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The Aspect CLI can be installed using several methods. The Homebrew and curl options install the aspect-launcher, a small binary added to your PATH as aspect. This launcher downloads and runs the version of the Aspect CLI binary configured in your repository. It operates similarly to how bazelisk fetches the configured version of Bazel, or how nvm or n- manages Node.js versions. The latest releases can be found at https://github.com/aspect-build/aspect-cli/releases.

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Install with Homebrew (macOS)

To install via Homebrew, run the following command: 
brew install aspect-build/aspect/aspect
Alternatively, tap the repository first and then install: 
brew tap aspect-build/aspect
brew install aspect
This installs the aspect-launcher binary as aspect on your PATH.

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Updating with Homebrew

To update the aspect-launcher by with Homebrew, run the following comamnds: 
brew update
brew upgrade aspect

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Install with curl (macOS and Linux)

To install via the curl script, run the following command: 
curl -fsSL https://install.aspect.build | bash
This installs the aspect-launcher binary as aspect on your PATH.

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Updating with curl

To update the `aspect-launcher with curl, re-run the installation script: 
curl -fsSL https://install.aspect.build | bash

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Install the Aspect CLI with direnv and multitool

This method assumes your development environment uses bazel_env.bzl. For examples, refer to the Starter repositories at bazel-starters on GitHub.
  1. Add aspect to the multitool lockfile, as shown in this example.
  2. Build and run your bazel_env target. Bazel will handle the installation of aspect, making it available on your PATH.
For more details on this pattern, watch the Aspect Insights podcast episode “Developer Tooling in Monorepos with bazel_env”:

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Install with GitHub Actions

If you use GitHub Actions, you can install the Aspect CLI using the jaxxstorm/action-install-gh-release action.
Future releases may support a shorter syntax, such as:
uses: aspect-build/aspect-cli@2025.42.8
Add the Aspect CLI as aspect on the PATH in a workflow step. Here’s an example: 
jobs:
  my-job:
    runs-on: ubuntu-latest
    steps:
      - uses: actions/checkout@v5
      - uses: bazel-contrib/setup-bazel@0.15.0
      - name: Install Aspect CLI
        run: |
          curl -LO https://github.com/aspect-build/aspect-cli/releases/download/v2025.46.20/aspect-cli-x86_64-unknown-linux-musl
          chmod +x aspect-cli-x86_64-unknown-linux-musl
          mv aspect-cli-x86_64-unknown-linux-musl /usr/local/bin/aspect
      # Subsequent steps can execute `aspect` directly

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Install the Aspect CLI manually from GitHub

Visit the Aspect CLI Releases page on GitHub to download the appropriate binary for your platform, such as aspect-launcher-aarch64-apple-darwin for macOS arm64, or equivalents for other architectures and operating systems.

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macOS example

  1. Download the aspect-launcher-aarch64-apple-darwin binary from the Aspect CLI Releases page.
  2. In your terminal, run these commands to clear the untrusted developer attribute, make the binary executable, and move it to your PATH: 
    xattr -c ~/Downloads/aspect-launcher-aarch64-apple-darwin
chmod u+x ~/Downloads/aspect-launcher-aarch64-apple-darwin
sudo mv ~/Downloads/aspect-launcher-aarch64-apple-darwin /usr/local/bin/aspect