Installation

Cretty is preparing its first release. Source and release downloads require repository access while Cretezy/cretty_private remains private.

Platform	Release targets	Options
macOS	Intel x86-64, Apple Silicon Arm64	App bundle or source build.
Linux	x86-64, Arm64	Portable archive, Debian package, or source build.
Windows	Experimental	Source development; no validated release installer.

Linux release binaries are built on Ubuntu 24.04 and require glibc 2.39 or newer plus a working graphics driver. Build from source on older distributions.

Install a release

From a checkout, authenticate GitHub CLI (or provide GH_TOKEN) and run:

gh auth login
./scripts/install.sh

The installer downloads the matching archive and SHA256SUMS, verifies it, then installs for the current user. Set CRETTY_VERSION=v0.1.0 to select a tag; otherwise it installs the latest release. If no release is available yet, build from source.

Variable	Default
CRETTY_BIN_DIR	Linux executable: ~/.local/bin
CRETTY_APPLICATIONS_DIR	Linux desktop entry: ~/.local/share/applications; macOS app: ~/Applications
CRETTY_ICONS_DIR	Linux icons: ~/.local/share/icons/hicolor

Linux data paths follow XDG_DATA_HOME when set. Add the binary directory to PATH to launch cretty from another terminal.

Download manually

Get the archive and SHA256SUMS from the same release. Archive names are cretty-<target>.tar.gz:

Machine	Target
Linux x86-64	x86_64-unknown-linux-gnu
Linux Arm64	aarch64-unknown-linux-gnu
Intel Mac	x86_64-apple-darwin
Apple Silicon Mac	aarch64-apple-darwin

For example, download an x86-64 Linux archive with authenticated GitHub CLI:

gh release download --repo Cretezy/cretty_private \
  --pattern cretty-x86_64-unknown-linux-gnu.tar.gz --pattern SHA256SUMS
grep ' cretty-x86_64-unknown-linux-gnu.tar.gz$' SHA256SUMS | sha256sum --check

On macOS, use the matching filename and shasum -a 256 --check instead of sha256sum --check. Install only after verification succeeds.

Extract into a new directory. On macOS, copy Cretty.app to ~/Applications or /Applications. On Linux, use the release installer to install the portable bundle’s executable, desktop entry, icons, and notices, or install the Debian package with your package manager.

Local and rehearsal macOS builds are unsigned. Tagged release builds require signing and notarization credentials.

Build from source

Clone the repository and install its build prerequisites, then run:

./scripts/install-from-local.sh

To download or update a dedicated checkout from main, use ./scripts/install-from-source.sh. CRETTY_SOURCE_DIR selects that checkout. Source installers use the same directory overrides as the release installer.

First launch

Open Cretty from your application launcher, dock, or desktop menu. Initial setup lets you choose a theme and terminal font. Open Settings to customize the interface, then organize your tabs and groups.

You can also launch an initial tab from a shell:

cretty --directory ~/src/project
cretty --title "Logs" -- journalctl -f

--directory (alias --working-directory) applies to the initial tab. --title sets its window and tab title. --app-id sets the Wayland application ID and X11 class. Run cretty --help for all options.

Uninstall

Remove Cretty.app on macOS, or use your Linux package manager. For a Linux user install, remove cretty from the binary directory, cretty.desktop from the application directory, and Cretty’s hicolor icons. License notices live under $XDG_DATA_HOME/cretty (default ~/.local/share/cretty).

Settings, sessions, and presets are separate; their paths are in the configuration reference. Retain them to reinstall later. Remove a managed source checkout separately if one was used.