Kernl

Install Kernl

Pick your system below. Linux steps were run by the Kernl team on clean systems. macOS and Windows steps come from Kernl's packaging; the Kernl team has not run them on those systems yet.

The one-line installers download the latest release and check its SHA-256 checksum for you. You can also download the package yourself.

Install on macOS

The one-line installer is the easiest way. It handles the first-launch warning for you.

curl -fsSL https://lifekernl.com/install.sh | sh

Prefer a download? Get the disk image for your Mac:

Open the image and drag Kernl to Applications. If you want a plain archive instead of the disk image, there are also Apple silicon and Intel tarballs.

Open an unsigned app

The macOS build is not signed yet, so Gatekeeper blocks the first launch. Do one of these:

  1. Open Kernl and click Done on the warning. Then open System Settings, go to Privacy & Security, scroll down and click Open Anyway.
  2. Or remove the quarantine flag from a terminal:
xattr -dr com.apple.quarantine /Applications/Kernl.app

More detail: Troubleshooting.

Install on Windows

Run this in PowerShell:

irm https://lifekernl.com/install.ps1 | iex

Or download the installer: Kernl for Windows (.msi). There is also a portable zip. Extract it anywhere and run start.bat.

Get past SmartScreen

The Windows build is not signed yet. When SmartScreen says it protected your PC, click More info, then Run anyway.

Install on Linux

The one-line installer picks the right package for your system:

curl -fsSL https://lifekernl.com/install.sh | sh

It uses apt on Debian and Ubuntu, dnf on Fedora, and a tarball when it finds no package manager. You can also download the file yourself:

With a .deb or .rpm, Kernl runs as a user service. See First run for how to start it. With the tarball there is no service. You start Kernl by running kernl.

The tarball installs to ~/.local/opt/kernl and puts a kernl launcher in ~/.local/bin. If that folder is not on your PATH, run ~/.local/bin/kernl or add the folder to your PATH.

Run Kernl with Docker

You need Git, Docker and Docker Compose v2. Clone the repository and start the stack from its folder:

git clone https://github.com/fastslack/kernl.git ~/Kernl
cd ~/Kernl
docker compose up -d --build

These are the steps the installer's Docker path runs, as read from the installer (not run by us as typed here). The first build takes a few minutes. The installer can do this for you with the line below (also not run by us):

curl -fsSL https://lifekernl.com/install.sh | MTWKERNEL_BACKEND=docker sh

The dashboard and the MCP endpoint are then on http://localhost:3086.

Next step

Open the dashboard: First run.