Black SparrowBlack Sparrow

Getting Started

Installation

Simple, step-by-step instructions to install Black Sparrow on Linux, macOS, and Windows.

Installing Black Sparrow takes less than a minute. You can install precompiled standalone binaries without needing Rust installed, or build directly from source using Cargo.

After installation, both blacksparrow and the short alias sparrow will be available in your terminal!

1. Quick Install (Standalone Binary)

Choose the tab corresponding to your operating system:

Open your terminal and run the official installation script:

Terminal
Terminal
curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/Shantodotdev/blacksparrow/main/install.sh | bash

This script:

  1. Detects your CPU architecture (x86_64 or aarch64 / Apple Silicon).
  2. Downloads the latest verified binary release from GitHub.
  3. Installs blacksparrow and creates a symlink alias sparrow in ~/.local/bin or /usr/local/bin.

2. Install via Cargo (Rust Developers)

If you already have Rust and Cargo installed, you can compile and install Black Sparrow directly:

Terminal
Terminal
# Install from source repository
git clone https://github.com/Shantodotdev/blacksparrow.git
cd blacksparrow
cargo install --path .

This places blacksparrow into your ~/.cargo/bin folder. Make sure ~/.cargo/bin is in your shell PATH:

~/.bashrc or ~/.zshrc
~/.bashrc or ~/.zshrc
export PATH="$HOME/.cargo/bin:$PATH"

3. Verify Your Installation

To confirm that Black Sparrow is correctly installed and ready to use, run:

Terminal
Terminal
sparrow --version

You should see output similar to:

blacksparrow 0.1.0

To see the available commands and flags:

Terminal
Terminal
sparrow --help

System Requirements & Prerequisites

  • Supported Platforms:
    • Linux (x86_64, aarch64 / ARM64)
    • macOS (Apple Silicon M1/M2/M3/M4, and Intel x86_64)
    • Windows 10 / 11 (x86_64)
  • Memory: Runs efficiently on machines with as little as 512 MB RAM.
  • Dependencies: The standalone binaries are self-contained with zero external runtime dependencies (SQLite and TLS certificates are bundled).

If you are compiling from source on Linux (Ubuntu / Debian), make sure standard development libraries are present:

Terminal
Terminal
sudo apt update && sudo apt install build-essential pkg-config libssl-dev