Skip to content
githome

Installation

install the githome binary from releases, go install, Docker, or a package manager

githome ships as a single statically linked binary with no runtime dependencies. Pick whichever installation method fits your environment.

System requirements

Mode CPU RAM Notes
SQLite (default) 1 core 256 MB Recommended for single-team or evaluation use
Postgres 2 cores 512 MB Required for concurrent write-heavy workloads

Disk: the binary is under 30 MB. Data directory size depends on your repositories.

Verify any installation

After installing by any method, run:

githome --version

Expected output:

githome version 0.1.2 (commit abc1234) built 2026-01-15

Binary downloads

Pre-built binaries are published to the GitHub Releases page for every tagged version:

https://github.com/tamnd/githome/releases

The release archives follow the pattern githome_{version}_{os}_{arch}.tar.gz on Linux and macOS, and githome_{version}_{os}_{arch}.zip on Windows.

Linux amd64

VERSION="0.1.2"
curl -fsSL "https://github.com/tamnd/githome/releases/download/v${VERSION}/githome_${VERSION}_linux_amd64.tar.gz" \
  | tar -xz githome
sudo mv githome /usr/local/bin/githome

Linux arm64

VERSION="0.1.2"
curl -fsSL "https://github.com/tamnd/githome/releases/download/v${VERSION}/githome_${VERSION}_linux_arm64.tar.gz" \
  | tar -xz githome
sudo mv githome /usr/local/bin/githome

macOS (Apple Silicon)

VERSION="0.1.2"
curl -fsSL "https://github.com/tamnd/githome/releases/download/v${VERSION}/githome_${VERSION}_darwin_arm64.tar.gz" \
  | tar -xz githome
sudo mv githome /usr/local/bin/githome

macOS (Intel)

VERSION="0.1.2"
curl -fsSL "https://github.com/tamnd/githome/releases/download/v${VERSION}/githome_${VERSION}_darwin_amd64.tar.gz" \
  | tar -xz githome
sudo mv githome /usr/local/bin/githome

Windows amd64

Download from the releases page and extract the .zip:

$VERSION = "0.1.2"
Invoke-WebRequest `
  -Uri "https://github.com/tamnd/githome/releases/download/v$VERSION/githome_${VERSION}_windows_amd64.zip" `
  -OutFile "githome.zip"
Expand-Archive githome.zip -DestinationPath .
Move-Item githome.exe C:\tools\githome.exe

Add C:\tools to your PATH if it is not already there.

go install

If you have Go 1.22 or later installed, you can build and install the latest release directly from source:

go install github.com/tamnd/githome/cmd/githome@latest

This places the binary in $GOPATH/bin (usually ~/go/bin). Ensure that directory is in your PATH:

export PATH="$PATH:$(go env GOPATH)/bin"

Install a specific version:

go install github.com/tamnd/githome/cmd/[email protected]

Docker

Pull and run the latest image:

docker run --rm \
  -p 3000:3000 \
  -v githome-data:/var/lib/githome \
  -e GITHOME_DATABASE_URL="sqlite:///var/lib/githome/githome.sqlite" \
  -e GITHOME_DATA_DIR="/var/lib/githome/repos" \
  -e GITHOME_HTML_BASE_URL="http://localhost:3000" \
  ghcr.io/tamnd/githome:latest

Image tags:

Tag Meaning
latest Most recent release
0.1.2 Pinned release
main Built from the main branch (development, not for production)

Note: the image tag omits the v prefix. Use :0.1.2, not :v0.1.2.

For a persistent setup, use Docker Compose as shown in the Quick start.

Homebrew

githome publishes a Homebrew tap. Install with:

brew tap tamnd/tap
brew install githome

Update to the latest version:

brew upgrade githome

The formula installs the binary to /usr/local/bin/githome on Intel Macs and /opt/homebrew/bin/githome on Apple Silicon. Both are on the default PATH after a standard Homebrew setup.

Package managers

GoReleaser produces .deb, .rpm, and .apk packages for each release. These are attached to the GitHub release and also published to the project's package repository.

Debian / Ubuntu

VERSION="0.1.2"
curl -fsSL "https://github.com/tamnd/githome/releases/download/v${VERSION}/githome_${VERSION}_linux_amd64.deb" \
  -o githome.deb
sudo dpkg -i githome.deb

RHEL / Fedora / Amazon Linux

VERSION="0.1.2"
curl -fsSL "https://github.com/tamnd/githome/releases/download/v${VERSION}/githome_${VERSION}_linux_amd64.rpm" \
  -o githome.rpm
sudo rpm -i githome.rpm

Alpine Linux

VERSION="0.1.2"
curl -fsSL "https://github.com/tamnd/githome/releases/download/v${VERSION}/githome_${VERSION}_linux_amd64.apk" \
  -o githome.apk
sudo apk add --allow-untrusted githome.apk

Running as a system service

After installing the binary, create a systemd unit file for production use on Linux:

# /etc/systemd/system/githome.service
[Unit]
Description=githome git forge
After=network.target

[Service]
Type=simple
User=githome
Group=githome
EnvironmentFile=/etc/githome/env
ExecStart=/usr/local/bin/githome serve
Restart=on-failure
RestartSec=5s

[Install]
WantedBy=multi-user.target

Create the environment file at /etc/githome/env:

GITHOME_DATABASE_URL=sqlite:///var/lib/githome/githome.sqlite
GITHOME_DATA_DIR=/var/lib/githome/repos
GITHOME_HTML_BASE_URL=https://git.example.com
GITHOME_LISTEN_HTTP=:3000
GITHOME_ENV=production
GITHOME_LOG_FORMAT=json

Create the system user and data directory, then enable the service:

sudo useradd --system --home /var/lib/githome --shell /usr/sbin/nologin githome
sudo mkdir -p /var/lib/githome/repos
sudo chown -R githome:githome /var/lib/githome
sudo systemctl daemon-reload
sudo systemctl enable --now githome

Verify it is running:

sudo systemctl status githome
curl -s http://localhost:3000/healthz

Next steps

  • Follow the Quick start to create your first repository and push commits.
  • See Configuration for the full GITHOME_* environment variable reference.
  • See Reverse proxy for putting githome behind nginx or Caddy with automatic TLS.
4 min read