Installation

Prerequisites

• Go 1.23+ — Required for building the daemon and CLI
• Node.js 20+ — Required for the GUI (Electron app)
• macOS — Sandbox support uses sandbox-exec (macOS only)
• Claude Code — The AI coding agent that Watchfire orchestrates

Install via Homebrew

The fastest way to install Watchfire:

brew install watchfire-io/tap/watchfire

This installs both the daemon (watchfired) and the CLI/TUI (watchfire).

Build from Source

Clone the repository and build:

git clone https://github.com/watchfire-io/watchfire.git
cd watchfire

# Install dev tools (golangci-lint, air, protoc plugins)
make install-tools

# Build daemon + CLI
make build

# Install to /usr/local/bin
make install

Build Targets

Target	Description
make build	Build daemon + CLI (native arch)
make build-universal	Build universal (fat) binaries for macOS
make install	Build and install to /usr/local/bin
make install-all	Install CLI, daemon, and GUI app

Install the GUI

The GUI is an Electron app that can be installed alongside the CLI:

make install-all

This installs the CLI, daemon, and Watchfire.app to your Applications folder.

Verify Installation

After installation, verify everything is working:

# Check CLI version
watchfire version

# Start the daemon
watchfire daemon start

# Check daemon status
watchfire daemon status

Development Setup

For working on Watchfire itself:

# Daemon with hot reload
make dev-daemon

# TUI (build + run)
make dev-tui

# GUI dev mode
make dev-gui