Installation

GUI — Desktop Application

Download the installer for your platform from the releases page:

After installing, see Troubleshooting if macOS blocks the app from opening.

CLI — Command Line

Option 1 — Pre-built binary (no Rust required)

Download the hydra binary for your platform from the releases page and place it somewhere on your PATH.

macOS — After downloading, remove the quarantine flag before running:

xattr -d com.apple.quarantine hydra

Option 2 — Install with Cargo

cargo install hydra-cli

Requires Rust ≥ 1.95 (install via rustup.rs).

After installing, verify with:

hydra -v

Building from Source

If you want to build Hydra yourself (e.g. to contribute or run the test suite):

Prerequisites

• Rust stable ≥ 1.95 — rustup.rs
• just — cargo install just or brew install just
• GUI only: Node.js 22, pnpm 10, Tauri CLI (cargo install tauri-cli), and the Tauri system prerequisites for your platform

git clone https://github.com/neeraip/hydra
cd hydra
just build          # debug build
just release        # optimised release build (fat LTO)
just test           # run the full test suite