modules from the Go module proxy at the versions in its go.mod.

To build the server from a clone:

  1. Clone the repo:

    git clone https://github.com/priompt/priompt.git
    cd priompt

  2. Build the binary. On Windows, name the output priompt.exe:

    go build -o priompt ./cmd/priompt

  3. Start it:

    ./priompt serve

    The server listens on :8443 and stores its database in ./priompt.db.

The repo's Makefile also has make build and make test. To change several repos at once, see Development setup.

Cross-compile for another platform

Set GOOS and GOARCH to build for any target from any machine:

GOOS=linux   GOARCH=amd64 CGO_ENABLED=0 go build -o dist/priompt-linux-amd64       ./cmd/priompt
GOOS=linux   GOARCH=arm64 CGO_ENABLED=0 go build -o dist/priompt-linux-arm64       ./cmd/priompt
GOOS=darwin  GOARCH=arm64 CGO_ENABLED=0 go build -o dist/priompt-darwin-arm64      ./cmd/priompt
GOOS=darwin  GOARCH=amd64 CGO_ENABLED=0 go build -o dist/priompt-darwin-amd64      ./cmd/priompt
GOOS=windows GOARCH=amd64 CGO_ENABLED=0 go build -o dist/priompt-windows-amd64.exe ./cmd/priompt

In PowerShell, set the variables first: $env:GOOS = "linux"; $env:GOARCH = "arm64"; $env:CGO_ENABLED = "0", then run go build.

Next steps​