Install TorbScript

The toolchain is one binary, torb, with the standard library and the C runtime beside it. Both install scripts are short and readable, and they are served from torb.dev: read one before you run it.

The first stable release, 0.1.0, comes on 2026-10-06, and a new minor on the first Tuesday of every month after it, each a week earlier as a release candidate. Until 0.1.0 is out both installers fall back to the newest release candidate - and without one to the newest nightly - print one line saying which, and record that channel: the toolchain then follows it (see "Channels" below), without anything more to type.

Linux, macOS and FreeBSD#

$ curl -fsSL https://torb.dev/install.sh | sh

The script detects the target, downloads the archive of the newest release of the channel (stable, or while there is none the newest release candidate, else the newest nightly) and its SHA256SUMS, checks the hash, and unpacks the toolchain into ~/.torb/toolchains/<version>/, with ~/.torb/bin/torb the one in use. It writes nothing into the profile of a shell: it prints the line that puts ~/.torb/bin on the PATH, for you to add yourself. It needs curl or wget, tar, and sha256sum or shasum.

To read the script before running it rather than piping it into sh, download it first:

$ curl -fsSLO https://torb.dev/install.sh
$ sh install.sh

Windows#

In PowerShell 5.1 or later:

> irm https://torb.dev/install.ps1 | iex

The script does the same for Windows: it unpacks the toolchain into %LOCALAPPDATA%\torb\toolchains\<version>\, copies the one in use to %LOCALAPPDATA%\Programs\torb, and adds that directory to the PATH of the user.

To read the script before running it rather than piping it into iex, download it first:

> irm https://torb.dev/install.ps1 -OutFile install.ps1
> powershell -ExecutionPolicy Bypass -File install.ps1

Channels#

Both installers take another channel from a variable:

$ curl -fsSL https://torb.dev/install.sh | TORB_INSTALL_CHANNEL=preview sh

> $env:TORB_INSTALL_CHANNEL = "preview"; irm https://torb.dev/install.ps1 | iex

A release candidate becomes the release unchanged unless something blocks it, so the preview channel is where a release can be tried a week early. In the Marketplace and Open VSX, the extension's stable version follows the stable releases and its pre-release version follows the nightly; neither store carries a release candidate, since its version number would collide with the stable release that follows it.

With an AI agent#

Use TorbScript with your AI agent installs the TorbScript Agent Skills. An agent that has them checks for torb itself and runs this installer once you agree.

A C compiler for native builds#

torb run runs a program in the VM inside torb and needs nothing else. torb build and torb run --native hand C to a C compiler: $TORB_CC, or the first of clang, gcc and cc on the PATH.

Upgrading#

$ torb upgrade
$ torb upgrade --list
$ torb upgrade --channel preview

torb upgrade installs the newest release of the channel beside the versions already installed and makes it the one in use; it never runs by itself. --list shows what is installed and what the channel offers, and --channel switches to stable, preview or nightly and stays there. Versions are ordered as semantic versions, so 0.1.0-rc.1 comes before 0.1.0. Left on stable while there is no stable release, it falls back to the newest release candidate, else to the newest nightly, exactly as the installers do, and stays on that channel from then on; a toolchain on the preview channel moves on to 0.1.0 once it is out.

From source#

The toolchain compiles itself from a seed. Build the toolchain from source builds it from a checkout of the repository with sh tools/bootstrap.sh.