Installation

There are several ways to install Kit. Choose the method that works best for your setup.

Install Script (Recommended)

The fastest way to install Kit on macOS or Linux:

curl -fsSL https://kit-lang.org/install.sh | bash

This installs Kit to ~/.kit/ and adds it to your PATH. You can customize the location with the KIT_HOME environment variable:

export KIT_HOME=/opt/kit
curl -fsSL https://kit-lang.org/install.sh | bash

Homebrew

macOS and Linux users can install Kit via Homebrew:

brew tap kit-lang/kit https://gitlab.com/kit-lang/homebrew-kit.git
brew install kit-lang/kit/kit

Use the fully qualified formula name because Homebrew also recognizes kit as an old token for the Script Kit cask.

To upgrade to the latest version:

brew upgrade kit-lang/kit/kit

asdf / mise

If you use asdf or mise for version management:

asdf

asdf plugin add kit https://gitlab.com/kit-lang/asdf-kit.git
asdf install kit latest
asdf global kit latest

mise

mise plugin install kit https://gitlab.com/kit-lang/asdf-kit.git
mise install kit@latest
mise use -g kit@latest

You can also pin a specific version in your project's .tool-versions file:

kit 2026.7.12

Building from Source

Requirements

Before building Kit, you need:

• Native compiler toolchain - Required to build the compiler from source
• Jujutsu (jj) - To clone and work with the repository

Installing the native toolchain

You can install the native toolchain using your system’s package manager or download it directly.

macOS (Homebrew)

brew install zig

Linux

# Download from ziglang.org or use your package manager
# For Ubuntu/Debian:
sudo snap install zig --classic --beta

Using asdf (recommended)

asdf plugin add zig
asdf install zig 0.16.0
asdf global zig 0.16.0

Clone the Repository

jj git clone https://gitlab.com/kit-lang/kit-lang.git
cd kit-lang

Build the Compiler

zig build

This will build the kit executable in zig-out/bin/.

Add to PATH

To use Kit from anywhere, add the bin directory to your PATH:

# Add to ~/.bashrc or ~/.zshrc
export PATH="$PATH:/path/to/kit-lang/zig-out/bin"

Verify Installation

Check that Kit is installed correctly:

kit --version

You should see the Kit version number printed.

Editor Setup

VS Code

Install the Kit extension from the VS Code marketplace or from the kit-vscode-extension repository for syntax highlighting and basic language support.

Zed

Install the Kit extension from the kit-zed-extension repository.