Installation

Install the orb CLI. It is one native binary with no runtime dependencies.

On this page

The orb command is a native binary built from Rust. It validates, verifies, compiles and serves programs. The installer also puts the standard library (@almadar/std) in your user store at ~/.orb, so uses ... from "std/behaviors/..." resolves out of the box.

macOS and Linux

bash

curl -fsSL https://orb.almadar.io/install.sh | sh

The script detects your platform, downloads the matching binary and adds it to your PATH. Open a new terminal afterwards.

Any platform, with npm

bash

npm install -g @almadar/orb

pnpm add -g @almadar/orb works too. The package is a thin wrapper: its postinstall step downloads the native binary for your platform and installs the standard library. Both orb and orbital (the same binary) end up on your PATH. This is the route for Windows.

Check the install

bash

orb --version
orb list --global

The second command lists what orb installed: the language data (@almadar/core), the standard library (@almadar/std), the language packs, the TypeScript shell and orb-desktop, each marked ok when it loads.

Verification engines (optional)

orb verify checks programs in-process by default. To also check them in the JavaScript runtime and in the compiled app, install the two engines once:

bash

orb engines install --global

This downloads a headless Chromium for the browser checks. Add --no-browsers to skip it.

Editor support

VS Code: install the almadar.orb extension for .lolo syntax highlighting, completion and inline validation.
Zed: install the Orb extension from almadar-io/zed-orbital.

Both use orb complete and orb validate under the hood, so they always agree with the CLI.

Write your first program in the quickstart.

Introduction

Quickstart