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Last updated: October 27, 2026

Browse documentation · Install the release
Setting up Chetty

Install the release

Install Chetty from your licence server with one command, and let the setup wizard configure the instance.

Before you start

  • A Debian or Ubuntu host with apt, curl and root or sudo.
  • Your licence key at hand, to paste at a masked prompt.
  • Node.js 22.19 or newer. The installer installs it when the host has none or an older one.

Run the installer

  1. Run the installer, replacing <licence-server> with the address of your licence server:

    curl -fsSL https://<licence-server>/hooks/licensing/v1/install.sh | bash

  2. Enter your licence key at the masked prompt. The installer checks the key before it changes anything on the host.

  3. Follow the setup wizard: the first administrator, an optional Project, the AI provider and model, your preferences, and optional memory embeddings and language-server support.

  4. Open the Web UI address that the wizard prints at the end, or run elowen for a terminal chat.

To read the script before you run it, download it first and pipe nothing into bash:

curl -fsSL https://<licence-server>/hooks/licensing/v1/install.sh -o install.sh
less install.sh
bash install.sh

It is the same script as the one-liner above; downloading it first only changes when you read it.

Install without a terminal

  1. Let your secret manager set ELOWEN_LICENCE_KEY in the environment.
  2. Pass the install flags through ELOWEN_INSTALL_ARGS, including --unattended.
  3. To configure the machine later or from flags, run elowen setup --non-interactive with the required options shown by elowen setup --help.

Warning: Never put the key on the command line, an inline KEY=value included. It leaks into shell history and process lists.

If the installation has no usable licence yet, activate it afterwards with elowen licence activate — the key comes from ELOWEN_LICENCE_KEY or a masked prompt, never from a command argument — or enter it on the web app's licence page. See Licence and activation.

What the installer changes

The installer verifies the release download, prepares native build tools and installs exactly the reviewed production lock with npm ci. It keeps releases in versioned directories, switches the command link atomically, and commits the release only after the provisioner's checks pass.

It also provisions the supervised services and starts the setup wizard, so a single run leaves you with a running instance.

A checkout that was linked with npm link is never replaced, and ELOWEN_FORCE does not override that. The installer stops and tells you to update that checkout in place.

When Chetty is already installed

At a host that already runs Chetty, the installer asks before it reinstalls and re-provisions the instance.

  • Answering no leaves the existing installation untouched. Update it with elowen update instead.
  • Without a terminal the installer refuses.
  • Set ELOWEN_FORCE=1 to reinstall without the question, for example in automation.

Check that it worked

  1. Open the Web UI address from the wizard. The login page appears.
  2. Sign in with the administrator account you created.
  3. In a terminal on the server, run elowen doctor. It reports what is wrong and changes nothing.

Continue with Install Chetty, Install supervised services and Update Chetty on a server.